Head of Business Development - Tenders & Contracts in Widnes

The opportunity and what makes Community Integrated Care a great place to work. Lead the opportunities. Shape the strategy. Turn ambition into sustainable growth. At Community Integrated Care, we believe that great social care transforms lives. To continue growing our impact, we’re looking for an exceptional Head of Business Development, Tenders & Contracts to lead our approach to identifying, winning and retaining the opportunities that will shape our future. This is much more than a bids role. We’re looking for a commercially astute, strategic and ambitious leader who can spot opportunity, understand markets, influence decisions and bring people together to turn insight into sustainable growth.

You’ll lead our bids, tenders, contracts and associated data functions, ensuring we pursue the right opportunities, in the right markets, for the right reasons. The role requires attendance at our head office in Widnes at least once a week so our ideal candidate will be based within an hour's commute of our head office in Widnes.

What is The Deal for you?

• Flexibility! You can work your full-time hours over 4 days and enjoy a long weekend or work over 5 days to accommodate your other commitments.
• Benefits: Retail discounts, holiday discounts, cycle to work scheme and travel discounts through our benefits app.
• Best Lives Possible: You'll be working for an award-winning charity who is passionate about ensuring our colleagues and the people we support lead the best lives.
• Development: We'll work with you to develop your career or to learn and experience new things. We're passionate about developing our people!
• Dare to Learn: Access to our amazing online training platform where you can upskill taking a variety of courses and qualifications.
• Support: From our Employee Assistance Programme (available 24/7), financial support options, and wellbeing fund you'll have the support available to lead an easier (financial) life.

Who you’ll be supporting & more about the role:

As Head of Business Development, Tenders & Contracts, you’ll play a pivotal role in delivering our growth ambitions. You’ll oversee our national pipeline of opportunities, bringing together market intelligence, commissioner insight, competitor analysis and commercial data to help us make informed decisions about where we invest our energy and expertise. From identifying emerging opportunities and developing winning propositions to leading complex tenders, strengthening commissioner relationships and protecting existing contracts, you’ll have visibility across the entire business development lifecycle.

You’ll create robust bid/no-bid and capture planning disciplines, ensuring that every major opportunity is assessed against strategic fit, financial viability, deliverability, capacity and risk. And when we decide to compete, you’ll make sure we compete to win.

What you’ll be doing

• You’ll lead and develop a high-performing team responsible for our bids, contracts and business development data, creating clarity, pace and accountability around our growth ambitions.
• Leading our approach to complex bids, tenders, frameworks and contract opportunities, from initial identification through to award and mobilisation handover.
• Maintaining a strong forward pipeline of strategically aligned and commercially viable growth opportunities.
• Establishing effective bid/no-bid governance and capture planning so that resources are focused where we have the greatest opportunity to succeed.
• Providing senior leaders with meaningful insight into markets, commissioners, competitors, pipeline performance, conversion, retention and portfolio quality.
• Using commissioner priorities, market intelligence and fee benchmarking to create compelling and differentiated propositions.
• Developing strong win themes, evidence bases and measurable social value propositions.
• Taking a proactive approach to contract retention, identifying forthcoming recommissioning and contracts potentially at risk well before formal procurement begins.
• Overseeing key contractual requirements, risks, variations, expiry dates and commercial issues.
• Working closely with regional teams and Business Development Partners to translate local knowledge and relationships into a strong national pipeline.
• Building strategic relationships with commissioners, funders and potential partners.
• Leading pitches and presentations that strengthen our profile and help convert opportunities into sustainable growth.
• Ensuring our CRM provides trusted, high-quality information for pipeline management, forecasting and decision-making.
• Exploring how technology and AI-enabled tools can enhance market intelligence, research, content management, quality assurance and reporting, with appropriate human oversight.
• Creating a talented, inclusive and commercially focused team that performs brilliantly even when multiple tender deadlines collide.

About you: What we’re looking for:

You may already be leading bids, tenders, business development or commercial growth within social care, health or another highly regulated environment. Whatever your current job title, you’ll be able to demonstrate a strong track record of turning complex opportunities into results. We’re particularly interested in people who can bring:

• Significant experience of competitive tendering and complex bid processes.
• A proven record of leading and converting high-value bids, tenders, frameworks or other growth opportunities.
• Strong knowledge of the care sector, including relevant regulatory and contractual frameworks.
• Experience of working with commissioning partners.
• Strong commercial judgement and the ability to balance opportunity with financial viability, quality, risk and deliverability.
• Experience of working towards growth, pipeline, conversion and retention targets.
• The ability to understand tender budgets, financial planning and commercial risk.
• Excellent market awareness and the ability to anticipate changes in commissioner priorities, policy and competition.
• Strong analytical skills, turning data and intelligence into clear commercial recommendations.
• The ability to build compelling value propositions, win themes and social value commitments.
• Excellent written, verbal, influencing and presentation skills.
• Experience of leading, developing and motivating high-performing teams.
• Confidence working with senior stakeholders and bringing different functions together behind a shared goal.

Most importantly, you’ll know that winning business is not simply about winning the tender. It’s about securing opportunities we can deliver brilliantly, sustainably and in a way that improves the lives of the people we support.

Why Community Integrated Care?

This is an opportunity to bring your commercial expertise to an organisation where growth has a much bigger purpose. You’ll work collaboratively across Operations, Quality, People, Finance, Property, Technology and other specialist functions, combining expertise from across the organisation to develop propositions that are credible, deliverable and distinctive. You’ll also have the opportunity to influence at senior level, helping shape where we grow, how we compete and where we invest for the future.

As part of our Senior Leadership Team, you’ll be trusted to challenge thinking, bring new ideas and help translate our strategic ambitions into meaningful action. We’re really proud to be a Hive HR Employee Voice Certified organisation, a recognition that confirms our commitment to creating a culture where our colleagues are not only encouraged to share their thoughts, but where this feedback is actively sought and acted upon to drive positive change at every level.

In our 2025 Colleague Engagement Survey, 59% (nearly 3,800) of our people shared their feedback and insights, giving us an incredible Employee Net Promoter Score of +34. The Employee Net Promoter Score is a measure of how willing our colleagues are to recommend us as a good place to work to their loved ones – and a score of +34 is considered a Very Good score when compared to global benchmarks set by hundreds of other organisations.