BID MANAGER

Bid Management

The Bid Manager will be responsible for managing the full bid lifecycle from opportunity identification to submission. This role combines strong project management skills with excellent written communication to produce compelling, accurate, and compliant bid submissions for public sector and private sector contracts.

Key Responsibilities

• Bid Management Lead bid/no-bid assessments.
• Develop win strategies and value propositions.
• Led the end-to-end bid process, ensuring tenders are completed on time and to a high standard.
• Analyse tender specifications, requirements, and scoring criteria to shape win themes.
• Develop bid plans, timelines, and responsibilities across Shearwater Group entities.
• Cook up inputs from technical, operational, finance, and compliance teams.
• Manage clarifications, updates, and final submission logistics.

Bid Writing

• Create high-quality responses tailored to individual tender requirements.
• Write compelling narratives that highlight the company's strengths, experience, and value proposition.
• Ensure responses are compliant, concise, and aligned with evaluation criteria.
• Maintain consistency of tone, detail, and branding across all submissions.

Content & Document Management

• Develop and maintain a library of standard responses, case studies, CVs, policies, and supporting documents.
• Ensure all content remains up-to-date with the latest accreditations, service offerings, and evidence.
• Work with teams from across Shearwater Group to gather relevant data, evidence of performance, and customer testimonials.

Research & Strategy

• Conduct sector and client research to strengthen the competitiveness of bids.
• Monitor relevant procurement portals and framework opportunities, providing regular pipeline reports and recommendations on bid pursuit priorities.
• Provide post-submission feedback and lessons-learned reviews to improve future bids.

Compliance & Quality Assurance

• Ensure all submissions comply with legislative and industry requirements relating to health & safety, and quality management.
• Quality-check all content to ensure accuracy, clarity, and professionalism.
• Monitor tender success rates and recommend improvement initiatives.

Essential Required Skills

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in managing and writing successful tenders.
• Demonstrable track record of winning public and private sector contracts.
• Experience within civil engineering, marine engineering and/or commercial diving sectors.
• Excellent understanding of, and experience of working on NEC4 contracts.
• Excellent written communication and editing skills.
• Strong project management and organisational skills.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent tenders and deadlines.
• High attention to detail and strong analytical abilities.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

Desirable

• Understanding of UK public procurement processes and regulations.
• Experience with public sector tender portals (e.g., Proactis, In-tend, Delta, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland).
• Knowledge of Marine and civil engineering and commercial diving sectors.
• APMP or similar bid management qualifications.
• Understanding of ISO standards, H&S, and industry accreditations.

Benefits

Competitive salary
Pension scheme
Opportunity to shape and lead the group’s bid function
Work on complex and technically interesting marine and civil engineering projects
Be part of a growing and ambitious business
Collaborate with a diverse group of specialist businesses.