Senior Manager - RFP & Security Assessment Operations

Overview

The Senior Manager, RFP & Security Assessment Operations leads the team responsible for managing customer and prospect Requests for Proposal (RFPs), Requests for Information (RFIs), security assessments, and related due diligence activities.  This role is responsible for delivering high-quality, accurate, and timely responses that support Axway’s sales organization and improve the customer buying experience. The position leads a distributed team, coordinates contributions from stakeholders across the organization, establishes scalable processes and standards, and drives continuous improvement through automation, knowledge management, and AI-enabled productivity.  The successful candidate combines strong people leadership, project and program management, business acumen, technical aptitude, and exceptional written/verbal communication skills.

Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

Work model: Hybrid

Responsibilities

RFP & Security Assessment Leadership

• Lead the end-to-end execution of RFPs, RFIs, security questionnaires, due diligence requests, and other complex customer assessments.
• Manage multiple concurrent projects of varying size, complexity, priority, and geographic scope.
• Evaluate incoming requests, establish priorities, estimate workload, assign resources, and commit to achievable deadlines.
• Coordinate input from Sales, Presales, Product, Security, Legal, Cloud Operations, Customer Success, Finance, and other subject matter experts.
• Ensure responses are accurate, consistent, complete, professionally written, and delivered in accordance with established standards and deadlines.
• Identify potential commercial, technical, contractual, or security risks and engage the appropriate stakeholders for resolution.
• Support strategic and high-value sales opportunities requiring complex or customized responses.

Operational Excellence & Process Improvement

• Establish and maintain standardized processes, governance, templates, tools, quality controls, and service-level expectations for RFP and security assessment activities.
• Monitor workload, response times, completion rates, quality, win rates, sales satisfaction, and other operational performance indicators.
• Identify bottlenecks and recurring issues and implement improvements that increase team capacity and reduce turnaround time.
• Maintain and continuously improve reusable response libraries, templates, technical content, and institutional knowledge.
• Partner with stakeholders to ensure approved content remains current, accurate, and aligned with Axway capabilities and policies.
• Use operational data to identify trends and recommend improvements to the broader sales and customer engagement process.

AI, Automation & Productivity

• Drive the responsible use of AI and automation to improve RFP and security assessment productivity, quality, and scalability.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive activities such as content discovery, response generation, document comparison, response reuse, workflow routing, and quality review.
• Establish appropriate human review and governance for AI-assisted customer-facing content.
• Measure the impact of automation and AI initiatives through improvements in response time, capacity, consistency, and quality.
• Partner with the Business Operations & Enterprise AI Productivity organization to identify and scale successful productivity practices.

People Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of RFP and security assessment professionals.
• Establish clear objectives, roles, priorities, performance expectations, and accountability.
• Build individual and team capabilities through coaching, feedback, knowledge sharing, and development plans.
• Balance team capacity and workload across regions, priorities, and business needs.
• Foster a collaborative, customer-focused culture emphasizing quality, responsiveness, continuous improvement, and accountability.
• Develop organizational resilience through documentation, cross-training, and succession planning.

Sales & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Serve as a trusted Business Operations partner to Sales and other customer-facing organizations.
• Understand customer requirements and translate them into clear internal requests for information and expertise.
• Work closely with subject matter experts to develop technically and commercially accurate responses.
• Maintain a strong understanding of Axway's solutions, services, security practices, operational capabilities, and value propositions.
• Communicate effectively across functions, organizational levels, cultures, and geographic regions.
• Provide visibility to leadership regarding workload, resource constraints, emerging risks, and opportunities for operational improvement.

Success Measures

• Performance in this role may be measured through:
• RFP and security assessment on-time completion rate.
• Average response and turnaround time.
• Volume and complexity of requests successfully managed.
• Response quality, accuracy, and consistency.
• Internal stakeholder and Sales satisfaction.
• Customer or prospect experience with the response process.
• Reduction in manual effort through automation and AI.
• Reuse and effectiveness of approved response content.
• Team productivity, engagement, development, and retention.
• Contribution to strategic sales opportunities and broader Business Operations objectives.

Leadership Competencies

• Successful candidates will demonstrate:
• Operational Leadership: Ability to establish structure, priorities, accountability, and measurable outcomes.
• People Development: Ability to coach, develop, motivate, and retain high-performing professionals.
• Customer Focus: Strong understanding of customer needs and commitment to delivering a high-quality buying experience.
• Planning & Execution: Ability to manage multiple complex initiatives while meeting demanding deadlines.
• Decision Making: Ability to assess priorities, risks, and trade-offs and make timely decisions.
• Problem Solving: Strong analytical and conceptual thinking skills with the ability to identify practical solutions.
• Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including effectiveness across cultures and geographically distributed teams.
• Initiative & Innovation: Demonstrated ability to challenge existing processes and implement better ways of working.
• Change Leadership: Ability to introduce new processes, technologies, automation, and AI while driving adoption across the team and stakeholder community.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in business, technology, communications, information systems, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex projects, programs, proposals, RFPs, security assessments, sales operations, or similar business processes.
• Experience leading and developing teams, preferably in a global or distributed environment.
• Strong project and program management capabilities, including workload planning, prioritization, stakeholder management, and deadline management.
• Excellent business writing, editing, document structuring, and quality assurance skills.
• Ability to understand and communicate technical, security, operational, and commercial information.
• Strong business requirements analysis and problem-solving capabilities.
• Experience working with CRM, productivity, collaboration, and document-management platforms.
• Ability to operate effectively across multiple functions and geographic regions.
• Fluent professional proficiency in English.

Preferred

• Experience within enterprise software, SaaS, cloud services, and cybersecurity.
• Direct experience managing RFP/RFI and customer security assessment processes.
• Familiarity with proposal management, response management, knowledge management, or security questionnaire platforms.
• Experience applying AI, automation, or workflow technologies to improve business processes.
• Familiarity with enterprise CRM and sales operations environments.
• Understanding of common security, privacy, compliance, and customer due diligence requirements.

Company Overview

Axway has been shaping the future of enterprise integration for over 25 years. We are recognized as global industry leaders, helping organizations drive digital transformation with secure, mission-critical software that powers impactful business outcomes.

As part of 74Software, we’re backed by a group of leading software companies delivering mission-critical solutions worldwide. Our focus is on delivering long-term value, leveraging cutting-edge technology, and fostering strong client partnerships. Join us and be part of a collaborative, forward-thinking team shaping the future of enterprise integration solutions.

Why Axway? 

At Axway, we believe we’re better together. We celebrate diverse perspectives and experiences, knowing our people are our greatest strength. Join us and be part of a team where you can thrive, grow, and make an impact.

We offer benefits that support your health, growth, and lifestyle, so you can thrive at work and beyond, including health coverage, retirement plans, paid time off, flexible work, career development, competitive pay, and global culture perks.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are committed to providing equal opportunities and ensuring a fair and inclusive recruitment process. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or any other protected characteristic.

#LI-ST1

#LI-Hybrid