Bid Manager (AI Solution)

Intellect Design Arena Ltd; Chennai; On-site; INR 2,800,000 - 5,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Intellect Design Arena Ltd. is seeking an experienced Bid Manager for the Purple Fabric Enterprise AI platform in Chennai. You will lead end-to-end bid management, responding to RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, and tenders while collaborating with Sales, Presales, Solution Architects, Legal, and Finance.

The role requires 8–14 years of experience in bid management and a strong grasp of AI, cloud platforms, and complex B2B sales cycles. WFO, full-time, in Chennai.

Qualifications

• 8–14 years of experience in bid management, proposal management or related roles in enterprise tech/IT/services/SaaS.
• Proven track record independently handling complex RFP/RFI/RFQ responses and end-to-end submissions.
• Strong coordination of cross-functional stakeholders and managing time-sensitive bids.
• Excellent proposal writing, editing, and compliance management skills.
• Ability to translate technical inputs into customer-centric narratives.
• Knowledge of enterprise tech solutions, cloud platforms, and enterprise integrations.

Responsibilities

• Own the complete bid lifecycle from qualification to submission and handover.
• Lead preparation, review, and submission of proposals, RFPs, RFIs, and tenders.
• Develop and communicate executive summaries, solution narratives, and value propositions.
• Maintain a repository of approved responses, case studies, and content.
• Coordinate with sales, legal, finance, product, and engineering to ensure compliant submissions.
• Track timelines, dependencies, risks, and ensure timely approvals.

Skills

Bid management

Proposal management

RFP handling

Tender management

Presales ops

Tools

Microsoft Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

Job Description

Bid Manager – Purple Fabric (Enterprise AI)

Company: Intellect Design Arena Ltd.

Business Unit: Purple Fabric

Location: Chennai, India

Experience: 8–14 years

Mode of Work: Work From Office (WFO) – 5 days a week

Employment Type: Full-time

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced and detail-oriented Bid Manager to lead end-to-end bid management and proposal development for Purple Fabric, Intellect Design Arena’s enterprise AI platform. The role will involve managing RFPs, RFIs, RFQs, tenders, and customer proposals while ensuring timely, accurate, compliant, and compelling submissions.

The ideal candidate will work closely with Sales, Presales, Solution Architects, Product, Engineering, Legal, Finance, and senior leadership to develop differentiated proposals that articulate Purple Fabric’s value proposition, technical capabilities, business benefits, and commercial offerings.

A strong understanding of enterprise technology solutions, cloud platforms, AI/GenAI concepts, and complex B2B sales cycles will be essential to succeed in this role.

Key Responsibilities

1. End-to-End Bid Management

• Own the complete bid lifecycle, from opportunity qualification and RFP/RFI/RFQ receipt through submission, clarification, and final handover.
• Analyse tender documents and customer requirements to identify eligibility criteria, mandatory requirements, submission guidelines, evaluation parameters, and contractual obligations.
• Develop bid plans, timelines, responsibility matrices, and compliance checklists to ensure submissions meet customer deadlines.
• Coordinate internal stakeholders to collect, review, validate, and consolidate technical, commercial, legal, and business inputs.
• Manage multiple bids simultaneously while maintaining accuracy, quality, and consistency.

2. Proposal Development & Response Management

• Lead the preparation, review, and submission of high-quality proposals, RFP responses, RFIs, RFQs, tenders, capability statements, and presentations.
• Translate complex technical and business inputs into clear, structured, customer-focused proposal responses.
• Develop executive summaries, solution narratives, value propositions, differentiators, implementation approaches, and customer benefit statements.
• Maintain a central repository of approved responses, case studies, product collateral, standard answers, and reusable proposal content.
• Ensure all submissions are complete, compliant, compelling, and aligned with the customer's requirements.

3. AI & Purple Fabric Solution Understanding

• Develop a working understanding of Purple Fabric and its enterprise AI capabilities to accurately position the platform in customer proposals.
• Understand key concepts such as Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), Agentic AI, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AI orchestration, enterprise knowledge integration, and AI governance.
• Collaborate with Presales and Solution Architects to develop technically accurate responses to architecture, integration, security, scalability, deployment, and implementation questions.
• Articulate the business value of enterprise AI solutions, including workflow automation, intelligent decision support, operational efficiency, and responsible AI adoption.
• Ensure technical claims, product capabilities, implementation commitments, and solution differentiators are validated by the relevant subject matter experts.

4. Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Act as the central point of coordination for bid-related activities across Sales, Presales, Solution Architecture, Product, Engineering, Legal, Finance, Delivery, and leadership teams.
• Conduct bid kick-off meetings, progress reviews, solution review sessions, and submission-readiness checks.
• Track pending inputs, resolve dependencies, elevate risks, and ensure timely stakeholder sign-offs.
• Coordinate with subject matter experts to address customer queries, technical clarifications, compliance requirements, and proposal revisions.
• Facilitate smooth handover of awarded opportunities to the relevant delivery and implementation teams.

5. Commercial, Risk & Compliance Management

• Coordinate commercial proposal preparation, pricing inputs, cost assumptions, and financial approvals with Finance and Sales teams.
• Review contractual terms, service-level requirements, delivery commitments, payment terms, and risk-related clauses in coordination with Legal and relevant stakeholders.
• Maintain bid compliance matrices and ensure adherence to customer submission requirements and internal approval processes.
• Identify bid risks, gaps, dependencies, and non-compliance issues early, escalating them to the appropriate stakeholders.
• Maintain confidentiality and ensure the integrity of customer and company information throughout the bid process.

6. Bid Strategy, Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Support bid/no-bid assessments based on opportunity fit, eligibility, strategic value, competitive positioning, and resource availability.
• Work with Sales and Presales teams to identify customer priorities, strengthen win themes, and improve proposal differentiation.
• Track bid progress, submission timelines, stakeholder dependencies, outcomes, and lessons learned.
• Analyse bid performance and recommend improvements to response quality, turnaround time, content reuse, and process efficiency.
• Drive standardisation and automation of bid processes, templates, response libraries, and reporting mechanisms.

Mandatory Skills & Experience

• 8–14 years of experience in bid management, proposal management, RFP management, tender management, or presales operations within enterprise technology, IT services, SaaS, or software product organisations.
• Proven experience independently managing complex RFP/RFI/RFQ responses and end-to-end proposal submissions.
• Strong experience coordinating cross-functional stakeholders and managing multiple time-sensitive bids.
• Excellent proposal writing, editing, documentation, presentation, and compliance management skills.
• Ability to understand technical solution inputs and translate them into clear, customer-centric business narratives.
• Working knowledge of enterprise technology solutions, cloud platforms, software products, and enterprise integrations.
• Strong project management skills, including planning, tracking, risk identification, escalation, and deadline management.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and collaboration tools.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage stakeholders at different organisational levels.

Preferred Qualifications

• Exposure to AI, Generative AI, Agentic AI, data platforms, automation, or enterprise digital transformation solutions.
• Experience working with banking, financial services, payments, lending, fraud, risk, or other regulated-industry customers.
• Experience in enterprise SaaS or product-led organisations with complex solution proposals and commercial models.
• Familiarity with proposal automation tools, content repositories, CRM platforms, and bid tracking systems.
• Experience supporting international bids, large enterprise deals, and multi-stakeholder sales cycles.
• Understanding of information security questionnaires, vendor assessments, compliance documentation, and enterprise procurement processes.

Key Competencies

• Strong ownership and accountability for bid outcomes.
• Exceptional attention to detail and commitment to submission quality.
• Excellent stakeholder management, influencing, and coordination skills.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities.
• Structured thinking and strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Commercial awareness and customer-centric proposal development.
• Ability to learn complex technology offerings and communicate their business value effectively.

Key Success Metrics

• On-time submission rate for bids and proposals.
• Compliance and completeness of submitted responses.
• Proposal quality and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Bid turnaround time and adherence to internal review milestones.
• Effectiveness of reusable content and proposal standardisation.
• Reduction in errors, omissions, and last-minute escalations.
• Contribution to bid win rates through strong proposal quality and differentiation.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is an experienced bid professional who can independently drive complex enterprise technology proposals from initiation to submission. They should be comfortable coordinating senior stakeholders, working with technical subject matter experts, managing commercial and compliance requirements, and communicating the value of enterprise AI solutions.

Direct AI expertise is beneficial, but the candidate must demonstrate the ability to understand complex technology offerings quickly and convert technical inputs into compelling, accurate, and commercially aligned proposals.