Bid Manager

Stirling Dynamics is recruiting a Bid Manager to join the team. The successful candidate will report into our Head of Business and will primarily be involved in managing a variety of bids across all areas of the business. The role involves leading bids from initial opportunity identification through to submitting proposals and supporting customer negotiations. In addition to bid management, the successful candidate will be involved in managing the full project lifecycle of assigned projects from launch to project closure. Key to this is ensuring that bids and projects are controlled in line with the company's Quality Management System (QMS) and bid/project management procedures within the level of delegated authority. This role would suit a candidate who has previous engineering and current bid management experience looking to move into a fast-moving company with a world-wide customer base. This role will be based in our Bristol offices with travel to our clients' sites as required; however, as part of our commitment to flexible working, employees are able to combine office work with remote working.

Responsibilities

• Manage bids and projects across Business Units in accordance with the company procedures.
• Participation in the early Bid Phase, involving customer liaison and supporting initial requirement/scope capture and definition.
• Tracking, monitoring progress, management and delivering allocated bids and projects in terms of Time, Cost and Quality.
• Leading engineering and operational bid teams as required in creating compelling and competitive technical, commercial and financial proposals in support of offers to customers.
• Preparation of financial data including estimates for project completion, invoicing and cash modelling.
• Management of risk in accordance with company procedures to ensure all technical, commercial and financial risks are considered and included in bids and projects.
• Preparation of all Bid Process Documentation, including: Bid Initiation; Bid Approval and Contract Acceptance.
• Preparation of all Project Start-up and Initiation Documentation, including: Project Briefs (Charter); Project Management Plans (PMP); project schedules; project budgets; and tracking registers.
• With SME support, generate robust costings (WBS, Hours, Purchased Items), and facilitate stakeholder cost reviews in support of Bid Approval.
• Continuous improvement: development of standardised bid libraries: proposal content; standardised costs & pricing; management of bid lessons learned.
• Preparation of project financial data including budget updates, estimates at completion and control of customer invoicing and profiling.
• Management of resource demand and participation in Business Unit resource levelling through accurate representation of the bid/project demand in the business forecasting system.
• Stakeholder communication and management (both internal and external to customers and suppliers).
• Management and control of any contract changes with the customer for all allocated projects, ensuring adherence to process.
• Early and clear reporting, raising and escalation of bid issues, risks, and potential problems.
• Support the implementation of Best Practice bid and project management across the company and identify opportunities for improving processes and efficiency.
• Support the project management team in process streamlining and improvement.

Qualifications

• Degree qualified in an engineering, science, technology, mathematics or related discipline.
• Recognised Project Management training and qualification - Desirable.

Essential skills

• Ability to lead teams and drive deliverables in challenging technical environments.
• Able to work with a wide experience level from junior engineers to well-regarded technical consultants.
• Financially astute, able to define and manage bid and project budgets, maintain profit margins and deliver returns.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Confident in prioritisation and managing concurrent workstreams.
• Ability to manage own workload and work to deadlines.
• Be an effective communicator, both written and verbal.
• A proactive and assertive nature with the motivation to succeed.
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint.

Experience

• General experience within the aerospace, marine and defence engineering environment.
• Experience of bid and project management in engineering technical services provision and/or full life cycle development programmes.
• Experience of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, such as Epicor - Desirable.

Benefits

We offer a range of benefits to our employees to recognise their efforts. Playing hard is equally as important as working hard, so regular events are held throughout the year which provide an ideal opportunity to mix socially.