Proposal & Costing Manager

At Argenta, we’re more than a company — we’re a global team, dedicated to healthier animals. We believe that when their lives are made better, we're all the better for it.

Founded in 2006, we support companies big and small to develop and manufacture health products for pets and livestock. Our trusted, innovative solutions and services cover every stage of the process, from molecule to market.

We’re in a unique position. We are the world’s only combined contract research and contract development and manufacturing organization (CRO/CDMO) dedicated to animal health.

Our uniqueness means:

We are ambitious, growing and building a ‘one team’ culture, guided by our values.

• • We are team players;
  • We are doers;
  • We are customer-centric;
  • We are innovators.

We value diversity, as a global company, we get the richness of working with different people in different places whether it be location, stages of their career, their development, their role. We believe that when everyone works together and puts their best “paw” forward we will make the lives of the animals we care for, better.

With bases in New Zealand, the US, the UK and Europe, our 900+ colleagues are driven by our partnership approach and purpose: Healthy Animals. Let’s Make It Happen, Together.

TEAM PLAYERS who want to DO great work and find INNOVATIVE ways to make animals lives better through our CUSTOMER CENTRIC efforts should apply. 

Argenta is currently looking to fill the role of Proposal & Costing Manager at our Shawnee, KS location. 

The Proposal & Costing Manager is responsible for leading proposal development, costing, pricing governance, and commercial change-order activities across Argenta's manufacturing network. The role ensures commercial commitments are accurate, consistent, and aligned with operational capability, regulatory requirements, and long-term customer delivery expectations. This position serves as a key interface between Commercial, Alliance Management, Manufacturing, and Finance, supporting sustainable growth while protecting margin, capacity, and execution integrity.

Key Accountabilities 

• Own and lead the proposal, costing, and change-order process, ensuring pricing and commercial commitments are aligned with operational capability, capacity constraints, and long-term customer delivery expectations. Act as a commercial integrity gatekeeper for scope, assumptions, and risk alignment.
• Act as the primary technical-commercial liaison between Commercial, Alliance Management, MSAT, Manufacturing, Operations, and Finance during proposal development — translating manufacturing, technical-transfer, and QC/analytical inputs into cost drivers, assumptions, risks, and trade-offs for stakeholders.
• Prepare, review, and coordinate proposals, revisions, and change orders for RFQs, new programs, program expansions, and lifecycle changes. Develop and maintain standardized costing models, assumptions, and pricing logic.
• Establish and maintain SOPs governing pricing, proposal development, approvals, and commercial change management. Maintain centralized quote and change-order registers within CRM and document-management systems as the system of record.
• Perform quality control review of proposals prior to release, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and appropriate internal approvals. Track and report quote turnaround times and post-signature variances.
• Support customer due diligence and commercial discussions, including participation in cross-functional reviews and customer meetings as required.
• Analyze proposal outcomes versus execution to identify opportunities for improvement in pricing methodology, governance, and assumptions. Continuously evolve tools, templates, and processes to support scalability.
• Complete all required company, safety, GMP, and role-specific training. Maintain compliance with GMP, quality systems, and internal governance requirements.

Qualifications

• Experience in a pharmaceutical, veterinary, biologics, CDMO, or other closely related regulated manufacturing environment is required.
• Working knowledge of pharmaceutical, biologics, or animal-health manufacturing processes, technical transfer, or QC/analytical testing — sufficient to independently interpret technical input from MSAT, Manufacturing, and Operations and translate it into costing and pricing impact.
• Demonstrated experience with CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce or comparable) and document/content-management systems, used to maintain quotes, proposals, and change-order records as the system of record.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to balance sales objectives and operational realities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to clearly articulate complex commercial and technical concepts.
• Comfortable engaging with cross-functional teams and senior leadership, including SLT/ELT and external customers.
• Strong organizational and coordination skills in complex, multi-site environments.
• High attention to detail with strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Working proficiency in Microsoft Excel and Word, including comfort operating within an existing Excel-based costing model, and familiarity with proposal documentation tools.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted tools or workflow automation is a plus.
• Bachelor's degree in a scientific, engineering, business, or related discipline, OR equivalent combination of education and significant industry experience.

Argenta has strongly embedded company values which is key to who we are and how we deliver. We offer an opportunity to work for a successful and rapidly expanding global business where your input will be valued.  At Argenta we are a hard-working group who really enjoy the people we work with each day. That is why we support our people through strong culture, great benefits, and opportunity for growth. 

Argenta is an equal opportunity employer 

To find out more about Argenta, click here: www.argentaglobal.com