Location: Northern Home Counties / East Midlands (Hybrid Working Available)
Most bids fail because they all sound the same.
This role exists to change that.
Imaginative Bid Writer & Bid Manager - This is not a standard Bid role
This is an opportunity for a senior Bid Manager, Bid Writer, Proposals Manager or Head of Bids to take full ownership of how a growing business wins work.
You will not be managing a process.
You will be improving it.
The Opportunity
A growing, privately owned contract-led operational business operating across property services, social housing, repairs and maintenance, refurbishment, facilities services, and related outsourced operational environments is looking to appoint an Imaginative Bid Writer & Bid Manager to strengthen its work-winning capability. The business has built a strong reputation for delivery and is now entering a new phase of growth, supported by a strengthened senior leadership team. The focus now is on improving the quality, consistency, differentiation, and impact of bids. This role sits at the centre of that.
What You Will Be Doing
This is a hands-on, high-impact Bid Writing and Bid Management role where you will take full ownership of the bid process from start to finish. More importantly, you will improve how bids are done across the business.
You will:
* Work directly with operational leaders, commercial teams, and senior stakeholders
* Extract real delivery insight, KPIs, case studies, and evidence
* Write and structure high-quality, compelling bid responses
* Develop win themes and differentiate submissions from competitors
* Improve how information is captured, stored, and reused
* Build consistency without introducing unnecessary bureaucracy
* Contribute to the overall commercial positioning of the business
You will be expected to go into the business and extract what others miss, turn operational reality into compelling, differentiated bids, challenge inputs that are not strong enough, deliver high-quality submissions under pressure, and improve how the business approaches bidding, not just execute it.
This is not about answering questions.
It is about building submissions that win work.
What Makes This Role Different
Most Bid Manager or Bid Writer roles are process-led. This one is not. There is no interest in template-driven, corporate bidding approaches. You will not be sitting behind a system waiting for input. Instead, you will:
* Speak directly to the people delivering contracts
* Ask the right questions
* Challenge where necessary
* Build responses from real information
You will also identify gaps in how the business presents itself and help improve that.
Most bid roles are process-driven and sit within established teams. This one does not. You will be given ownership, visibility, and the opportunity to shape how a business wins work, working directly with senior leadership in a fast-moving environment.
What Good Looks Like
You do not just write strong bids. You identify things the business is doing that are not being captured, turn fragmented information into clear, structured responses, make bids stand out without overcomplicating them, and improve win rates over time.
What We Are Looking For
This role will suit a Senior Bid Manager, Bid Writer, Bid Lead, Head of Bids or Proposals Manager who wants more ownership and impact.
You will:
* Have experience in bid management, bid writing, proposals or work-winning
* Be comfortable operating in a fast-paced, delivery-focused environment
* Be able to work with limited or unstructured information
* Have strong written communication and storytelling ability
* Be confident engaging with senior stakeholders and operational teams
* Be proactive, commercially aware, and solutions-focused
Your experience may have been gained within sectors such as:
* Public sector outsourcing
* Social housing
* Property services
* Repairs and maintenance contractors
* Facilities management (particularly reactive or operationally intensive environments)
* Utilities or infrastructure services
* Construction and refurbishment
* Multi-site operational service businesses
* Contract-led operational environments
* Outsourced facilities or field service operations
Other transferable experience will also be considered where candidates can demonstrate strong work-winning capability, operational understanding, stakeholder engagement, and high-quality bid writing expertise.
AI, Tools and Approach
You will be expected to use tools such as AI (including ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or similar) to improve efficiency and output quality. However, this is not about producing generic responses. The focus is on:
* Quality of thinking
* Clarity of communication
* Tailored, relevant submissions
The expectation is that you use these tools intelligently to enhance output, iterate and refine responses, and continuously improve quality rather than relying on first-pass outputs.
The Environment
This is a growing SME environment, not a corporate structure. The culture is:
* Fast-paced
* Delivery-focused
* Commercially driven
* Accountable
You will have direct exposure to senior leadership and a visible impact on how the business wins work. This is a senior-level appointment, reflected in both responsibility and package.
Salary & Benefits
* Performance-related bonus
This Role Will Not Suit You If
* You rely heavily on templates or rigid bid processes
* You prefer coordinating input rather than owning outcomes
* You need complete or highly structured information before you can start
* You are not comfortable challenging senior stakeholders
Apply Now
If you are an experienced Bid Manager, Bid Writer, Proposals Manager or Head of Bids looking for a role with genuine ownership and impact, apply now.
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