Engagement Manager - Speculative Talent Pipeline

Rowden; Filton; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Rowden is seeking an Engagement Manager to shape and secure opportunities in defence and national security sectors. You will lead capture activities, develop strategies, and build trusted customer relationships to win major programmes.

You will work with pre‑sales, engineering and delivery teams to translate capabilities into compelling propositions, managing consortiums and partner integration throughout the bid lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Experience supporting government customers to achieve goals.
• Led or contributed to complex bids and consortiums.
• Strong relationship-building skills with senior stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication across technical and commercial contexts.
• Commercial acumen with pricing concepts and terms.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute capture plans for large and complex sales opportunities.
• Identify influence points across the sales cycle, ensuring Rowden is embedded in the right conversations.
• Shape win themes, value propositions, and partnership narratives that differentiate Rowden.
• Act as the primary author on bids, collaborating with pre‑sales engineers and other functions.
• Track opportunity progression and clearly report status and risks to leadership.

Skills

Capture management

Stakeholder management

Bid writing

Consortium development

Business development

Government procurement

Job description

We’re building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience. We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision-making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments. Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 200 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest-growing engineering businesses.

About the role

Due to increased demand, we’re building a pipeline for Engagement Managers 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.

Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance.

More information about security clearance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels

Opportunity Capture

• Develop and execute capture plans for large and complex sales opportunities (£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.

Essential

Key skills, experience and behaviours

• 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.

Desirable (not essential)

• Proven track record of securing (£5m+) complex government contracts, preferably involving complex solutions and/or mission critical customers.

About you

• 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!