Bid Manager

Open Cosmos Ltd; East Hagbourne; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading space technology company in the UK is seeking a Bid Manager. In this role, you'll coordinate complex proposals and support bid operations, working closely with various teams. Ideal candidates will have strong project management and analytical skills alongside experience in high-technology procurement. This is an opportunity to make a significant impact in space missions and work within a diverse and innovative team.

Benefits

Work at the cutting edge of space technology

Diverse, ambitious, and supportive team

Qualifications

• Proven ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder bids or proposals.
• Understanding of ESA/EU/national space or high-technology procurement frameworks.
• Excellent organizational, analytical, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate the full proposal process from go/no-go through submission.
• Produce analytics and summaries of the company’s opportunity pipeline.
• Support bid strategy definition with MCE and BDs.

Skills

Project management

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Organizational skills

Problem-solving

Job description

Aim high, go beyond!

At Open Cosmos we are solving the world’s biggest challenges from space, providing businesses, governments and researchers access to more readily available information than ever before - ready for the challenge? Then read on…

Our Chief Revenue Office (CRO) drives the commercial growth of Open Cosmos — bringing together business development, marketing, and customer success to connect with partners worldwide, understand their needs, and turn opportunities into real space missions. By aligning market insight with technical capability, the team expands our global reach and ensures we deliver meaningful impact for our customers and end users.

What will you be doing?

As Bid Manager, you’ll play a key role in ensuring that Open Cosmos’s future mission opportunities are properly addressed through effective coordination, collaboration, and delivery.

You’ll work closely with our Mission Concept Engineers and Business Development (BD) teams to manage complex proposals, while also supporting team reporting, workload assessment, forecasting, and opportunity pipeline analytics.

Your role will have two major functions: proposal management and bid operations.

Proposal Management

• Coordinate the full proposal process from go/no-go through submission — ensuring quality, compliance, and on-time delivery.

• Set up proposal templates and manage updates to shared documentation (company profiles, WPDs, CVs, and literature).

• Lead large and complex bids in collaboration with Mission Concept Engineers (MCE) and internal stakeholders across engineering, finance, and commercial teams.

• Liaise with external partners and suppliers to coordinate joint proposals and consortium responses.

• Support the definition of bid strategy with MCE and BDs, including win themes, partner alignment, and pricing structure.

Bid Operations

• Produce analytics and summaries of the company’s opportunity pipeline to support team and leadership decision‑making.

• Track and report workload forecasts, ensuring visibility of resources and priorities.

• Maintain structured bid monitoring systems and digital tools for tracking opportunities, submissions, and outcomes.

• Contribute to the improvement of proposal processes and documentation efficiency.

What You’ll bring

You’ll combine structured project management with creative problem‑solving — balancing technical understanding with commercial awareness. You’ll have:

• Proven ability to manage complex, multi‑stakeholder bids or proposals.

• Understanding of ESA/EU/national space or high‑technology procurement frameworks.

• Excellent organisational, analytical, and communication skills.

• The ability to manage large documentation sets with precision and consistency.

• Confidence working cross‑functionally and aligning diverse teams to deadlines.

For this role you can be based in any of our locations:

• Harwell, UK

• Barcelona, Spain

• Porto, Portugal

• Athens, Greece

To apply, you must have the legal right to work in your chosen location.

Please submit your application and CV in English.

Why Open Cosmos?

• Work at the cutting edge of space technology with customers around the globe.

• A mission‑driven company making space accessible to help solve real‑world challenges.

• A diverse, ambitious, and supportive team.