Proposals Manager

Willmott Dixon; Gloucester; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading construction firm is seeking a Proposals Manager for their Gloucester office. The role involves managing high-quality bid submissions and collaborating with project managers to develop winning proposals. Experience in bid writing, strong organizational skills, and proficiency in Adobe InDesign are essential. The candidate will lead workshops for lessons learned, ensuring submissions are clear and compelling. This position fosters innovation in the bidding process and offers opportunities for personal and professional development.

Qualifications

• Experience as a Proposal Manager, Submissions Manager, or similar role in construction.
• Ability to create persuasive tender submissions that meet customer requirements.
• Experience in leading workshops to capture insights after bid submissions.

Responsibilities

• Manage the quality of submissions and develop winning bids.
• Lead the bid teams in aligning strategies with win plans.
• Conceive and design compelling visual elements for submissions.

Skills

Bid writing

Organizational skills

Editing and reviewing

Experience with Adobe InDesign

Experience with Microsoft Office

Tools

Adobe InDesign

Photoshop

Job description

Willmott Dixon Construction are looking for a Proposals Manager to join our Wales & West regional team in our Bristol office. The main role of a Proposals Manager at Willmott Dixon is to manage the quality of submissions and actively work with our Project Managers to develop the quality of bids. You will be able to assess technical bid requirements and lead the bid teams to develop a winning solution. You will ensure the formal bid process is followed, providing recommendations for continuous improvement. Through your writing, reviewing and editing of drafts you will ensure our submissions persuasively convey our offer to the customer by communicating key win themes within our responses, ensuring we score highly against the evaluation criteria. Working with subject matter experts, you will conceptualise and create visual elements to help tell the story, whilst also contributing to the "look and the feel" of our offering. With a strong awareness of bidding best practice, you will also provide guidance and support to less experienced staff and those from other areas of the business. You’ll also support creation of clear and effective customer presentations and provide creative ideas and initiatives for bids.

• Understand the entire bid submission and lead our approach to align with the "win plan."
• Revisit the strategy when needed.
• Be accountable for everything that goes into the bid.
• Define and shape the visual presentation of the submission.
• Support the prepositioning phase by proactively developing early solution concepts that address key customers drivers identified during business development engagements.
• Host lessons learnt workshops after the bid is submitted to capture insight, identify areas for improvement and inform future opportunities.

Make sure all the written content of the bid is clear and compelling by:

• Owning individual answers (planning and scripting).
• Briefing other bid writing contributors.
• Checking the quality of other contributors' work and providing feedback and/or intervening.
• Signing off all the written content before the Director peer review.

Essential and Desirable Criteria

You will ideally have some experience as a Proposal Manager, Submissions Manager, Bid Manager, Tender Manager, or similar role in the construction industry.

You will be able to lead the creation of our written responses to achieve high quality, winning bids/submissions that meet the requirements and expectations of our customers. You will have good experience of writing and editing tender submissions. Knowledge and experience of the Adobe Suite, particularly InDesign is desirable, but full training will be provided if required.

• Experience of leading answer plan sessions, win theme workshops and managing the tender review process.
• Experience of bid writing and bid editing, creating compelling and persuasive responses.
• Experience of hosting lessons learnt workshops after bid submissions to capture insight, identify areas for improvement and inform future opportunities. You’ll also have experience supporting the prepositioning phase in previous bids.
• Meticulous organisational skills.
• Experience of using Microsoft Office.
• Use of Adobe InDesign and Photoshop desirable.
• UKAPMP membership and certified desirable.

Additional Information

Are you an innovator, are you curious? We are not afraid to think big and embrace innovative new ideas to make sure we deliver a better, stronger, and more personal offer and exceed our customers' expectations.

With over 170 years of rich history, Willmott Dixon's purpose is beyond profit; delivering brilliant buildings, transforming lives, strengthening communities and enhancing the environment so our world is fit for future generations. Ensuring that we add lasting value to the neighbourhoods we work in; our values, people, innovation, partnerships and focus on sustainability has allowed us to build a successful and solid privately owned business where our people can thrive. Willmott Dixon was recognised by The Sunday Times as one of the Top 10 "Big" Companies to Work For in 2025, named among the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality in 2024, and ranked in the Top Five of Europe's 1,000 best workplaces by the Financial Times in 2025. Willmott Dixon is also the first major contractor and developer to win a King's Award for Enterprise in the category of sustainable development.