Head of Pursuits and Proposals

The Head of Pursuits & Proposals leads the Pursuits & Proposals sub‑capability to drive best practice on winning work through formal tenders and strategic pursuits, with a focus on improving win performance and the quality of the firm’s most important opportunities, aligned to growth and market priorities. The role is accountable for establishing and embedding pursuit and proposal best practice on major bids, ensuring opportunities are shaped, governed and converted effectively in line with the firm’s sales methodology.

This role is a member of the Wider Leadership team responsible for the end‑to‑end pursuit approach: qualification discipline, go/no‑go coaching, probability‑to‑win decisioning, win strategy, value proposition shaping, proposal governance, and presentation readiness. The role works closely with GTM leaders to understand demand and capacity constraints, leads a specialist team of Pursuit & Proposal Senior Managers and Managers, and has oversight of the Bid Hub Knowledge Senior Manager (asset ownership).

Delivery is predominantly coaching‑led, with execution and production support provided through the proposals hub and associated delivery routes. A key component of the role is ensuring proposal production is delivered at scale and to a consistent standard through the right delivery model, including effective management of BDO Wave (offshore bid production support). This includes ensuring offshore resources are appropriately trained, fully briefed, governed through clear processes, and that quality review (QR) checkpoints are strong—so output quality is high and rework is reduced.

Key responsibilities:

• Define and operate a clear approach for which opportunities receive pursuit/proposal support, driven by growth and market priorities and capacity.
• Lead go/no‑go coaching for priority opportunities, ensuring decisions are evidence‑led and aligned to strategic fit and deliverability.
• Run probability‑to‑win sessions to challenge assumptions, identify gaps, and focus teams on actions that increase win likelihood.
• Escalate resourcing, quality and risk issues and influence opportunity owners and senior stakeholders to take disciplined decisions.
• Establish consistent pursuit governance: kick‑offs, milestones, review gates, and decision moments for major opportunities.
• Ensure compliance with tender requirements, quality standards and brand standards, and that reviews are completed to schedule.
• Maintain visibility of pursuit progress and intervene early where deadlines, quality or inputs are at risk.
• Lead a coaching‑led model: support opportunity owners and pursuit teams to shape win strategies and execute effectively.
• Provide presentation and pitch coaching, including story, structure, rehearsal discipline and Q&A preparation.
• Design and deliver upskilling for practice and Sales & Marketing colleagues on “what good looks like” in pursuits, including qualification discipline and pitch readiness.
• Partner with opportunity owners and subject matter teams to shape differentiating value propositions and solution narratives.
• Work with Content and Markets Activation to align messaging, proof points and proposition materials for priority pursuits.
• Work with Marketing, GTM and Operations to ensure pursuit priorities are joined up with broader market activity and reporting rhythms.
• Ensure learning from pursuits (buyer feedback, objections, competitor signals) is fed back into GTM plans and proposition development.
• Own and continuously improve the Pursuits & Proposals methodology covering qualification, go/no‑go, probability‑to‑win, win planning, review discipline and post‑outcome learning.
• Maintain a clear “how to engage” service guide: required inputs, outputs, timelines, definitions of done and what a good brief looks like.
• Build and refresh practical tools and templates to improve consistency and reduce rework.
• Provide direction to the Bid Hub Knowledge Senior Manager on asset priorities, ensuring libraries, credentials and templates meet pursuit needs and reduce rework.
• Ensure document production and execution support routes are coordinated through the bid hub, enabling a coaching‑led model at scale.
• Define when and how BDO Wave is used to support bid production, ensuring it is applied where appropriate and scaled commercially.
• Ensure BDO Wave resources are trained, briefed and aligned to standards (brand, templates, compliance, tone, tender requirements).
• Run feedback loops with BDO Wave and internal teams so recurring issues are addressed through improved briefs, templates, training and governance.
• Run post‑outcome debriefs and embed learnings into methodology, templates, coaching and asset improvements.
• Lead and develop the Pursuits & Proposals team: role clarity, coaching approach, recruitment input, onboarding, performance management and progression.

You’ll be someone with:

• Significant experience leading complex pursuits, bids and proposals in a professional services or similarly complex B2B environment.
• Proven track record improving win performance through disciplined qualification, probability‑to‑win assessment and coaching.
• Strong ability to influence senior stakeholders and challenge constructively to drive better decisions and outcomes.
• Strong proposition and story shaping capability and high editorial judgement.
• Strong programme governance capability across multiple contributors and deadlines.
• Experience operating scaled proposal production delivery routes (including offshore/alternative delivery models) with strong quality control and training discipline.
• People leadership experience managing senior practitioners and embedding standards at scale.