Overview

Bid Manager (Defence & Security) – Great Chesterford, Essex | Full-time | Hybrid (min. 3 days in office) | £65,000 - £75,000 (dependant on experience)

I'm currently partnered with a business in Great Chesterford who are looking to hire an experienced Bid Manager to join their team, with a focus on Defence & Security. This is a customer-facing role, working closely with sales, engineering, and client teams to manage and coordinate the full bid lifecycle process.

Responsibilities

• Manage and coordinate the full lifecycle of bids, from opportunity qualification through to proposal submission, contract negotiation, and acceptance (Must have experience of writing own bids).
• Own the bid management process and drive its ongoing development within the business.
• Lead regular bid review meetings, assigning tasks, setting timescales, and defining deliverables.
• Work with stakeholders across sales, engineering, the CTO office, legal, and others to gather input.
• Prepare and deliver compelling bid documentation, ensuring alignment with customer requirements (including contributions to project plans).
• Lead responses to supplier onboarding questionnaires.
• Manage government frameworks, including regular reviews to identify new opportunities.
• Take ownership of the CRM system (HubSpot), including monthly reporting against sales targets.
• Liaise with legal on bid information to support review of terms and conditions.
• Support subcontractor management on collaborative bids.
• Oversee successful handovers from proposal acceptance through to project execution, working closely with project managers.
• Coordinate with engineering and project management teams to forecast weekly resource requirements.

About You

• Strong background in government procurement as well as B2B bidding.
• Several years of experience managing bids in a technical services environment, ideally within Defence.
• Degree in electronics, physics, or a related technical discipline.
• Experienced in preparing both commercial and technical bid/proposal documents.
• Comfortable dealing directly with clients in a professional setting.
• High energy, proactive, and a self-starter.
• Able to operate confidently when facing challenge or uncertainty.