Morson are recruiting an experienced Bid Manager to support our leading defence client on an initial 6 month contract. This role can be mainly remote with monthly visits to the Glasgow office, expenses can be claimed and this role is OUTSIDE IR35.

The Bid Manager will be in charge of specific bid-management activities to ensure the successful delivery of a bid or a number of bids. It requires professional bid management capabilities to be applied - giving rigour to change control, commercial awareness and stakeholder management.

The role is required to bring structure, clarity and governance to the process and discipline relating to bid management activities. It requires the successful management of the relationship with internal and external key UK and international customers and the effective management of multi-disciplinary bid teams to deliver high quality business winning proposals.

Principal Relationships:

• Reports to more senior Bid and / or Project Management positions.
• Interfaces with Customers and Suppliers.
• Works directly with Capture Lead on an opportunity specific basis.
• Has regular liaison with the Quality Assurance Manager for Bids.
• Is part of the Bid Leadership Team (Capture Leader, Bid Manager and Project Director) or other Bid Team Members.
• Regular liaison with other Bid Team Members for coordination, action tracking and facilitating the Bid Data Repository.
• Liaison with internal comms team in preparing general progress information and updates.
• Has regular liaison with other business functions, including Technical, Finance, Commercial, Legal, Health & Safety, Operations.

Key Responsibilities and Tasks:
Undertake the activities that will ensure the successful delivery of the bid (or bids). This will typically include (but is not limited to) the following:

• Bring structure, clarity and governance to the process and discipline relating to bid management activities.
• Manage the preparation of prequalification response submissions to customers with the objective of securing an invitation to bid.
• Participate in Bid Kick-Off meetings, providing bid management direction and engagement with the Bid Team.
• Manage the creation of the bid deliverables and ensuring review and governance, leading to the creation of a high quality proposal.
• Work effectively with Capture Leader to generate win themes that link customer needs with defined benefits of the Thales offering
• Ensure that cost estimates / target budgets are provided with support of Systems Engineering / Product Management.
• Ensure that cost estimates are effectively reviewed to ensure competitive and winning pricing
• Ensure that effective Gate Business Cases are prepared for specific opportunities.
• Support the Sales/Capture Lead in any customer negotiations and presentations.

Skills:
Essential:

• Strong, professional bid management skills.
• The ability to directly successfully manage a bid team and to drive solutions to successful conclusion.
• Strong negotiation skills with the ability to deal with customers, partners, suppliers and other parts of the business (stakeholder management skills).
• Strong interpersonal and verbal communication skills with written presentation and report writing skills.
• Strong, organisational, managerial and team working skills
• Analytical skills aligned with the need to carry out detailed investigation of cost variance(s) and publishing of financial information directly into Company financial reports
• Commercial, financial and business acumen.
• A positive attitude combined with excellent interpersonal and motivational skills.
• An ability to successfully manage change
• The ability to adapt personal style of management and communication to achieve the desired results from interactions with team members and stakeholders.

Experience:
Essential:

• A proven track record of delivering successful bids 
• Working in a complex, multidisciplinary, multi-site organisation.
• Can demonstrate the ability to construct of solutions that meet the markets need both commercially and technically
• Full business lifecycle management, including capture, qualification and developing capture plans and winning strategies
• 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).

Desirable:

• Knowledge and experience of large / complex defence related bids.

Qualifications:
Desirable:

• Degree or equivalent qualification in engineering or business related subject.
• APMP / IPMA accreditation