A fantastic opportunity for a NPI & Bid Manager has arisen to join a leading, high-precision engineering and manufacturing organisation operating in a highly regulated environment. You'll be embedded within a specialist domain of supply chain and project procurement professionals, supporting complex NPI and bid activity across critical product and supplier categories.
This role focuses on delivering high-quality project procurement and supplier partnership management, ensuring effective supplier performance, contract development, and strategic sourcing decisions across a key portfolio. You will lead a Project Procurement team, influence DFM/DFT activity, and drive production readiness, make/buy strategy, and total cost of supply improvements.
Key responsibilities of the NPI & Bid Manager role and not be limited to:
- Lead and develop the Projects & Bid / Project Procurement team.
- Provide clear status updates on projects and ensure business priorities are met.
- Ensure parameters and agreements are in place for new products transferring into production.
- Identify and establish long-term supplier partners, focusing on total cost of supply and mutually beneficial partnerships.
- Align with category managers to reduce the supplier base and ensure suppliers are the right size and demonstrate expected behaviours and outputs (quality and on-time delivery).
- Ensure the team remains agile - continually monitor market conditions and adjust sourcing strategies accordingly.
- Lead production readiness reviews and capacity planning to ensure suppliers can meet commitments and deliver required volumes.
- Identify, present and influence technology enablement solutions to drive efficiency.
- Ensure the NPI & Bid team supports and influences future designs with Engineering, using intelligence and capability from the supply chain.
- Maximise DFM and DFT opportunities to reduce design cycle time, remove cost, and deliver efficient designs.
- Collaborate and influence equivalent leads in Operations, Quality, Engineering, Programme Management and other functions to meet business objectives.
- Implement make/buy strategies, including "turnkey" supplier solutions to reduce lead times and internal processing cost.
- Continuously identify and deliver efficiency and cost savings initiatives.
- Report monthly to senior leadership on initiatives, opportunities, risks, and progress against objectives.
Key skills and experience required for NPI & Bid Manager and not limited to:
- Proven experience leading and developing multi-disciplinary procurement or project sourcing teams within a complex engineering or manufacturing environment.
- Strong leadership capability - track record of driving performance, developing talent, and aligning team objectives to business strategy.
- Demonstrated ability to influence and collaborate across Engineering, Quality, Operations and Programme Management.
- Extensive experience in strategic sourcing, supplier management and category strategy development - Aerospace, Defence, or other highly regulated sectors preferred.
- Strong commercial acumen with focus on total cost of ownership, value optimisation and supplier performance management.
- Track record of delivering measurable cost reduction and identifying long-term value creation opportunities.
- Experience establishing and managing long-term supplier partnerships, including negotiation of complex agreements and intellectual property considerations.
- Strong understanding of NPI and bid processes, with experience supporting DFM and DFT activities.
- End-to-end product lifecycle management understanding (concept through production and sustainment).
- Experience leading production readiness reviews, capacity planning and make/buy decisions to ensure supply readiness and resilience.
- Ability to apply technology enablement and digital procurement tools to improve efficiency and decision-making.
- Highly analytical - able to interpret market trends, risk, and supplier performance data to inform sourcing strategies.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills, comfortable presenting to senior leadership.
- Strong understanding of compliance, governance and intellectual property requirements in a defence or aerospace context.
To apply for this NPI & Bid Manager candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK.
