Bid Manager

Job Title: Bid Manager

Location: Bristol, UK – Hybrid Working Patterns Available

Compensation: £54,019 - £65,981

Role Type: Full time / Permanent

Role ID: SF72842

Shape winning bids that help protect what matters most

At Babcock, we’re working to create a safe and secure world, together. If you join us, you can play your part as a Bid Manager at our Bristol site, near Bristol, Gloucestershire.

A career with Babcock means being part of critical programmes that support national security, global defence, aerospace and engineering excellence. What you do here really matters — not just to our customers, but to wider society.

The role

As a Bid Manager, you’ll play a pivotal role in securing complex, high‑value opportunities across the global marine and defence sector, including work with the UK Ministry of Defence and international defence customers. This is a career‑defining role where your expertise will help shape strategic decisions, influence how Babcock grows, and contribute directly to long‑term national and international capability.

You’ll lead the end‑to‑end bid management lifecycle, guiding multi‑disciplinary teams to develop compelling, compliant and competitive bids. In doing so, you’ll gain exposure to senior stakeholders, international programmes and major defence platforms — while developing your leadership capability and deepening your commercial impact.

Day‑to‑day responsibilities

• Leading the end‑to‑end bid process, ensuring delivery is on time, compliant and aligned to customer and business requirements
• Providing clear leadership to cross‑functional teams, bringing together commercial, technical, legal and operational inputs
• Managing bid governance, reviews and approvals in line with Babcock’s Global Business Management System
• Building strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including senior leaders and customers
• Driving continuous improvement in bid quality, competitiveness and win probability.

This is a full‑time role working 37 hours per week, based at our Bristol site. Hybrid working patterns are available, supporting a healthy balance between collaboration and flexibility. Travel to other Babcock and customer sites may be required to support bid activity.

Essential experience of the Bid Manager

• Proven experience working as a Bid Manager on complex, high‑value opportunities
• Demonstrable success in business growth activities within defence or closely related sectors
• Experience applying recognised business growth methodologies such as Shipley on major bids
• Strong capability in leading cross‑functional teams across multiple business areas
• Excellent communication skills with confidence engaging senior stakeholders.

Qualifications for the Bid Manager

• Essential: Educated to A‑Level standard or equivalent
• Desirable: Degree‑level qualification in Business, Engineering or a related discipline
• Desirable: Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) membership
• Desirable: APMP Bid or Proposal certification (Foundation or Practitioner level)

Security Clearance

The successful candidate must be a sole UK National who is able to achieve and maintain Security Check (SC) security clearance for this role.

Many of the positions within our company are subject to national security clearance and Trade Control restrictions. This means that your eligibility for certain roles may be affected by your place of birth, nationality, current or former citizenship, and any residency you hold or have held. Further details are available at United Kingdom Security Vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

What we offer

• Generous holiday allowance
• Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance
• Access to a Digital GP, annual health check, and nutritional consultations through Aviva DigiCare+
• Employee share scheme
• Employee shopping savings portal
• Payment of Professional Fees
• Reservists in the armed forces receive 10‑days special paid leave
• Holiday Trading is a benefit that allows UK Babcock employees to buy additional leave or to sell up to one working week of annual leave from their annual entitlement. There is an annual Window to request this benefit. ‘Be Kind Day’ enables employees to take one working day’s paid leave a year (or equivalent hours) to undertake volunteering work with their chosen organisation or registered charity
• Excellent development opportunities and benefits package including an employee assistance programme supporting physical, mental and financial wellbeing.

Babcock

We’re Babcock – a global FTSE 100 organisation with over 26,000 people working together to make a difference.

Here, you’ll be part of something bigger. From initial design to final decommissioning, your work will contribute to products and services that are essential to national security and public infrastructure. Together, we’re building a future that lasts – not just through the impact we make, but through meaningful careers that respect your work‑life balance.

We call that lifetime engineering.

Join us and see how far we can go, together.

We are a disability confident committed employer

We are a disability confident committed employer. If you have a disability or need any reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages, please email careers@babcockinternational.com with the subject header ‘Reasonable adjustments requirement’. We’re committed to building an inclusive culture where everyone’s free to thrive. We are happy to talk about flexible working – please ask about alternative patterns of work at interview.

Closing date

Closing date: 30/04/2026

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