Pricing Manager

The Pricing Manager is the working leader of DDC’s proposal pricing team and is accountable for both hands-on execution and team delivery. This role personally leads complex, strategic, high-value, or high-risk federal pricing efforts while coaching pricing analysts, allocating workload, enforcing review gates, and ensuring every submission is compliant, competitive, traceable, and executive-ready.

This is a pre-award proposal-pricing role, not a corporate FP&A, accounting, program-control, or budgeting position. The Pricing Manager partners closely with Capture, Business Development, Proposal Management, Contracts, Finance, HR, Recruiting, Program Control, operating-company leadership, and executive approvers to translate pursuit strategy into defensible pricing decisions.

The successful candidate brings deep GovCon pricing judgment, advanced Excel modeling skills, practical Price-to-Win experience, and demonstrated people-leadership. DDC is seeking a leader who can build trust, develop talent, set clear expectations, make sound decisions under pressure, and hold the team accountable while remaining actively engaged in the work.

Player-Coach Expectations

Hands-On Pricing: Personally own complex bids, pricing models, Cost/Price Volumes, BOEs, pricing narratives, PTW scenarios, and executive approval packages.

Team Leadership: Coach analysts through live pursuits, review work products, set priorities, balance capacity, provide actionable feedback, and hold the team accountable for delivery.

Pricing Governance: Maintain pricing-process discipline, version control, assumption logs, compliance matrices, independent reviews, and final reconciliation across all submission artifacts.

Executive Advisory: Convert detailed pricing analysis into concise recommendations that explain economics, strategic tradeoffs, risks, exceptions, and decisions required.

Dayton, OH location preferred. Preference will be given to East Coast candidates based on business need.

Key Responsibilities

Proposal Pricing Leadership and Execution

• •Lead end-to-end pricing for complex federal pursuits from pre-RFP shaping and solicitation analysis through Green Team, executive approval, and final submission.
• •Develop and review Cost/Price Volumes, Bills of Estimate (BOEs), pricing narratives, labor-category mappings, rate build-ups, escalation, ODCs, travel, subcontractor/CTA inputs, and required cost or pricing data.
• •Build and maintain clear, auditable Excel models with controlled assumptions, transparent formulas, scenario functionality, summary dashboards, and documented data sources.
• •Ensure the internal model, customer pricing schedules, price narrative, BOEs, approval summaries, and subcontractor/CTA positions reconcile exactly before release.
• •Manage multiple concurrent bids, quick-turn task orders, modifications, and rate-card actions while escalating capacity or schedule risk early.

Price-to-Win and Business Case

• •Develop pricing approaches across DDC operating companies and teaming structures, balancing workshare, rate structures, competitive positioning, profitability, and execution risk.
• •Lead structured PTW analysis using incumbent and competitor intelligence, public schedule rates, award history, labor-market data, likely wraps, escalation, customer affordability, and capture intelligence.
• •Develop conservative, target, and aggressive pricing scenarios and explain tradeoffs among win probability, profitability, compliance, staffing feasibility, and execution risk.
• •Challenge labor mix, staffing, indirect rates, fee, workshare, subcontractor economics, and strategic exceptions; identify where assumptions require validation by Finance, Contracts, HR, Recruiting, or operating leadership.
• •Present decision-ready pricing recommendations to executive leadership, including clear assumptions, margin/economic impacts, risks, mitigations, and approvals required.
• •Leverage AI-assisted research, where appropriate to support competitive intelligence, incumbent analysis, Black Hat preparation, labor-market analysis, and PTW scenario development.

Team Leadership and Resource Management

• •Supervise, coach, and develop pricing analysts through regular 1:1s, pursuit debriefs, technical reviews, and targeted training.
• •Establish clear expectations and accountability across the pricing team; provide timely feedback, address performance or delivery issues directly, recognize strong performance, and create an environment where team members can develop and take greater ownership.
• •Triage and assign pricing workload by deadline, value, complexity, strategic importance, contract type, model maturity, and resource capacity; establish primary and backup owners.
• •Serve as senior reviewer and surge lead when bids are at risk, while maintaining accountability with the assigned pricing owner.
• •Create repeatable templates, checklists, playbooks, and training that improve quality, speed, consistency, and handoffs across the pricing team.
• •Partner with the Senior Director, Revenue Operations on workforce planning, recruiting, onboarding, performance expectations, and pricing capability development.

Process, Compliance, and Quality Assurance

• •Own adherence to DDC’s pricing and executive approval processes, including review calendars, signoffs, file/version control, records retention, and release authorization.
• •Ensure compliance with solicitation instructions and applicable FAR, DFARS, GSA MAS, IDIQ/task-order, and company estimating requirements; coordinate legal, accounting, or contracting interpretations with the responsible function.
• •Implement second- and third-review discipline for high-value, unusual, or high-risk bids, with documented formula checks, reasonableness tests, and final submission tie-outs.
• •Maintain audit-ready pricing files, assumption logs, basis-of-estimate support, rate sources, approval evidence, and partner/subcontractor concurrence.
• •Use AI and automation responsibly to improve pricing research, analysis, modeling, document comparison, compliance, and quality, with appropriate human validation of strategy, formulas, source reliability, and final content.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• •Partner with Capture and Business Development to convert win strategy and customer intelligence into actionable pricing positions.
• •Coordinate with Proposal Management to integrate pricing schedules, narratives, and review gates into the master proposal schedule.
• •Work with Contracts on terms, representations, CTA/subcontractor structures, data-rights considerations, and submission compliance.
• •Coordinate with Finance/FP&A and Program Control for approved indirect rates, forecasts, execution assumptions, profitability views, and post-award baseline handoff while preserving clear functional accountability.
• •Engage HR, Recruiting, and compensation data sources such as BLS and ERI to validate direct-labor assumptions and staffing feasibility.

Qualifications

Required

• •Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future visa sponsorship.
• •10+ years of relevant GovCon experience, including at least 5 years of hands-on federal proposal pricing. Equivalent combinations of pricing, estimating, PTW, program finance, project controls, or capture experience will be considered.
• •Demonstrated ownership of complex Cost/Price Volumes and pricing models for competitive federal solicitations, task orders, and multi-year programs.
• •Demonstrated leadership experience managing, coaching, or developing pricing professionals or comparable teams, including responsibility for workload prioritization, feedback, performance expectations, and team delivery. Formal people-management experience is strongly preferred.
• •Strong knowledge of FAR/DFARS pricing and estimating concepts and experience with FFP, T&M/LH, cost-reimbursement, GSA MAS, IDIQ, CTA, and subcontractor pricing structures.
• •Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including complex f