Outbound Email Infrastructure

# Outbound Email Infrastructure and Deliverability Specialist We are a U.S.-based life sciences company seeking an experienced email infrastructure and deliverability specialist to design, build, warm, and help operate a segregated outbound email system capable of supporting approximately 200,000 emails per quarter, or about 3,000 emails per business day. This is not a copywriting, lead-generation, or appointment-setting engagement. Our team owns all messaging, targeting, and approvals. We are hiring a technical contractor to build and operate the underlying email infrastructure and deliverability system. ## Scope of Work The selected contractor will be responsible for: * Auditing our primary corporate domain for SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX, blacklist status, and reputation issues. * Establishing Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft SNDS monitoring. * Recommending and configuring separate secondary sending domains to protect the primary corporate domain. * Provisioning and configuring approximately 70 to 100 mailboxes across roughly 25 to 35 sending domains, subject to your technical recommendation. * Configuring SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX, tracking domains, mailbox rotation, throttling, and randomized sending. * Selecting and configuring an appropriate outbound sending platform. * Creating and executing a compliant mailbox and domain warming program. * Conducting seed-list inbox placement testing across Gmail, Microsoft 365, Yahoo, Proofpoint, Mimecast, and similar enterprise environments. * Cleaning and validating an approximately 43,000-record contact database, including deduplication, verification, risk scoring, and segmentation. * Creating global suppression, bounce, reply, and unsubscribe workflows. * Building campaign mechanics and approval controls. All campaign content will be provided and approved by us. * Establishing dashboards and ongoing reporting for domain and mailbox health, delivery, bounce, complaints, replies, and placement. * Creating documented procedures for degraded-domain remediation, retirement, and replacement. ## Performance Objectives Our target operating metrics include: * Inbox placement: greater than 85 percent * Hard bounce rate: less than 2 percent * Spam complaint rate: less than 0.10 percent * Primary corporate domain impact: zero measurable degradation * Sustainable capacity: approximately 3,000 outbound messages per business day We do not consider open rate a reliable primary deliverability metric and expect inbox placement to be measured using seed-list testing and related deliverability tools. ## Required Experience You should have demonstrated experience with: * Outbound infrastructures handling 50,000 or more emails per month * SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI, DNS, and domain reputation management * Google and Yahoo bulk sender requirements * Domain reputation recovery * Multiple outbound email platforms and their technical tradeoffs * Mailbox and domain rotation strategies * Proofpoint, Mimecast, Barracuda, and other enterprise filtering environments * Email verification, suppression lists, bounce handling, and unsubscribe automation * CAN-SPAM and appropriate handling of EU and UK contacts * Building systems where the client owns all domains, mailboxes, accounts, and root credentials Experience supporting life sciences, healthcare, financial services, or other regulated industries is preferred. ## Important Engagement Requirements All domains, mailboxes, sending-platform accounts, and related assets must be registered under and owned by the client. The contractor will receive delegated access only. We will not use: * Subdomains of our primary corporate domain for cold outbound volume * Scraped or externally purchased lists * Sender-identity obfuscation * Reciprocal warmup networks that violate mailbox-provider terms * Permission-based marketing platforms that prohibit importing non-opted-in contacts A signed NDA will be required before access to company data or disclosure of the company's identity. ## Engagement Structure We expect the engagement to have two components. ### Phase A - Fixed-Price Buildout Initially, we plan to commission a standalone paid domain audit and remediation assessment. Successful completion may lead to the full infrastructure buildout. Subsequent milestones would include: 1. Primary-domain health audit and remediation 2. Sending infrastructure provisioned and documented 3. Mailbox warming and inbox-placement testing completed 4. Contact database cleaned and segmented 5. Campaign operating system and approval workflow launched ### Phase B - Monthly Operations Retainer Following successful implementation, we anticipate an ongoing engagement covering: * Monitoring and optimization * Domain reputation management * Deliverability reporting * Infrastructure maintenance * Campaign execution support * Domain and mailbox replacement when required Please quote Phase A and Phase B separately and identify estimated third-party costs such as domains, mailbox licenses, sending-platform fees, and verification services. ## Please Answer These Questions in Your Proposal Generic proposals will not be reviewed. Please answer each question specifically: 1. What mailbox-to-domain ratio and daily per-mailbox sending rate would you recommend for approximately 3,000 emails per business day, and why? 2. How do you measure inbox placement when open-rate tracking is unreliable? 3. Describe a domain-reputation recovery project you personally executed. What caused the problem, what did you do, and how long did recovery take? 4. Which outbound sending platform would you recommend for this project, and what are its three biggest weaknesses? 5. What is your protocol when a sending domain begins degrading during an active campaign? 6. Describe your experience working with mandatory client approval gates where messages cannot be deployed until written approval has been recorded. We are looking for a hands-on technical operator, not a reseller or white-label agency. Please include examples of comparable infrastructure you have personally built and operated.