About Gavin

I’m a capture manager at Astrion in Huntsville, Alabama, working the front end of federal growth: qualifying opportunities, running gate reviews, building win strategies, and turning ambiguous requirements into capture artifacts an evaluator would actually reward.

The short version

Shipley-trained, spreadsheet-fluent, and allergic to unsubstantiated claims. Over the last two years I’ve supported 50+ federal pursuits — up to 18 concurrently — across a $20B+ addressable pipeline spanning eight markets: DoD, Army, Air Force, Navy, FAA, NASA, DHS, and National Security Space. That work has produced 110+ gate packages, compliance and capability matrices, stakeholder maps, and executive briefs, plus dozens of RFI responses, white papers, and past-performance products.

What I actually do

Capture management is a translation job. Customers speak in draft PWS language, evaluators speak in Section M, and engineers speak in capabilities. My job is to make those three conversations line up — replacing generic capability claims with metrics-backed proof, framing pursuits around what the customer is actually buying, and giving leadership the intelligence to make honest bid decisions.

The other half of my work is enablement: building the infrastructure a growth organization runs on. That includes standardized capability-matrix templates and SOPs, a centralized knowledge-management architecture, an end-to-end HTRO / Score-to-Win operating framework, and an AI toolkit — custom GPTs, GPT skills, and a 197-prompt capture/proposal library adopted org-wide for color-team review, CI production, and evidence drafting.

Beyond the day job

I serve as Director of Emerging Leaders for the AFCEA Huntsville chapter, building mentorship and professional-development programs that connect rising talent with Huntsville’s defense and technology community. I also own and operate Lawn Vision LLC, a recurring-service business I founded in 2016 and scaled to 100+ clients — my first education in P&L, contracts, and keeping promises to customers.

I hold a B.S. in Homeland Security & Emergency Management (Corporate Security) from Athens State University, cum laude, and completed the Shipley Business Development Boot Camp, the IBM Project Management Series, CDSE security training, and ICD 705.

Why this blog

Federal BD has plenty of theory and not enough tradecraft. Position to Win is my attempt to close that gap — practical, defensible, and written by someone still in the arena. If something here helps you win, tell me about it.

Get in touch: gmtaylor02@gmail.com · LinkedIn