My client is a rapidly growing, values‑driven consultancy working with government and regulated‑sector customers across areas such as cyber security, national security, law enforcement, telecommunications, and healthcare. They are seeking an experienced Bid Manager to join on a full‑time basis.
This role is central to securing new business and supporting ongoing growth. It requires strong collaboration, exceptional organisation, and the ability to translate complex technical and commercial information into compelling, high‑quality proposals.
Key Responsibilities
Bid Planning and Coordination:
- Understanding Requirements: Work closely with sales, sector leads, and SMEs to fully understand client needs, project scope, and bid requirements, communicating these clearly to internal stakeholders and/or partners.
- Bid Strategy Development: Define a compelling win strategy aligned to client expectations and organisational strengths, including win themes, hot buttons, and competitor insights.
- Bid Meetings: Lead kick‑off meetings and regular progress sessions with all bid participants, ensuring clarity of roles and expectations.
- Timeline Management: Build and maintain a detailed bid plan, ensuring deliverables, reviews, and governance steps are completed on schedule.
Proposal Development:
- Content Ownership: Oversee creation of high‑quality, tailored proposal content that showcases capability and aligns with client needs.
- Technical Integration: Collaborate with technical teams to ensure solutions are accurately represented and compelling to evaluators.
- Compliance Assurance: Confirm all proposals meet client, legal, and regulatory requirements.
- Value Proposition: Clearly articulate differentiators, benefits, and added value.
- Internal Review: Manage reviews and approvals, ensuring proposals are polished, accurate, and aligned to agreed strategy.
Stakeholder Management:
- Internal Coordination: Act as the central point of contact across all stakeholders, enabling smooth communication and alignment.
- Client Interaction: Engage with clients (directly or via sector/account leads) to clarify requirements and build rapport.
- Partner Management: Coordinate contributions from third‑party partners and ensure alignment with the overall proposition.
Finance, Commercial & Resource Management:
- Pricing Strategy: Work with commercial and finance teams to develop competitive pricing aligned to commercial objectives and client budgets.
- Resourcing: Coordinate with internal operations teams to secure appropriate delivery resources for bids.
- Risk Management: Identify risks and develop mitigation plans.
- Contractual Input: Support commercial teams to ensure favourable and compliant contractual terms.
Bid Submission:
- Final Review: Validate completeness, accuracy, and quality of all bid documentation.
- Submission Management: Ensure on‑time submission, following the client's prescribed method and format.
- Follow-Up: Engage post‑submission to answer clarification questions and monitor outcomes.
Post-Bid Activities:
- Feedback Review: Analyse winning bids and losses to identify key learning points.
- Continuous Improvement: Apply insights to improve future processes, templates, and competitiveness.
- Handover: For successful bids, coordinate a detailed handover to delivery teams, ensuring full understanding of scope and commitments.
Reporting & Documentation:
- Bid Records: Maintain comprehensive bid documentation and templates.
- Performance Reporting: Track win/loss ratios, cost of bidding, and provide insights to senior leadership.
- Knowledge Sharing: Share lessons learned and best practices across the organisation.
Market & Competitor Analysis:
- Research: Stay up to date with industry trends, client priorities, and competitor activities.
- Competitive Insight: Use intelligence to inform strategy, pricing, and differentiation.
Leadership & Mentorship:
- Team Leadership: Lead bid teams with clarity, structure, and support.
- Mentoring: Provide guidance to junior team members to develop their bid management capability.
Skills & Experience Required
- Proven track record managing and winning bids between £100,000 and £10,000,000 in the UK public sector and private sector.
- Strong background in consulting, ideally with experience in business development, sales, or account management.
- Excellent writing, editing, and proofreading skills with strong attention to detail.
- Demonstrable project management capability, with the ability to run multiple bids simultaneously.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and familiar with bid management tools.
Location
Hybrid, with 2-3 days per week spent either in the office (London/Cheltenham) or on client site.
