Senior Bid Manager (12 Month FTC - Maternity Cover)

leonardocompany; Luton; Hybrid; GBP 59,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Leonardo UK in Luton is seeking a Senior Bid Manager on a 12-month fixed-term basis to lead complex bids and proposals. The role requires coordinating multi-functional teams across the UK, delivering win themes and robust proposals for high-value opportunities.

The position is hybrid, based at the Luton site with occasional UK travel. Expect strong planning, governance, and stakeholder management to ensure bid quality and successful outcomes.

Qualifications

• Three years' experience managing complex bids and proposals.
• Proven track record in winning business (preferably £20m+) through competitive processes.
• Experience managing multi-functional teams in a Bid Management or Business Winning discipline.
• APMP Practitioner Certification desirable.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams across dispersed locations.
• Effective communication with stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong planning, organisation and time management for bid milestones.

Responsibilities

• Lead bid strategy and win themes for competitive proposals.
• Coordinate inputs from cross-functional teams across sectors and sites.
• Drive bid governance, approvals and colour reviews to secure contract awards.
• Plan bid activities, cost build-up and pricing with stakeholders.
• Develop compelling proposals drawing on subject matter experts and partners.

Skills

Bid management

Win themes

Stakeholder management

Proposal development

Pricing & cost build-up

WBS planning

Risk management

Cross-functional leadership

Job description

Job Description:

Salary: £59,000 - £70,000

Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

Your Impact

The Electronic Warfare Bids and Proposal team is responsible for the delivery of competitive proposals, including, but not limited to, leading a proposal generation process and developing customer win themes and value propositions. You will be responsible for the formulation of bid strategies, building and leading bid teams to develop winning solutions for our customers.

This role is a 12-month fixed term contract covering maternity leave. While a permanent position is not guaranteed, there may be permanent opportunities across the newly established Leonardo Electronics UK Bids and Proposals team following the 12-month fixed term contract.

As a Senior Bid Manager, you will coordinate inputs from functional areas across multiple sectors and work with Sector VPs, the EW Head of Bids and Proposals, Capture Leads, Integrated Project Team Leads, Engineering, and Capability Managers to define the bid strategy and implement win themes.

As a Senior Bid Manager, you have accountability for the overall quality of bid submissions and will guide the capture team through the internal governance and approval gates ensuring that relevant business winning information is presented to the EW leadership team. This will require excellent planning and stakeholder management skills.

This role is based at our Luton site with potential for occasional UK travel to other Leonardo sites. We operate a custom working hybrid model and offer flexible working to support your wellbeing and work-life balance. We expect you to work from our Luton office two to three times per week on average, but this can vary depending on business needs and your schedule.

What you'll bring as a Senior Bid Manager

• 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 as part of capture teams to help develop win themes, storyboards, graphics, 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 team
• Work in collaboration with customers and partners, applying best practice, to formulate bid strategies, and drive bid teams to find 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 production, Proposal content 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

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

• At least 3 years' experience managing complex bids and proposals
• Proven track record in winning business (preferably experience of leading bids with values of £20m+) through competitive processes, with strong commercial, project, and risk management skills
• Experience managing multi‑functional teams (preferably in a Bid Management or Business Winning discipline)
• Meets the entry requirements for the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) Practitioner certification (holding APMP Practitioner Certification is desirable)
• Ability to lead and collaborate with cross‑functional teams that may be geographically dispersed
• Ability to assess requirements and communicate effectively with stakeholders at all levels
• Excels in bids and proposals related coaching, mentoring, team management, and team building skills
• Interpersonal skills to develop close business relationships with internal and external stakeholders, senior management, and government/military customers
• The ability to communicate effectively at all levels within the wider business and with external consortia
• Excellent planning, organisation, and time management skills (to achieve bid milesto