Senior Bid Manager

3 days ago

Bristol, South West England, United Kingdom Thales Full time

Job title: Senior Bid Manager


Location: - Bristol, or Templecombe (Somerset) - hybrid working arrangement 3 days per week in the office vs. home


Are you a Bid Manager looking for an exciting challenge and the opportunity to lead some major bids that are critical to the long term strategy of a company? Then look no further…


We have a fantastic opportunity for a Senior Bid Manager to join our Under Water Systems (UWS) UK team, either in Bristol or Templecombe.


What the role has to offer:

  • UWS is growing at a rapid pace. Due to the success of programmes within UWS and with a portfolio of world leading products across the sonar domain, we have an extensive prospect list, consisting of a significant number of strategic bids.
  • This role is an opportunity to lead some major bids that are critical to the long term strategy of UWS and Thales. You will be working as part of an established team in one of the most exciting areas of the business.
  • Working with a highly regarded team who will support your learning and development
  • Hybrid working (3 days in the office / 2 days from home)


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 (grade dependent)
  • 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:

  • Embedding a strong sense of delivery accountability and a proactive risk and opportunity management culture (for both ‘winability’ and ‘deliverability’) at all levels of the Bid team
  • Providing guidance and leadership to other bid managers working within the same portfolio
  • Working closely with the portfolio and Customer stakeholders to develop related documentation such as business cases, capture plans and requirements definitions
  • Creating and controlling the Bid schedule and resource plan; leading and coordinating multi-disciplinary teams to achieve key milestones
  • Establishing and controlling the requirements baseline (technical and non-technical), including compliance traceability, allocation to Work Packages and the end to end estimating process
  • Ensuring the creation of robust Initial Project Baselines for delivery post-contract award
  • Supporting the management of customer, supplier and partner relationships – building trust and confidence through open dialogue
  • Tailoring and application of Bid Governance as appropriate, including Bid Stage Gates, Bid Reviews and Project Characterisation
  • Coordination and control of the Master Assumptions, Dependencies and Exclusions List, ensuring alignment across all Bid artefacts including the Project execution baseline, estimates and proposal/commercial terms
  • Coordination of proposal development, including the use of colour/peer reviews as appropriate
  • Ensuring appropriate focus on CASH management and achieving a positive net cash profile associated with the Initial Project baseline
  • Leading and coordinating PQQ responses, including reviews, governance and final sign-off
  • Contributing to the identification of customer hot buttons/win strategy and alignment of Bid activities to address these
  • Providing coaching and guidance to more junior Bid Managers
  • Creating initial Project plans for the execution of the contract as required for the proposal
  • Management and control of Bid Budgets (including status and forecast) for all Bids within their working perimeter and liaison with PMO to reflect in appropriate tools E.g. Oracle, P6
  • Note: for particularly large or complex Bids a PM-designate and/or Proposal Manager may be appointed to support the Bid Manager with some of the activities listed above


About you:

  • A proven track record of delivering successful Bids working in a complex, multi-site organisation.
  • Experience working in the defence, heavy engineering, IT or telecoms sectors.
  • Leading and managing multi-disciplinary teams in achieving challenging timelines and with a proactive focus on risk and opportunity management
  • Managing internal stakeholders and customer/supplier/partner relationships
  • Constructing compelling proposals and/or solutions that meet customer needs
  • Gate Bid Lifecycle processes; efficiently applying reviews and ensuring that business risk is appropriately managed
  • Structuring and planning complex projects including the tailored deployment of best practice
  • Management and control of technical and non-technical requirements on complex bids and projects, including compliance traceability, allocation to WPs and the end to end estimating process
  • Management of Commercial and Technical Assumptions, Dependencies and Exclusions, ensuring alignment across all bid and/or project artefacts
  • Experience with coaching others including junior Bid Managers and knowledge sharing


Security Clearance requirements:

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.

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