Bid Writing Manager

We are looking to recruit an experienced Bid Manager on a full-time, permanent basis. The ideal candidate for the job will be expected to lead and manage the end-to-end delivery of high-quality public sector bids – orchestrating people, risks, governance and contributors so that each submission clearly articulates the organisation’s value proposition and supports us to change the lives of even more people every day.

Responsibilities will include:

• Active leadership and management of bids, including relationship development, risk management, project management and bid writing, to produce high-quality bids in line with bid deadlines.
• Planning, coordinating, quality assuring and submitting high-quality tenders for existing and new commissioners, drafting content directly where required to support contributors and maintain pace.
• Leading bid teams within a matrix management structure, setting clear roles, responsibilities and deadlines for contributors and holding them to account for delivery.
• Identifying, recording and actively managing bid risks throughout the bid lifecycle – including commercial, delivery, mobilisation, TUPE, social value and reputational risks – escalating to senior leadership where appropriate and ensuring mitigations are reflected in the bid response.
• Owning the bid governance process for assigned opportunities, including preparation and chairing of bid kick-off meetings, qualification (bid/no-bid), strategy reviews, internal sign-off gateways and lessons learned, ensuring decisions and assumptions are clearly documented.
• Building and managing strong working relationships with internal stakeholders – including operations, finance, HR, IT, quality and bid leadership – and with external partners, subcontractors and consortium members, to secure the inputs, sign-offs and commitments each bid requires.
• Allocating responsibilities across the bid team, maintaining a clear RACI and bid plan, tracking progress against milestones, and proactively unblocking issues so that submissions are completed accurately, compliantly and on time.
• Working as part of a team in developing both small and large-scale tenders of strategic value.
• Joint work with operational teams and support service functions to understand bid requirements and build bid responses that meet the requirements and exceed the expectations of our commissioners.
• Delivery of presentations and attendance at face-to-face meetings with clients.
• Research to support the bid writing process.

Requirement

• Education and Training – Desirable Not Essential
• Equivalent industry experience – preferably from Employability, Justice & Care – Public Sector
• University degree
• Member of Association of Bid and Proposal Management Professionals (APMP)

Skills, knowledge and abilities

• Working in a networked role, working under pressure and to demanding deadlines.
• Ability to proactively develop and manage a network of subject matter experts.
• Ability to identify and re-work existing pre-written content where relevant.
• Ability to communicate and influence at a senior level.
• Strong written English language skills.
• Ability to identify, assess and actively manage risk across the bid lifecycle, including escalation to senior leadership where required.
• Strong stakeholder and relationship management skills, with the ability to build trust quickly across operations, support functions and external partners.
• Ability to lead, direct and hold to account contributors in a matrix structure without direct line authority.

Experience

• Demonstrable evidence of working on complex bids to tight deadlines.
• Project management experience.
• Experience of working with multi-layered (matrix) sales/implementations/operations teams on the bid process.
• Proficient user of Microsoft Office (PPT/Word/Excel), SharePoint, and other bid/proposal-related tools.
• Experience in a similar role, especially within the employability, justice or community sectors.
• Experience of owning and maintaining a bid risk register and using it to inform bid strategy and senior decision-making.
• Experience of running bid governance gateways – including bid/no-bid qualification, strategy reviews and internal sign-off – and producing the supporting documentation.
• Experience of managing partnership, consortium or supply chain relationships during a bid, including securing commitments and resolving conflicting positions.