Bid and Content Manager in Manchester

We are March……… the UKs leading provider of critical engineering services. Our expertise as a multi-disciplinary engineering partner across infrastructure, process and digital services has led to long term partnerships with leading organisations in everything from food and drink and utilities to high-security industries such as defence, aerospace and nuclear.

The experience expected from applicants, as well as additional skills and qualifications needed for this job are listed below.

We are seeking a highly organised and creative Bid and Content Manager to lead end‑to‑end bid delivery and craft compelling, visually engaging proposals that win work. This role blends strategic bid leadership with content design: you will design win strategies and themes, storyboard and write persuasive narratives, and bring ideas to life through brand‑aligned layouts, graphics and presentations. Every submission will be compliant, innovative and tailored to customer needs.

Key Responsibilities:

Bid Management

Own the full bid lifecycle – qualification, capture, planning, authoring, reviews, approvals and submission.

Shape win strategy and value propositions – develop customer‑focused win themes and storyboards.

Coordinate inputs across sales, operations, engineering and commercial to align on solution, price and risk.

Lead structured review cycles (Pink, Red, Gold) aligned with Shipley best practice to ensure compliance and quality

Ensure compliance with ITT, scoring criteria and submission requirements.

Maintain bid documentation, templates, and best practices.

Content Creation

Write, edit and design persuasive content that translates complex technical solutions into clear, customer benefits.

Create brand‑aligned layouts, graphics, infographics and iconography in Word, PowerPoint and Adobe InDesign.

Develop visually engaging executive summaries, bid decks and interactive PDFs to elevate message clarity.

Maintain tone of voice, style guide and visual standards across all proposal materials.

Prepare post‑bid presentations and support clarifications.

Collaboration & Communication

Partner with sales, marketing and subject matter experts to gather insights and evidence.

Coach contributors and reviewers; champion plain English and visual storytelling.

Foster a constructive, deadline‑driven culture with clear roles, responsibilities and accountability.

Continuous Improvement

Build and manage bid plans, schedules, risks, assumptions and dependencies; enforce deadline discipline.

Manage and evolve a reusable knowledge library: case studies, CVs, boilerplate, graphics and templates.

Track metrics (win rate, quality scores etc)

Monitor market trends and competitor positioning to refine differentiators.

Skills and Experiences:

Minimum 3 years’ experience, ideally 5+ years for full proficiency (with significant exposure to complex, multi-stakeholder bids) in B2B environments.

Experience in engineering-led sectors such as infrastructure, process industries, or digital services is an advantage.

Advanced Microsoft 365 skills – Word (styles, sectioning, cross‑referencing), PowerPoint (Slide Master, layouts, animation) and Excel (tables, basic modelling).

Strong written communication and editing skills; able to craft persuasive, evaluative content with clear structure.

Commercial awareness – Comfortable articulating value, ROI, risk and price‑quality trade‑offs.

Experience running formal review cycles (Pink/Red/Gold), compliance matrices and submission portals.

Adobe Creative Cloud (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) for bid design and visual storytelling.

Specific Qualifications

APMP (Association of Proposal Management Professionals) Certification — Foundation (preferred) or Practitioner/Professional (advantage).

Degree or equivalent experience in business, marketing / communications or a related field.

What we offer

A competitive salary and benefits package appropriate to this position

An employer who values the ongoing wellbeing of its employees

Career development within a successful and growing business

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. xiskglj

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation