Bid Manager - Consultancy - Public Sector in Slough

At Amber Labs, we are a cutting-edge UK and European technology consultancy that prioritises empowering autonomy, promoting experimentation, and facilitating rapid learning to provide exceptional value to our clients. Our company culture is centred around collaboration, where all colleagues, regardless of their role, work together to minimise risk and shorten delivery times. Our team consists of highly-skilled cross-functional consultants, analysts, and support staff.

Amber Labs is seeking our first Bid Manager to establish and lead our bid management capability. This is a foundational role: you will not only manage live bids and proposals, but also design the governance, processes, and tools that will scale our ability to compete for complex consulting opportunities. You will work cross-functionally with sales, consulting, operations, finance, and HR to embed a repeatable bid process, create the content infrastructure we need, and ensure our submissions are consistently compliant, compelling, and competitive. This is a unique opportunity to build the bid function from the ground up in a fast-growing consultancy and directly impact our ability to win strategic public sector and enterprise contracts.

Responsibilities

• Build bid capability: design and implement a scalable bid management process, including governance, qualification criteria, and review stages.
• Develop standardised bid templates, response libraries, and tools to improve efficiency.
• Establish and maintain a bid content library (case studies, CVs, policies, boilerplate).
• Introduce best practices in bid planning, quality review (e.g. colour team reviews), and compliance checks.
• Manage bids: lead the end-to-end management of proposals (RFI, RFP, ITT, framework submissions), from qualification through to submission.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration — coordinating input from sales, consulting SMEs, operations, finance, and HR.
• Ensure bids are client-focused, compliant, and delivered to deadline with persuasive storytelling.

Governance & Continuous Improvement

• Run qualification ("Go/No-Go") processes to focus resources on the most winnable opportunities.
• Monitor bid outcomes, track win/loss trends, and recommend improvements.
• Report regularly to leadership on pipeline bids, success rates, and lessons learned.

Collaboration & Influence

• Act as the central coordination point for bid activity across the business.
• Partner with sales leaders on pursuit strategies and with delivery leaders on credible solution design.
• Provide coaching and guidance to teams on bid best practice.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Proven experience managing bids/proposals in consulting, IT services, or professional services.
• Strong knowledge of UK public sector procurement (e.g. Crown Commercial Service frameworks, DOS, G-Cloud).
• Strong knowledge of bid and proposal management best practices (APMP standards or equivalent).
• Demonstrated ability to design and embed governance, processes, and tools for bids.
• Excellent writing, editing, and persuasive communication skills.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple bids simultaneously.
• High attention to detail and compliance.
• Ability to influence and coordinate senior stakeholders across sales, delivery, and operations.

Desirable

• Experience building a bid capability at a consultancy or professional services firm.
• APMP certification or equivalent qualification.
• Experience with bid management tools (e.g. Loopio, XaitPorter, SharePoint, Monday.com).
• Familiarity with UK public sector procurement frameworks (DOS, G-Cloud, CCS).
• Understanding of consulting delivery models (resource augmentation, outcome-based, managed services).

Diversity & Inclusion

Here at Amber Labs, we are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace for all. Our commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion includes valuing the unique experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds of all employees and creating an environment where everyone feels welcomed, respected, and valued; prohibiting all forms of harassment, bullying, discrimination, and victimisation and promoting a culture of dignity and respect for all; educating all new hires on our Diversity and Inclusion policies and ensuring they are aware of their rights and responsibilities to create a safe and inclusive workplace; and building a workplace that reflects and celebrates the diversity of our employees and communities.

Additional Information

Please be advised that, at this time, we are unable to consider candidates who require sponsorship or hold a visa of any type.

What Happens Next?

Our Talent Acquisition Team will be in touch to advise you on the next steps. We have a two-stage interview process for most of our consultants. In certain cases, we may include a third and final stage, which is a conversation with the company Partners. This will only be considered if deemed necessary.