Director, Global Bid Management _ UK in London

Purpose of the job In this role you would be responsible for the operational leadership, performance and development of our global bid management team. The role operates at Director level by leading the structures, standards, capacity model, quality expectations and development environment that allow Bid Specialists, Senior Bid Specialists, Bid Managers and Senior Bid Managers to deliver high-quality pursuit support consistently across regions, sectors and opportunity types. This role is the operational leader of the bid function, not the owner of commercial strategy. It does not own revenue, account strategy, final pursuit strategy, solution design, or commercial approvals. Your impact comes through team leadership, bid management standards, workload prioritization, quality assurance, coaching, offshore / onshore coordination, process improvement and practical governance of how bid support is delivered. You will lead the global bid management team as a high-performing operational function, ensuring the right people, processes, tools, standards and management routines are in place to deliver effective pursuit support. A critical part of the remit is ensuring our global bid team’s approach and standards remain aligned and consistent as we serve diverse requirements across divisional pipelines. The role is accountable for turning the capability framework and skills matrix into practical team expectations, clear role progression, consistent quality standards and scalable ways of working across the bid function. Some hybrid / intermittent presence in our Bishopsgate head office will be required to deliver this role effectively. Key responsibilities Operational leadership of the bid function: Lead the global bid management team, ensuring roles, responsibilities, standards, priorities and ways of working are clear and embedded across all the team, regardless of location or seniority Intake and triage partnership: Partner with Director, Sales Enablement roles to translate assessed support requests into practical capacity decisions, reviewing available bid team resource, workload, skills and priority conflicts before confirming allocation, proposing alternatives or escalating capacity constraints Team performance and capability development: Build capability across Bid Specialists, Senior Bid Specialists, Bid Managers and Senior Bid Managers through coaching, development planning, skills matrix alignment, progression pathways and regular performance conversations Capacity, prioritization and workload management: Work closely and collaboratively with Director, Sales Enablement roles to manage and balance bid team capacity, utilization, workload allocation and escalation routes, ensuring effort is focused on the highest-value opportunities and that support levels are proportionate to pursuit priority and complexity. Maintain high visibility of metrics and workload to support fully-informed decisions and senior-level priority discussions Bid standards and quality assurance: Define, maintain and embed practical bid management standards across planning, kick-off, response development, review cycles, quality control, submission readiness and lessons learned Process discipline and continuous improvement: Lead targeted improvement initiatives that increase consistency, efficiency, visibility and quality across bid delivery, including templates, trackers, review methods, handoffs and collaboration routines Operational governance and reporting: Establish clear operating rhythms for the bid team, including workload reviews, risk escalation, quality review, service performance, resource planning and improvement tracking Stakeholder partnership: Partner with Director, Sales Enablement roles, CCO-aligned stakeholders, VPs, Business Development, Client Engagement, Solutions and offshore teams to ensure bid support is mobilized effectively against agreed priorities Escalation and risk management: Identify capacity, quality, timeline, stakeholder or process risks early and intervene with clear decisions, escalation paths and practical mitigation Tools, content and ways of working adoption: Ensure the bid team makes effective use of approved sales enablement tools, content libraries, templates, AI-supported workflows and collaboration platforms in line with agreed governance Culture, standards and accountability: Create a disciplined, service-oriented bid function that balances responsiveness with standards, protects team capacity, challenges poor process discipline and raises the quality of pursuit support over time Knowledge, skills + experience Extensive experience leading bid management, proposal management, sales enablement operations or pursuit support teams in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment Global experience preferred, multi-regional experience essential Proven ability to lead and develop distributed teams, including onshore, offshore, regional or matrix support models Track record of enhancing workflows and output with innovative adoption of AI Strong understanding of bid and proposal delivery, including RFx response management, pursuit planning, content development, review cycles, quality assurance and submission processes Experience managing team capacity, workload prioritization, utilization, escalation routes and service expectations across competing business priorities Ability to turn capability frameworks and skills matrices into practical role expectations, development plans, performance measures and progression conversations Strong operational leadership skills, with the ability to create structure, cadence, accountability and consistency without over-engineering process Confident stakeholder management, with the ability to work effectively with senior commercial, Sales Enablement, Solutions, Client Engagement and offshore stakeholders Strong coaching and people development capability, including the ability to raise standards, address gaps and build confidence across different role levels Ability to use insight, workload data, quality feedback and lessons learned to identify operational improvement opportunities and drive practical change Strong written, verbal and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate expectations, decisions, priorities and risks clearly to both team members and senior stakeholders Practical understanding of sales enablement tools, content management systems, collaboration platforms, CRM data and AI-supported bid workflows Pragmatic judgement, with the ability to balance service responsiveness, quality standards, team capacity and commercial urgency What success looks like Success in the role is evidenced through a more consistent, scalable and resilient bid management function: Clearer capacity visibility Stronger role-level capability Improved quality standards Better workload prioritization Reduced delivery friction More effective use of offshore support Stronger bid team progression and more reliable pursuit support Commercial outcomes remain owned by Growth and Commercial Leadership, and you would improve and develop the operating environment and team capability, to enable those outcomes to be pursued more effectively. #LI-PL1 #LI-Hybrid