Proposal and Engagement Manager at Initiate in Towcester

The Proposal & Engagement Manager plays a pivotal role in strengthening Initiate’s commercial performance by leading and driving the development of high‑quality, compelling and compliant proposals, and overseeing the visibility of the ‘live’ proposal pipeline. Sitting within the Commercial team, reporting directly to the Head of Business Development & Commercial Engagement, the role owns the day‑to‑day operational management of the bid pipeline, and the end‑to‑end delivery of all proposals.

Operating beyond process coordination alone, the Proposal & Engagement Manager is responsible for creating structure, pace and clarity across all live opportunities – ensuring that our technical bid teams are mobilised early, aligned to clear agreed priorities, and are working to a defined plan. The role acts as the central point of control for all our bid activity, maintaining pipeline accuracy, enforcing process, and driving accountability across multidisciplinary teams. By bringing discipline, visibility and proactive management to the bid process, the Proposal & Engagement Manager directly contributes to improving win rate, turnaround speed and overall commercial effectiveness, while reducing reactive working and ensuring the business is consistently prepared and positioned to succeed.

Responsibilities

• Pipeline Management & Reporting: Own our pipeline visibility and accuracy. Own and maintain a live, accurate bid pipeline (via Synergist and associated reporting tools). Provide clear visibility of the overall pipeline position and forward workload. Regularly update the commercial team on the status, values, and timelines of all opportunities. Chair and lead regular operational pipeline review meetings, providing clear visibility of status, priorities and forward activity. Support commercial forecasting through reliable bid data collection and recording.
• Bid Coordination, Delivery & Accountability: Run our bid process and delivery. Lead the end‑to‑end bid process from RFP receipt through to proposal submission, and bid follow‑up. Establish and manage clear plans, timelines, and ownership for each bid individual opportunity. Ensure timely bid scoping, coordinating strategic and technical inputs from relevant team members. Act as the central point of control across multiple concurrent bids – proactively driving progress, maintaining pace and momentum. Ensure all bids are delivered to a high, consistent standard – maintaining strong bid discipline in a deadline‑driven environment, reducing delays and ensuring consistent delivery. Follow‑up and challenge as necessary to ensure delivery to agreed timelines – holding contributors accountable for their individual inputs and outputs.
• Proposal Content Control: Shape our proposal content for clarity and impact. Lead the development and coordination of high‑quality complete proposals, ensuring clarity, accuracy, and alignment with client needs. Translate technical inputs from HTA, HEOR, Access, and Evidence Synthesis teams into clear, compelling and client‑ready narratives. Use approved proposal templates, methodologies, and branded materials to ensure consistency and compliance in tone and presentation. Apply corporate style, referencing, branding, and compliance standards. Assemble complete, submission‑ready proposal documents, including key sections such as executive summaries. Develop budgets using standard templates, aligned with scope and commercial strategy.
• Opportunity Triage & Prioritisation: Prioritise our high‑value bid opportunities. Coordinate the review and assessment of incoming RFPs and opportunities. Support go / no‑go decision‑making with structured input. Ensure focus is applied to the most valuable opportunities. Align bid activity with overall commercial objectives.
• Team Mobilisation & Coordination: Mobilise our teams and coordinate input. Build strong working relationships across project teams to ensure accurate, evidence‑based bid content. Identify and engage appropriate technical and commercial contributors. Mobilise multidisciplinary teams early to ensure sufficient preparation time, and a single coherent response. Identify and communicate risks, issues, and dependencies early to stakeholders. Ensure clarity of roles, responsibilities and expectations – managing dependencies between contributors.
• Quality Assurance & Sign‑Off: Ensure our quality, compliance and approval readiness. Ensure all proposals meet required standards of quality and compliance. Manage review cycles and approval processes. Enforce consistency in formatting, content and messaging. Ensure appropriate sign‑off is obtained ahead of submission.
• Continuous Bidding Improvement: Gather bid learnings. Capture lessons learned from bid outcomes (win/loss). Track client feedback. Improve processes, templates and working practices over time.
• Bid Asset Management: Maintain our bid content assets. Ensure structured, accessible and audit‑ready bid documentation. Develop capability statements, case studies, and client‑ready decks. Maintain and continuously improve the proposal library (slides, boilerplates, team bios, case studies). Identify opportunities to enhance proposal quality, consistency and template effectiveness.
• Stakeholder & Client Engagement: Engage stakeholders and clients with confidence. Act as the key interface between Initiate’s commercial and technical delivery teams, ensuring clear communication and alignment. Engage confidently with senior internal stakeholders, providing clarity, updates and direction across live opportunities. Liaise with clients during the bid process where appropriate, ensuring professional and timely communication. Support structured follow‑up activity post‑submission, to maintain engagement and momentum.

About You

Highly organised, commercially aware, bringing energy and pace to the proposal generation and bid process. Ability to take clear ownership for driving activity and maintaining pipeline momentum. Ability to constructively challenge, maintain collective focus, and hold contributors to account, comfortable directing colleagues at all levels. Disciplined project management and communication skills. Ability to translate technical input into clear, consistent and compelling proposal content, ensuring quality and coherence throughout. Ability to anticipate pressures and identify risks early, creating the structure and forward planning needed to reduce reactive, last‑minute working. Comfortable operating at pace and maintaining control in a deadline‑driven environment. Collaborative team player who builds strong relationships with colleagues and clients and contributes positively to team culture. Values led, working with collaboration, integrity, pragmatism and empowerment, with a desire to take ownership and solve problems proactively.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Bonus scheme
• 25 days holiday (excludes bank holidays)
• 3 days leave ‘Privilege Days’ at Christmas time
• Birthday off
• Healthcare insurance scheme
• Life insurance
• Personalised development programme: the job holder will receive training, ongoing support and opportunities for personal development and career progression
• Use of onsite gym and/or subsidised gym