Bid Manager – Department Head – Nottingham
£45,000 – £55,000 + 10% Bonus + Excellent Benefits
Looking for a Bid Manager role where you can genuinely shape how bids are done, not just manage the process?
This is a business where bids matter. You’ll be leading from the front in a fast-moving, commercially driven environment across the manufacturing, construction, play, sport, and public sector sectors.
The business delivers projects across local authorities, community regeneration, education, leisure, and housing environments, with bids focused on quality, creativity, social value, and community impact.
The Role
This is a hands-on leadership role where you’ll take ownership of the bid function while managing and coordinating the workload of the wider bid team.
You’ll be responsible for driving performance, quality, consistency, and continuous improvement across the department, ensuring bids are delivered on time, to a high standard, and aligned to both client requirements and internal capability.
You’ll oversee:
- Leading and coordinating a team of 6 across the full bid lifecycle
- Managing c.150 tenders and proposals per year, with submissions typically up to £1m in value
- Maintaining a strong win rate of circa 1 in 3
- Delivering bids across local authority, community regeneration, housing, education, and leisure sectors
- Coordinating contributions from design, commercial, contracts, marketing, and sales teams
- Acting as the central coordination point for all live bid activity
- Managing bid timelines, responsibilities, reviews, and submission quality across the team
This is about bringing bids to life.
You’ll ensure every submission is commercially sharp, creatively strong, compliant, and fully aligned to what the client is trying to achieve.
What You’ll Be Responsible For
- Owning the end-to-end bid process from qualification through to submission
- Leading bid/no-bid decisions based on strategic fit and opportunity value
- Managing and coordinating the work of the bid team to ensure deadlines and quality standards are consistently achieved
- Engaging internal teams and senior stakeholders throughout bid development and review stages
- Reviewing, refining, and proofreading submissions to ensure bid integrity and consistency
- Collaborating with key stakeholders including the Managing Director, Commercial Director, Design Manager, Commercial Teams, and Sales Leads
- Developing compelling win themes aligned to client needs, delivery capability, social value, and community impact
- Maintaining and developing the bid library, case studies, and supporting content
- Implementing structured review processes to improve bid quality and performance
- Monitoring bid performance, win rates, pipeline activity, and lessons learned
- Reporting on bid performance and pipeline activity to senior leadership
- Driving continuous improvement across bid systems, CRM usage, document control, and overall bid processes
- Creating a more efficient, scalable function with the opportunity to further develop and grow the team over time
What They’re Looking For
This role needs more than a traditional Bid Manager.
You’ll be:
- A strong leader who can coordinate people, deadlines, and multiple live opportunities simultaneously
- Commercially aware understanding how to position value, not just respond
- Creative able to differentiate bids and tell a compelling story
- Structured bringing clarity, organisation, and control to a high-volume environment
- Influential and confident working with senior stakeholders across the business
- Detail-focused with high standards around quality and compliance
- Comfortable managing multiple deadlines, bid pipelines, and competing priorities
Experience within construction or the built environment would be beneficial, but the business is open on sector background. What matters most is your ability to lead a team, improve bid performance, and deliver winning submissions.
Key Skills & Experience
- Proven experience within Bid Management
- Strong leadership and team coordination capability
- Excellent writing, editing, and communication skills
- Experience managing multiple bids and tender deadlines simultaneously
- Understanding of public sector procurement and frameworks
- Experience using CRM systems, bid tools, and document control processes
- Ability to engage and influence stakeholders across multiple departments
Why This Role Stands Out
- A successful, growing business with strong market presence
- Low staff turnover people genuinely enjoy working here
- A solid team already in place, open to new ideas and leadership
- Real scope to shape the function and make it your own
- Opportunity to build long-term capability and influence how bids are delivered across the business
Package
£45,000 – £55,000 (flexible for the right person)
10% bonus
5% matched pension
Private healthcare
25 days holiday + bank holidays
36-hour working week
Office-based in Nottingham
If you enjoy the pace and challenge of bids, want to lead and coordinate a team, and like the idea of improving and evolving a function — this is one worth exploring.