Senior Programme & Bid Manager
Location: UK (with occasional UK & overseas travel)
We're seeking an experienced Senior Programme & Bid Manager to lead and govern a portfolio of complex programmes and bids within a technically demanding environment.
This is a high‑impact leadership role, accountable for bid strategy, programme execution, governance, and performance - from opportunity capture through contract award and into in‑life delivery.
What You'll Be Doing
Leading and inspiring a team of Programme Managers and Bid Managers, creating a high‑performance, accountable delivery culture
Owning the overall health of the programme and bid portfolio, ensuring alignment with business strategy and customer priorities
Providing senior leadership and governance across complex, multi‑stakeholder programmes and bids
Establishing and maintaining robust programme management processes, proportionate to business size and risk
Overseeing bid strategy, governance, resourcing, approvals, and handover into delivery
Ensuring strong control of schedule, cost, risk, change, and benefits
Balancing resources and priorities across live programmes and concurrent bids
Identifying, managing, and escalating risks, issues, and opportunities
Preparing and presenting monthly programme status reports to senior leadership
Supporting commercial activities including cost estimates, budgets, and revenue forecasting
Driving lessons learned, continuous improvement, and capability development
Acting as a senior interface with customers, suppliers, and partners
Leading performance management, succession planning, and talent development
What We're Looking For
Proven leadership experience in programme and bid management within complex, multi‑disciplinary environments
Strong track record of delivering major bids and programmes end‑to‑end
Deep understanding of matrix organisations and cross‑functional leadership
Excellent commercial, contractual, governance, and risk management capability
Confident stakeholder management at senior customer and executive level
Able to remain credible, decisive, and calm under pressure
Customer‑focused, commercially aware, collaborative, and influential
Experience & Qualifications
Strong background in project / programme management, ideally in a defence or regulated engineering environment
Experience running bids and programmes from conception to delivery
Exposure to international customers or export contracts
Ability to manage budgets, forecasts, and financial performance
Professional qualifications such as APM, MSP, PMP, PRINCE2 (or equivalent)
Degree or HND in Project Management or related discipline (or equivalent experience)
APM accreditation an advantage
Guidant, Carbon60, Lorien & SRG - The Impellam Group Portfolio are acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy