Bid Manager

IBS Software; Thiruvananthapuram; Hybrid; INR 1,800,000 - 3,000,000; Full time

Job summary

IBS Software is seeking a Bid Manager to lead and deliver high-quality proposal responses across complex global opportunities in travel software. The role owns the end-to-end bid lifecycle, from qualification to submission, with rigorous governance and cross-functional coordination in a hybrid setup.

You will coordinate with Sales, Product, Engineering and Legal, drive win themes, ensure compliance and editable content quality, and use AI-assisted drafting to accelerate responses while upholding

Qualifications

• Experience in leading complex bid processes across global opportunities.
• Ability to coordinate cross-functional teams including Sales, Product, Engineering and Legal.
• Editorial acumen with strong content governance and quality control.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted drafting and content templates.

Responsibilities

• Own and manage the complete bid lifecycle from qualification to submission.
• Set win themes, solution storylines and governance across multiple bids.
• Develop bid strategies with Sales and Product teams.
• Lead bid kick-offs, stand-ups and content walkthroughs with cross-timezone teams.
• Ensure version control, compliance matrices and audit-ready records.
• Shape SME input into persuasive, score-aligned content.
• Review and refine responses for clarity and alignment with evaluation criteria.
• Oversee formatting, design and production quality of client Deliverables.
• Manage clarification questions and submission timelines to mitigate risk.
• Secure inputs from senior stakeholders and maintain momentum across time zones.
• Drive continuous improvement with knowledge libraries and templates.
• Champion AI tools in bid workflows and develop reusable assets.

Job description

The Bid Manager leads, plans and delivers high-quality proposal responses across multiple complex opportunities within the global travel software sector. Operating on a hybrid basis, the role owns the end-to-end bid lifecycle — from qualification through to submission — ensuring structured planning, strong governance, cross-functional coordination and the consistent delivery of compelling, compliant proposals.

This is a role for someone who thrives under pressure, brings sharp editorial instincts to technical content, and knows how to move diverse, globally distributed teams toward a single deadline. The Bid Manager acts as the central point of control across all assigned pursuits, setting the standard for quality, consistency and rigour across every deliverable

Location : Open across IBS Software India Offices (Trivandrum , Kochi , Bengaluru , Chennai)

Key Responsibilities

1. Pursuit Leadership & Strategy

• Own and manage the complete bid lifecycle from qualification to submission, setting win themes, solution storylines and pursuit governance across simultaneous complex bids.
• Develop bid strategies and response frameworks in partnership with Sales and Product teams, ensuring all submissions are positioned around client outcomes rather than internal capabilities.
• Facilitate bid/no-bid recommendations supported by clear risk, commercial and delivery considerations.
• Build and maintain detailed bid plans, multi-timezone schedules, RAID logs and compliance matrices across multiple concurrent opportunities.
• Lead bid kick-offs, daily stand-ups, progress reviews and content walkthroughs, enforcing gates from kick-off through to submission.
• Ensure effective version control, documentation governance and audit-ready record keeping across all active pursuits.

3. Response Development & Editorial Quality

• Shape SME input from product, engineering, security, commercial, finance, legal and delivery teams into persuasive, score-aligned proposal content.
• Review, refine and structure responses to ensure clarity, consistency and alignment with evaluators’ scoring criteria and win themes.
• Oversee formatting, document design and final production quality, maintaining high standards across every client-facing deliverable.
• Analyse and interpret RFP/RFI/RFQ documentation to identify compliance obligations, technical requirements and potential disqualifiers.
• Ensure all proposals meet mandatory criteria, submission instructions and formatting standards, with zero process-driven disqualifications.
• Manage clarification questions, supplier portals and submission timelines to mitigate compliance risk throughout the bid lifecycle.

5. Stakeholder Influence & Remote Orchestration

• Secure timely, high-quality inputs from senior stakeholders across Sales, Product, Engineering, Security, Legal and Finance, sustaining momentum across global time zones.
• Resolve content contention diplomatically, maintaining decision logs and keeping executive contributors aligned to key trade-offs.
• Establish consistent communication rhythms and clear expectations across all contributors in a fully remote environment.

6. Content Governance & Continuous Improvement

• Curate and maintain knowledge libraries, standardised templates, case studies and reusable bid artefacts that reduce cycle time across the function.
• Capture lessons learned and drive retrospectives that lead to measurable improvements in bid process, quality and win rate.
• Provide coaching and guidance to wider bid team members, supporting the development of the broader function.

7. AI-Augmented Bidding & Productivity

• Champion the use of AI tools and AI governance across the bid lifecycle, embedding them into workflows to improve the speed, consistency and quality of bid outputs.
• Apply AI-assisted drafting and document analysis to accelerate response development, while maintaining full accountability for the accuracy and quality of all customer-facing content.
• Identify opportunities to build AI-enhanced prompt libraries, content templates and reusable assets that strengthen the wider bid function’s capability.
• Familiarity with airline systems, hospitality technology or digital travel ecosystems.
• Exposure to ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR/data privacy questionnaires and technical due diligence documentation.
• Experience tracking bid KPIs, win rates and cycle time, with ability to present data-driven insights at portfolio review level.
• Experience with InDesign or equivalent for high-quality, designed proposal outputs.
• Experience aligning solution narratives with third-party partners and managing NDAs, roles and joint submission dependencies.