Senior Bid Manager

Fawkes & Reece Group; Reading; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Contributory pension

Professional institution fees covered

Private Health Care

Life Assurance

26 days holiday rising to 28

Community leave and wellbeing support

Employee assistance plan

Job summary

Fawkes & Reece Group is seeking a Senior Bid Manager to own a varied portfolio of opportunities from qualification to post-tender review. You will define plans, assign responsibilities and coordinate inputs across technical, commercial and senior stakeholders to meet immovable deadlines.

The role requires strong writing, governance, and delivery discipline, with preference for UK water-sector bidding experience and APMP or similar qualifications. Competitive salary and benefits are offered.

Qualifications

• Proven experience managing and delivering bids for a main contractor.
• Direct UK water-sector bidding experience would be advantageous.
• Experience coordinating concurrent bids with clear programmes and action tracking.
• Experience in pre-construction environments and developing credible methodologies.
• Strong stakeholder management and ability to challenge missed commitments and risks early.
• Commercial awareness of pricing strategy, programme, and contractual considerations.
• APMP accreditation or relevant bid/project management qualification is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Own a portfolio of opportunities from qualification through submission, clarification and post-tender review.
• Establish the bid plan, define responsibilities, manage dependencies and align stakeholders to deadlines.
• Coordinate input from technical, commercial and operations teams to produce coherent submissions.
• Maintain momentum across bids and ensure inputs and outputs are complete and submission-ready.
• Maintain consistent governance and reporting across multiple bids.

Skills

Bid management

Stakeholder management

Programme management

Commercial acumen

Cross-functional collaboration

Ownership & accountability

Education

APMP accreditation

Tools

Microsoft Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Teams

SharePoint

Job description

Reference: AW - 0080_1790680817
Posted: September 29, 2026

Reporting to: Head of Bid Management
As Senior Bid Manager, you will own a portfolio of opportunities from qualification through submission, clarification and post-tender review. You will establish the plan, define responsibilities, manage dependencies and keep operational, technical, commercial and senior stakeholders aligned to clear deadlines. The portfolio is deliberately varied, combining major framework procurements with a high volume of smaller in-framework opportunities. Success will depend on your ability to apply proportionate governance, maintain momentum across concurrent bids and ensure every input, review and final output is complete, coherent and submission-ready. We’re a leading, Tier 1 UK contractor working in the water and civil engineering sectors, delivering projects that help improve everyday life. From building pipelines and upgrading pumping stations to maintaining reservoirs and drainage systems, we support cleaner water, stronger infrastructure and more reliable services for communities.

Requirements

The company are looking for an experienced, hands-on bid professional with the judgement and resilience to manage several opportunities at different stages. You will be accountable for the overall bid process and submission outcome, coordinating diverse contributors, setting expectations and following through on actions. Strong writing and editing skills remain important, but this is first and foremost an ownership role for someone who can create order from complex inputs, keep senior stakeholders engaged and deliver consistently against immovable deadlines.

• Proven experience managing and delivering bids for a main contractor. Direct UK water-sector bidding experience would be a significant advantage. Candidates without water-sector experience should bring relevant bidding experience from civil engineering, infrastructure or electrical and MEICA contracting.
• Strong experience controlling concurrent bids through clear programmes, deliverables matrices, action tracking, review schedules and disciplined progress reporting.
• Experience working as part of a pre-construction team and using informed questions to help operational, technical and commercial specialists develop credible methodologies covering sequencing, resources, logistics, interfaces, constraints and risk controls.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the confidence to secure timely inputs, challenge missed commitments, resolve dependencies and elevate risks early.
• Commercial awareness and the ability to understand how pricing strategy, programme, contractual obligations, assumptions, exclusions, risk and opportunity influence both the proposed solution and the written submission.
• Strong Microsoft 365 skills, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and SharePoint.
• APMP accreditation or a relevant bid/project management qualification would be advantageous.
• Direct UK water-sector bidding experience would be a major advantage. We will also consider strong candidates from civil engineering, infrastructure or electrical and MEICA contracting who can demonstrate relevant pre-construction experience and the ability to transfer their knowledge into water-sector solutions.
  

You do not need to be a Quantity Surveyor, engineer or technical designer, but you do need enough commercial awareness and technical curiosity to test assumptions, understand how the proposed solution will be delivered and recognise where programme, cost, risk and contractual considerations affect the bid. You must also know when specialist judgement is required and bring the right people together to resolve an issue.

In return, the company offer:

• Competitive and regularly reviewed salary
• Contributory pension scheme
• Your professional institution fees covered
• Private Health Care
• Life Assurance
• 26 days holiday rising to 28 days (plus bank holidays)
• 3 days paid leave per year to participate in community projects
• Comprehensive employee assistance plan