Bid Manager

Made Tech; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent technology firm in Manchester seeks a Bid Manager to lead bid management from presales to proposal submission. You'll collaborate closely with Client Partners and coordinate teams to ensure high-quality bids. The ideal candidate has experience in a bid environment, strong creative writing skills, and the ability to build relationships across teams. This role offers mentorship and an opportunity to enhance your skills in a supportive environment. Flexible working arrangements and 30 days of holiday included.

Benefits

30 days paid holiday

Flexible working hours

Paid counselling services

Smart Tech scheme

Qualifications

• Experience in a bid or presales environment in any sector.
• Direct experience of writing and reviewing proposals for new business.
• Strong creative writing skills with an eye for detail.
• Experience of coordinating teams.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with Client Partners and Industry Directors.
• Ensure bids align with company ethos and strengths.
• Coordinate teams and manage bid timelines.
• Write, review, and provide feedback during the bid process.

Skills

Creative writing

Communication

Team coordination

Relationship building

Job description

Our aim at Made Tech is to use human‑centred technology to improve our society. We believe putting people at the heart of designing, building and delivering public services leads to better outcomes for everyone. Reporting to the Head of Bids and Frameworks, you’ll manage bids from early presales to proposal submission, working as part of a dynamic, enthusiastic and well‑respected team that has a genuine passion for all things bids. As part of this exceptionally high‑performing function, you’ll coordinate your teams to produce winning responses to multimillion‑pound tenders, while developing your skills in an environment that champions continuous improvement and learning. You’ll benefit from mentorship by our Senior and Lead Bid Managers, who will support you through increasingly complex opportunities as your experience grows. Beyond day‑to‑day bid delivery, you’ll contribute to our active bid community of practice, where’ll find opportunities to practise and refine new skills: from process improvement and presenting, to peer reviewing and cross‑team collaboration. This is an exciting opportunity to join one of Made Tech’s most critical functions, where you’ll be part of a collaborative team as committed to your development as we are to delivering winning bids.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with our Client Partners and Industry Directors, forming a bid leadership team to drive opportunities forward.
• Ensure bids align with our ethos, strengths and customer insight.
• Coordinate teams, plan timelines, and hold team members accountable for their contributions to each bid.
• Lead answer planning activities, including designing, running and facilitating bid workshops.
• Manage bid governance coordination and qualification processes, including opportunity mailbox management.
• Write, review, and provide constructive feedback throughout the bid process, supporting team members in producing high‑quality written responses and presentations.
• Engage with the commercial components of our submissions.
• Take ownership of social value content and integration within bidding.
• Maintain and continuously improve bid content libraries.
• Manage smaller opportunities independently, with support from senior colleagues on more complex bids.
• Actively contribute to our bid community of practice, participating in bid cop sessions and team meet‑ups.
• Drive continuous improvement through retrospectives, applying lessons learnt to enhance our bidding practices.

Key Measures

• Win rate
• Revenue versus spend
• Bid team and stakeholder feedback
• Response quality
• Client, peer, and partner feedback

Our hiring process is designed to be thorough, transparent, and supportive, guiding candidates through each step. The exact process may vary slightly depending on the role but these are the typical steps candidates can expect. We’ll keep you updated throughout the process and provide helpful feedback at each stage. No matter the outcome, we make sure the feedback is useful and supportive, so you feel informed and can learn from the experience. Our talent team will review all applications, and while we may use AI to help speed up the process, a real human will always make the final decisions. Once reviewed, shortlisted applicants will be invited to a screening. This is a 25‑30 minute call with someone in our talent team who is hiring for the role. Once screenings have taken place the hiring manager will review the shortlist and invite to interview will be sent. You may then be invited to an initial virtual interview which is usually with the hiring manager or a couple of members from the team. This is usually around 45‑60 minutes and the format may vary depending on the role. If you progress, you’ll be invited to a final stage interview which is usually with two members of the team. The format varies depending on the role and this is usually an hour.

Qualifications

• Experience in a bid or presales environment, in any sector.
• Direct experience of writing and reviewing proposals for new business.
• Strong creative writing skills with an eye for detail.
• Experience of coordinating teams.
• An enthusiastic and effective communicator.
• Empathy and the ability to build relationships quickly across teams and across the organisation.
• A proactive, roll‑your‑sleeves‑up manner, with the ability to take ownership when problems emerge.
• A passion to learn and develop yourself, alongside our wider processes.

Desirable (not essential) skills and experience

• Experience in B2B technology services or business process outsourcing.
• Experience working in the UK public sector.
• An understanding of agile methodologies and digital transformation, including user‑centred design principles.
• Experience in planning and delivering successful workshops.
• An understanding of social value initiatives and an ability to create and articulate them.

We’re committed to building a happy, inclusive and diverse workforce. You can get a sense of what it’s like working here from our blog, where we talk about mental health, communities of practice and neurodiversity (as well as our client work and best practice). Like many organisations, we use Slack to foster a sense of community and connection. As well as special interest groups such as music, food and pets, we also have 10+ Slack channels dedicated to specific communities, allies, and identities as well as dedicated learning spaces called communities of practice (COPs). If you’d like to speak to someone from one of these groups about their experience as an employee, please do let a member of the Made Tech talent team know.

Benefits

• 30 days Holiday – we offer 30 days of paid annual leave plus bank holidays.
• Flexible Working Hours – we are flexible with what hours you work.
• Flexible Parental Leave – we offer flexible parental leave options.
• Remote Working – we offer part‑time remote working for all our staff.
• Paid counselling – we offer paid counselling as well as financial and legal advice.
• Smart Tech scheme, Cycle to work scheme, and an individual benefits allowance which you can invest in a health care cash plan or pension plan.
• An optional social and wellbeing calendar of events for all employees to join should they choose.