Senior Bid Manager

Leonardo UK Ltd; Wickford; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading aerospace and defense company is seeking a Senior Bid Manager in Wickford. You will lead the Business Winning Team to develop strategic proposals, manage bids through complex processes, and coordinate inputs to deliver competitive customer solutions. The ideal candidate has extensive experience in bid management, particularly in complex commercial proposals, and must be confident in stakeholder engagement. This permanent role offers hybrid working, competitive benefits, and opportunities for professional growth.

Benefits

Generous leave with flexi-days

Award-winning pension scheme

Free mental health support

Bonus scheme

Free online courses

Flexible working options

Tailored benefits package

Qualifications

• Experience acting as bid manager for complex commercial proposals, ideally in the defence sector.
• Proven history of winning bids in a competitive environment.
• Understanding of best practice bid processes and tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the bid team towards successful bid conclusions.
• Coordinate inputs from functional areas across multiple sectors.
• Develop and implement bid strategies.

Skills

Leadership of competitive bids

Strong written and oral communication

Stakeholder management

Numeracy skills

Bid writing experience

Education

Relevant degree or equivalent experience

APMP accreditation

Tools

Bid planning tools

Job description

Job Description

At Leonardo, we have a fantastic new opportunity for a Senior Bid Manager to join the Business Winning Team within the Integrated Sensing and Protection Line of Business.

Your impact

The ISP Business Winning Team is responsible for the delivery of competitive proposals, including but not limited to the generation of statements of work, pricing, and customer value propositions. You will be responsible for the formulation of bid strategies and building and leading bid teams to develop winning solutions for our customers.

As a Senior Bid Manager, you will coordinate inputs from functional areas across multiple sectors and work with Sales Leads, Sector VPs, Integrated Capture Teams (ICTs), Integrated Project Teams (IPTs), Engineering, and Capability Managers to define the bid strategy and implement win themes.

You will guide the capture team through the internal governance and approval gates ensuring that relevant business winning information is presented to the ISP leadership team. This will require excellent planning and stakeholder management skills. The Senior Bid Manager has accountability for the quality of bid submissions.

What you’ll bring

• Leadership of both competitive and non-competitive bids through to a successful conclusion, ranging from tactical follow-on business through to multi-million-pound strategic initiatives
• Work with the Sales team and ICTs to help drive business growth through best practice capture processes including facilitating strategic capture reviews (Black Hats, Blue Teams, etc.), developing win themes, storyboards, and compelling narratives that can be woven into bid submissions to deliver competitive Customer proposals
• Coordinate and manage bids with a range of complexities throughout the capture and bid phases of the lifecycle
• Analyse and break down customer requirements (PQQs, RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, ITTs etc.) into packages of work for the capture and bid teams
• Work in collaboration with customers and partners, applying best practice, formulating bid strategies, and driving bid teams to develop winning solutions
• Support the capture team during the contract negotiation phase, managing and implementing changes required to our bid submission to secure contract award
• Schedule, plan, and drive bid activities including Win Strategy, Bid Kick-off, Answer Planning, WBS development, Bid Progress Reviews, Proposal collation, Proposal reviews (e.g. colour reviews) and Tender Approvals
• Plan, lead, and challenge cost build-up and pricing activities from business functions
• Lead bid teams to identify and analyse risks and opportunities, developing mitigation/realisation plans for action post-contract award
• Forecast functional resource and budget requirements on bids you lead, proactively managing approved bid budgets
• Manage and contribute to the writing of compelling proposals, drawing on the skills and experience of capture team members and subject matter experts

What we need from you

Personal attributes:

• Strong leadership skills in bid environments.
• Goal focused with a positive outlook that produces solutions rather than problems
• Resilient to set backs and has the ability to keep going and encourage others to follow
• Confident presenter able to lead offer approval meetings with Senior Management
• Good written and oral communications skills
• High level of numeracy

Qualifications, Experience, Skills

• Relevant degree or equivalent experience
• APMP accreditation (desirable)
• Understanding and experience of the Capture process
• Experience acting as bid manager for complex commercial proposals, ideally in the defence sector (typically between £5M - £100M)
• Previous experience of MoD bid process and procedures
• Proven history of winning Bids
• A clear understanding of all main roles within a bid team, and an ability to manage the complex interdependencies to ensure a successful bid submission.
• Understanding of best practice bid processes and tools (e.g. for bid planning, Black Hat, Red Team, Price to Win etc)
• Bid Writing experience (desirable)
• Financially and commercially aware

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/security-and-vetting

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Be part of something bigger - apply now!

Primary Location: GB - Basildon

Contract Type: Permanent

Hybrid Working: Hybrid