Engagement Manager

Rowden; Bristol; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A UK engineering firm in Bristol seeks an Engagement Manager to secure opportunities and develop strategies that deliver value to customers. The ideal candidate will have a strong track record in engaging government clients, leading complex bids, and fostering relationships. This position offers a competitive salary and a flexible working environment that encourages diversity and inclusion.

Benefits

Flexible working model

Support for disabilities

Inclusivity in hiring

Qualifications

• Proven track record of supporting and advising government customers.
• Experience leading complex bids and consortiums.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute capture plans for large sales opportunities.
• Build and sustain relationships with customers and partners.
• Act as the primary author on bids, ensuring well-articulated proposals.

Skills

Government customer engagement

Bid management

Relationship building

Document drafting

Commercial acumen

Job description

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Engagement Manager

Department: Revenue Operations

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Bristol, UK

Reporting To: Hamish Rosser

Compensation: GBP 80,000 - GBP 100,000 / year

Description

Rowden is building the next UK-headquartered engineering powerhouse.
We design and integrate advanced systems that sense, connect, and protect data in environments where fast, informed decision-making is vital. Our mission is to deliver mission advantage to those working to safeguard national security, public safety, and critical infrastructure.

Headquartered in Bristol (UK), we combine modern engineering methods with cutting-edge commercial technology to create adaptable, mission-critical systems. We focus on solving the tough challenges that others overlook, ensuring our customers can operate effectively in an ever-changing world.

The Role

We're looking for an Engagement Manager to shape and secure opportunities that deliver real value to customers and operators. You'll lead capture activities, ensuring our solutions are positioned to meet mission requirements, whilst building trusted relationships. Success in this role means not only securing new contracts, but also ensuring customers see continuing value, opening the door to long-term growth and follow-on work.

Our work spans open architecture mission systems, resilient networking, intelligent automation, and software products designed for operators in the most demanding environments. As Engagement Manager, you will take these capabilities into major government and industry programmes, ensuring Rowden is positioned as a trusted partner in delivering scalable, credible solutions.

You'll develop capture strategies, build long-term relationships with customers and technology partners, and form consortiums that can deliver major programmes. Working closely with pre-sales engineering and delivery teams, you'll translate Rowden's technical strengths into compelling propositions.

We are particularly interested in candidates with experience in defence, national security, or emergency services, who have worked on or alongside major programme delivery and understand the challenges faced by customers in these domains.

Key areas of responsibility

Opportunity Capture

• Develop and execute capture plans for large and complex sales opportunities (GBP 5m+).
• Identify influence points across the sales cycle, ensuring Rowden is embedded in the right conversations at the right time.
• Shape win themes, value propositions, and partnership narratives that differentiate Rowden.
• Act as the primary author on bids, working in collaboration with our pre-sales engineers and other business functions to ensure that technical, commercial and delivery considerations are well articulated.
• Track opportunity progression, reporting status and risks clearly to leadership.

Consortium & Partner Development

• Build and sustain relationships with customers, primes, SMEs, and technology partners to position Rowden for new opportunities.
• Lead the creation and management of consortiums and strategic partnerships.
• Ensure partner capabilities are well integrated into capture strategies and bid submissions.

Customer Engagement

• Develop a deep understanding of Rowden's product & services and demonstrate to customers how they address challenges faced by government agencies and frontline operators.
• Build relationships with key stakeholders at all levels by demonstrating insight into their missions, roadmaps, and procurement challenges.
• Ensure Rowden delivers a joined-up capability, maintaining coherence across complex customer environments.
• Stay engaged throughout delivery phases, ensuring customers see continuing value and identifying follow-on opportunities.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Solution Architects to ensure customer requirements are translated into compelling solutions.
• Work with delivery teams to capture lessons learned and feed insights into future captures.
• Engage with engineering, operations, delivery leads and PMO to ensure realistic and deliverable commitments.

Key skills, experience and behaviours

What We're Looking For

• Proven track record of supporting and advising government customers to achieve their business goals. Or experience of this in a directly comparable sector.
• Experience leading or contributing to complex bids and consortiums, with knowledge of government procurement and acquisition methods.
• Strong relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence and engage at a senior level.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills - persuasive, clear, and credible across technical and commercial contexts.
• Commercial acumen with the ability to understand key commercial concepts and principles for large opportunities, e.g. pricing mechanisms & payment terms.
• Nice to have: Proven track record of securing (GBP 5m+) complex government contracts, preferably involving complex solutions and/or mission critical customers.

Behaviours That Matter

• Mission-focused - Committed to delivering the best outcomes for operators and customers.
• Collaborative - Works seamlessly across sales, technical, and delivery teams, creating shared ownership of outcomes.
• Influential - Builds authentic relationships and uses them to shape decisions and opportunities.
• Disciplined & Organised - Structured in capture planning and reporting, ensuring momentum and clarity.
• Curious & Adaptive - Stays ahead of emerging trends, technologies, and customer requirements.

Working at Rowden

We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!

We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.

Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.

Finally, if you feel that you don't meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we'd still love to hear from you!