Senior Bid Manager

Senior Bid Manager
Location: Apsley, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
Type: Permanent, Full-Time, Mon-Fri, Hybrid (3 onsite, 2 WFH)
Hours: 8am – 5pm, 40hrs, 1hr lunch break
Salary: £70k - £90k depending on candidate experience (+ car allowance)
Role Purpose:
The Senior Bid Manager will take full ownership of a varied portfolio of opportunities from qualification through submission, clarification and post tender review. The role will establish the bid plan, define responsibilities, manage dependencies and coordinate operational, technical, commercial and senior stakeholders against clear deadlines. Working within the companies lean pre-construction structure, the post holder will apply proportionate governance across major framework procurements and a high volume of smaller in-framework opportunities, maintain momentum across concurrent bids, resolve gaps and ensure every input, review and final output is complete, coherent, compliant and submission-ready.
Role Responsibilities:
Strategy/Planning:
* Take ownership from qualification onwards, agreeing the proportionate bid strategy, governance route and submission plan with the Head of Bid Management and opportunity leaders.
* Establish clear programmes, deliverables matrices, responsibilities, dependencies, review stages and decision points for each opportunity.
* Facilitate mobilisation, win-strategy and answer-planning workshops where appropriate, converting evaluation criteria and client requirements into practical response plans, evidence needs and stakeholder actions.
* Maintain senior oversight through disciplined progress reporting, early escalation of risks and clear recording of actions and decisions.
Bid Management Writing:
* Lead and manage concurrent bids from qualification through submission, clarification and post tender review, remaining accountable for quality and timely delivery.
* Apply proportionate governance to a mixed portfolio, from major strategic framework procurements to fast-moving small and medium-sized in-framework opportunities.
* Set expectations, assign responsibilities, follow through on actions and challenge missed commitments so that inputs and decisions are secured to programme.
* Write, shape and edit high-quality responses from first principles, turning complex technical and commercial input into clear, persuasive, evaluator-focused narrative.
* For major frameworks, develop strategic, benefit-led qualitative responses that articulate the companies positioning, capability, governance and long-term value.
* For smaller in-framework opportunities, work at pace with operational and commercial teams to shape the proposed methodology, programme, resources, risk position and commercial strategy.
* Coordinate appropriate review stages and ensure all comments, gaps, contradictions and unsubstantiated commitments are resolved before submission.
* Edit contributions from bid writers and subject matter experts for consistency, accuracy, evidence, compliance and a single voice.
* Ensure every final submission is complete, coherent, compelling, professionally presented and delivered on time.
Commercial and Technical Pre-Construction:
* Work as an integrated member of the pre-construction team, bridging bid, operational, technical and commercial inputs rather than acting only as a submission coordinator.
* Support operational teams to develop clear, credible and deliverable methodologies, using informed questioning to test sequencing, resources, logistics, interfaces, constraints and risk controls.
* Work with commercial colleagues to understand the pricing strategy, contractual requirements, assumptions, exclusions, risk allowances and value opportunities that shape the offer.
* Ensure the technical narrative, programme, resourcing, commercial position and client commitments remain consistent throughout the submission.
* Identify gaps, contradictions or unsubstantiated commitments and bring the right operational, technical or commercial specialists together to resolve them.
* Contribute to solution-development discussions and challenge proposals constructively, while recognising when specialist commercial or technical judgement is required from the subject matter experts (SMEs)
Stakeholder Engagement:
- Build productive relationships across operational, technical, commercial, engineering, planning, design, SHEQ, ESG, finance and support functions, including direct engagement with Directors and senior decisionmakers.
- Use focused interviews and workshops to draw out credible methodologies, evidence and differentiators from subject matter experts.
- Secure timely inputs, challenge missed commitments, resolve dependencies and escalate risks early while keeping stakeholders aligned to immovable deadlines.
- Coordinate partners, suppliers and external specialists where required and coach contributors to improve the quality and timeliness of their input.
Systems, content and continuous improvement
- Support the development and upkeep of the company’s bid library and knowledge hub.
- Capture reusable content, case studies, CVs, project evidence and lessons learned following each submission.
- Improve templates, controls and reporting tools and support appropriate digital and AI-enabled working practices.
- Contribute to performance reviews, lessons learned and initiatives that improve bid efficiency and win rates.
Candidate Knowledge & Skills required:
- Experienced, hands-on bid professional with the judgement and resilience to manage several opportunities at different stages.
- Excellent written and verbal communicator with strong bid-writing, editing and proofreading judgement.
- Highly organised and comfortable taking personal ownership of submission quality, actions and deadlines.
- Confident influencing senior and multidisciplinary stakeholders, challenging missed commitments and escalating risks early.
- Commercially aware and technically curious, able to test assumptions and understand how programme, pricing, contractual obligations, risk and delivery methodology influence the bid.
- Comfortable creating order from complex inputs and operating across functional boundaries in a lean pre-construction environment.
- Able to recognise when specialist judgement is required and bring the right people together to resolve an issue.
- Collaborative, persuasive and willing to coach writers and contributors to improve their output.
- Calm under pressure and flexible around working hours during critical submission periods when necessary.
Candidate Experience Required:
- Proven experience managing and delivering bids for a main contractor. Direct UK water-sector bidding experience is a significant advantage; otherwise, relevant experience should come from civil engineering, infrastructure or electrical/MEICA contracting.
- Strong experience controlling concurrent bids through clear programmes, deliverables matrices, action tracking, review schedules and disciplined progress reporting.
- Experience working as part of a pre-construction team and helping operational, technical and commercial specialists develop credible methodologies covering sequencing, resources, logistics, interfaces, constraints and risk controls.
- Demonstrable stakeholder-management and influencing experience, including securing inputs, challenging commitments, resolving dependencies and escalating risks under tight deadlines. Commercial awareness and a working understanding of how pricing strategy, programme, contractual obligations, assumptions, exclusions, risk and opportunity influence the proposed solution and written submission.
- Strong experience writing responses from scratch, editing contributions and translating evaluation criteria and client requirements into compliant response strategies.
- Experience leading both complex strategic or framework procurements and smaller, faster-paced project or in-framework opportunities.
Candidate Qualifications:
- High standard of written English, including persuasive writing, editing and proofreading.
- Strong planning, organisation, stakeholder management and influencing skills.
- Ability to interpret and connect commercial, technical and operational information without needing to be a qualified Quantity Surveyor or engineer.
- Competence across Microsoft 365, particularly Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and SharePoint. Ability to work effectively under pressure and meet immovable tender deadlines.
- APMP accreditation or another relevant bid or project management qualification (desirable)