Senior Bid Manager in Chichester

Location: Crawley - hybrid working arrangement – 3 days per week on site

Are you an experienced Bid Manager looking to take on a dynamic and pivotal role within a leading global organisation? Thales DMS ISR UK is seeking a talented professional to join our team and lead a variety of new and existing UK and international contract growth opportunities. You will play a key role in managing all aspects of bid delivery, bringing structure, clarity, and governance to the bid process while ensuring effective stakeholder engagement and high-quality business-winning proposals. This is a unique opportunity to apply your commercial awareness, business acumen, and multi-disciplinary leadership skills to maximise Thales' position and secure exciting new business.

Core Benefits:

• On offer is a competitive salary and benefits package, which includes;
• Performance-related bonus
• Half day every Friday, usually finishing around 13:00pm
• 28 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) plus opportunity to buy up to 40 hours/year (pro rata)
• 24 hours volunteering paid for
• Private healthcare
• Pension scheme
• Life cover
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program and access to mental wellbeing app
• Employee discount shopping schemes on major brands and retailers
• Gym membership discounts

Key responsibilities:

• Undertake the activities that will ensure the successful delivery of bids. This will typically include (but is not limited to) the following:
• Provide structure, clarity, and governance to all bid management activities, ensuring rigorous processes and discipline.
• Lead and manage the preparation, review, and submission of high-quality bid deliverables and proposals.
• Collaborate closely with Capture Leaders and bid teams to develop compelling win themes aligned with customer needs and Thales’ strengths.
• Oversee cost estimation and budgeting processes with relevant stakeholders to ensure competitive and winning pricing.
• Support the Sales/Capture Lead the preparation of business cases, customer presentations, and negotiations.

About you:

• A proven track record of managing successful bids in contexts relevant to Thales (Defence, Heavy Engineering, Manufacturing), ideally in a complex, multidisciplinary, multi-site organisation.
• Can demonstrate the ability to construct solutions that meet the market's need both commercially and technically.
• Full business lifecycle management, including capture, qualification and developing capture plans and winning strategies.
• Extensive client and stakeholder management.
• Comprehensive understanding of generic processes and techniques used to schedule bid management activities.
• Comprehensive experience and understanding of the Bid Management process (including Change Control, Risk Management and Information Management).
• Comprehensive experience and knowledge of the bid life cycle.
• Experience of working across boundaries, including knowledge of commercial management, finance functions.
• Has as a minimum a working knowledge of industry standard approaches to bid management (such as Shipley Capture Bench).

Security Clearance statement:

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires you to be a UK National and achieve Security Clearance (SC) without any caveats. It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment. If approved by the MOD, a dual national from a Non-ITAR country may be considered. Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance. To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.