Senior Bid Manager

Kier Group; Lewes; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Kier Group is seeking a Senior Bid Manager to drive complex, high-value opportunities within the Southern Water Framework. You will lead multidisciplinary teams through the full bid lifecycle, from early positioning to contract award and handover to delivery, ensuring compliant, client-focused submissions.

You will coordinate design, operational, programme, commercial and estimating streams, manage governance and senior stakeholder approvals, and deliver differentiated, evidence-led win

Qualifications

• Experience leading complex, high-value infrastructure bids through full lifecycle.
• Evidence of developing and delivering win strategies for tenders or frameworks.
• Experience with bid governance, approvals and senior stakeholder engagement.
• Strong understanding of contract, programme, cost, risk and delivery drivers.

Responsibilities

• Leading LOT 1 Water and LOT 2 Waste bids through Stage 1 ECI to Stage 2 Notice to Proceed, setting direction and pace.
• Owning the Infrastructure Opportunity Roadmap, setting milestones and maintaining momentum.
• Integrating design, operational, programme, commercial and estimating workstreams for compliant tender submissions.
• Leading post-tender activity through to contract award, including clarifications and negotiations.
• Structured handovers to delivery teams, ensuring tender commitments and client expectations are transferred.

Skills

Bid management

Infrastructure bids

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional leadership

NEC contract knowledge

Commercial awareness

Pursuit strategy

Job description

Location

Hybrid working with a regional office based in Falmer, along with travel to projects & clients in the region

Hours

40 hours per week - some flexibility on hours available if desired, just let us know when you speak to us.

We are unable to offer certificates of sponsorship to any candidates in this role.

Our Southern Water Framework is seeking an experienced Senior Bid Manager to lead complex, high-value and strategically important opportunities across the framework on securing Stage 2 Instructions. You will bring multidisciplinary teams together and develop differentiated, deliverable solutions that support sustainable and profitable growth. Working alongside the Framework Manager and Head of Estimating, you'll lead opportunities across the full work-winning lifecycle, from early positioning through to contract award and handover to delivery.

What will you be responsible for?

As a Senior Bid Manager, you'll be working within the Southern Water Framework team, supporting them in securing work that aligns with our strategic priorities and delivery capability.

Your day to day will include:

• Leading the portfolio of LOT 1 Water and LOT 2 Waste projects through Stage 1 ECI to successful Stage 2 Notice to Proceed, setting clear direction and pace throughout
• Owning the Infrastructure Opportunity Roadmap, setting milestones, leading key meetings and maintaining momentum as requirements evolve
• Integrating design, operational, programme, commercial and estimating workstreams to deliver compliant, client-focused and evidence-led tender submissions
• Leading post-tender activity through to contract award, including clarifications, competitive dialogue, presentations and negotiations
• Conducting structured handovers to delivery teams, ensuring tender commitments, risks and client expectations are clearly transferred and understood

What are we looking for?

This role of Senior Bid Manager is great for you if you hold:

• A strong track record of leading complex, high-value infrastructure bids through the full lifecycle
• Experience within a Tier 1 contractor or comparable major-project environment, leading multidisciplinary teams across technical, operational, estimating, commercial, design, procurement and proposals functions
• Evidence of developing and delivering successful win strategies for competitive tenders, frameworks or strategic partnerships
• Experience of bid governance, assurance and senior stakeholder approvals, with the confidence to challenge, influence and make clear recommendations
• Strong understanding of infrastructure procurement and delivery models, NEC forms of contract and commercial risk, including how contract strategy, programme, risk allocation and delivery assumptions influence tender evaluation, commercial performance and successful project delivery
• Visible and collaborative leadership, with the ability to bring together, motivate and hold multidisciplinary teams to account
• Strong communication, negotiation and presentation skills, with the confidence and influence to engage effectively with senior internal & external stakeholders
• Commercially astute, with a clear understanding of contract, programme, cost, risk and delivery drivers
• Strategic and creative thinking, with the ability to analyse evidence, challenge convention and turn ideas into differentiated and deliverable solutions
• Highly organised and decisive, able to maintain pace, manage competing priorities and lead teams through demanding deadlines and change
• Confident using digital and AI-enable tools responsibly to support research, collaboration, planning, analysis and production, and proactive in helping the business adopt new approaches that improve how we work
• Full driving licence

We're all about finding potential here at Kier, and transferrable skills are always welcome!

Rewards and benefits

We're proud to be able to offer our brilliant people a wide variety of benefits that you can tailor to your needs. You can see more information of benefits here.

Diversity and inclusion

Making Kier a diverse and inclusive place to work is a huge priority for us. We're proud of the steps we've taken so far, but we know we must always do more. Our employees are key in shaping Kier's diversity and inclusion initiatives and our people have made a huge impact on how we work, by using their experiences to shape our policies. You can see our D&I action plan here. As a Disability Confident employer, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this role will be offered an interview.

• Senior Bid Manager Job Description - Southern Water.pdf