Manufacturing Bid Manager in Manchester

Our client, a long-standing partner to the UK Ministry of Defence, is seeking an experienced Manufacturing Bid Manager to play a key role in winning and shaping complex manufacturing programmes. This is a high-impact role sitting at the interface of manufacturing, commercial, and business winning, with direct influence over cost strategy, industrial assumptions, and bid success across major defence programmes.

What you'll be responsible for:

• Manufacturing Leadership in Bids: Lead manufacturing input into bids from early opportunity through submission. Define scope, assumptions, and industrial strategy within the Bid Directive. Position manufacturing as a value-adding contributor to business winning.
• Costing & Commercial Input: Build and validate manufacturing cost models (direct, indirect, materials, overheads). Develop evidence-based 3-point estimates using Excel and historical data. Ensure cost assumptions are robust, auditable, and aligned to policy.
• Bid Development & Stakeholder Engagement: Produce clear, compliant and competitive bid material (PowerPoint). Assess manufacturing risk, capacity and deliverability across programmes. Work closely with New Business, Commercial, Engineering and Operations teams. Provide forward visibility of upcoming bids and market intelligence.
• Continuous Improvement & Strategy: Apply lessons learned to improve future bids and cost competitiveness. Support functional and strategic change within Manufacturing. Raise the profile and impact of the Manufacturing Bid Team across programmes.

What we're looking for:

• Proven experience in manufacturing / operations-led bidding within a complex or regulated environment.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end manufacturing (procurement to delivery).
• Commercially astute, with hands-on experience building manufacturing cost models.
• Confident producing and presenting bid packs to senior stakeholders.
• Able to articulate costing logic clearly and support audit requirements.
• Comfortable working across multiple bids to tight deadlines.
• Proactive, structured, and resilient in a fast-paced bidding environment.

Backgrounds from defence, aerospace, automotive, rail, or similarly regulated manufacturing environments are particularly relevant.

Why consider this role:

• Direct impact on major UK defence programmes.
• High visibility role influencing industrial strategy and cost credibility.
• Work at the heart of business winning, not just delivery.
• Collaborative, senior-stakeholder-facing position.

What happens now?

Upon submission of your application, should it meet our selection criteria, you will be contacted via e-mail by one of our talent acquisition specialists to arrange a screening call. This telephone chat is structured to explore a series of questions aimed at matching your competencies and capabilities to the specific demands of the position. Please note, this screening is contingent upon the initial success of your application.

Security Clearance: British Citizen or a Dual UK national with British citizenship. Restrictions and/or limitations relating to nationality and/or rights to work may apply. As a minimum and after offer stage, all successful candidates will need to undergo HMG Basic Personnel Security Standard checks (BPSS), which are managed by our clients Security Team.

For more than 70 years, our client has been in a strong partnership with the UK military. They have accomplished numerous milestones in defence engineering and have provided essential defence capabilities to meet the requirements of the armed forces across land, sea, and air. This job is at our client's site in Bolton facility, one of the North West's leading manufacturing sites for at least 25 years. The facility offers showers and bike racks and is near the motorway, with a petrol station outside. Amenities like an onsite canteen.