Senior Proposal Manager

Collinson; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 60 000 - 90 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global company located in Cape Town is seeking a Senior Proposal Manager to oversee strategic bid processes across regions. This role involves managing a team of Proposal Managers, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and ensuring compliance with client requirements. The ideal candidate should have extensive experience in bid management, a Bachelor's degree, and strong leadership skills. The position is pivotal in enhancing sales effectiveness and delivering high-quality proposals that meet client needs.

Benefits

Opportunities for professional development

High-performance culture

Diversity and inclusion initiatives

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in bid management, proposal development or a related role.
• Proven experience managing cross-functional and geographically distributed teams.
• Expertise in leading high-value, complex bids.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a global team of Proposal Managers.
• Oversee the end-to-end bid management process.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams to gather inputs for bids.

Skills

Leadership and Team Management

Strategic Thinking

Project Management

Communication Skills

Stakeholder Management

Attention to Detail

Adaptability

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, communications or related field

MBA preferred

Tools

Salesforce

SharePoint

Job description

Collinson is the global, privately‑owned company dedicated to helping the world to travel with ease and confidence. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market‑leading airport experiences, loyalty and customer engagement, and insurance solutions for over 400 million consumers.

Collinson is the operator of Priority Pass, the world’s original and leading airport experiences programme. Travellers can access a network of 1,500+ lounges and travel experiences, including dining, retail, sleep and spa, in over 650 airports in 148 countries, helping to elevate the journey into something special. We work with the world’s leading payment networks, over 1,400 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups worldwide.

We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception – from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access Programme, Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP. Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences.

Key clients include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC.

Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and that we give back to the communities and people within which we work.

Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 1,800 global colleagues.

Purpose of the job

The Senior Proposal Manager within the Win Centre plays a pivotal role in managing and delivering high‑value, strategic bids across all regions and industries. This role focuses on driving a globally consistent bid process from initiation to submission, ensuring alignment with client requirements, business goals, and win strategies.

The Senior Proposal Manager leads a team of Proposal Managers and Regional Commercial Support Managers, managing their workload across proposal and bid requirements effectively while remaining the lead for large, high‑value bids of complex and strategic nature. Additionally, the Senior Proposal Manager supports the establishment and ongoing operations of the global Win Centre and contributes to sales excellence initiatives to enhance the organization’s competitive positioning.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership and Management

Lead, mentor, and manage a global team of Proposal Managers and Regional Commercial Support Managers, fostering a high‑performance culture.

Allocate and manage workloads among the team to ensure timely and high‑quality delivery of bids and proposals.

Lead large, high‑value, and complex strategic bids.

Keep an overview of all ongoing proposals, bid and related activities that are currently being managed by the Win Center. Report to leadership as required.

Establish clear performance goals and provide ongoing guidance, coaching, and professional development opportunities.

Act as an escalation point for team members, providing solutions for complex challenges.

Support the establishment and operationalization of the Win Centre, including defining processes, sales enablement tools, and governance frameworks.

Ensure efficient day‑to‑day operations of the Win Centre, aligning efforts with global business development and account management strategies.

Foster collaboration across regional and functional teams to ensure alignment and consistency in processes and outputs.

Bid Strategy and Planning

Oversee the end‑to‑end bid management process, including planning, development, and submission of global bids.

Collaborate with business development, business solutions, account teams and other cross‑functional stakeholders to define the bid strategy, win themes, and competitive differentiators.

Develop comprehensive bid plans with clear timelines, deliverables, and responsibilities for all stakeholders.

Stakeholder Management

Coordinate cross‑functional teams, including BD, marketing, product, pricing, legal, operations, and subject matter experts (SMEs), to gather inputs for bids.

Build and maintain strong relationships with senior leadership and key stakeholders across the organization.

Proposal Development

Oversee the creation of high‑quality proposals that address client requirements, align with value propositions, and differentiate positioning from competitors.

Ensure proposal content is compelling, accurate, and tailored to client needs and evaluation criteria.

Oversee content management, using templates and repositories to streamline future bid submissions.

Review and quality check bid documents to ensure clarity, accuracy and adherence to the client’s specifications.

Compliance and Risk Management

Ensure all bids comply with client requirements, regulatory standards, and internal governance processes.

Identify and mitigate risks associated with bids, such as pricing, legal and operational risks.

Sales Excellence and Documentation

Collaborate with the BD leadership team to implement tools, processes and strategies that enhance sales efficiency and effectiveness.

Develop and maintain documentation to support sales processes, including best practices, playbooks and templates.

Support the Regional Commercial Support Managers in driving sales enablement initiatives tailored to specific regional requirements.

Closely work with Marketing teams to maintain an up‑to‑date library of branded templates and product marketing materials.

Work with SMEs to maintain library of standardized compliance and audit responses.

Commercial and Pricing Support

Work with commercial finance and business development teams to develop competitive, profitable and compliant pricing models.

Ensure alignment of pricing strategies with the overall value proposition and client expectations.

Process Improvement

Identify opportunities for improving bid management processes, tools and best practices.

Develop and maintain a repository of reusable content, case studies, templates and lessons learned from previous bids.

Leverage available platforms and ai based solutions to optimize and accelerate processes.

Post‑Bid Activities

Coordinate post‑submission activities, including presentations, clarifications and negotiations.

Conduct debriefs with clients and internal teams to gather feedback and identify areas for improvement in future bids.

Monitor trends and insights across the sales operations and proposal management to inform process optimizations.

Knowledge, skills and experience required

Essential Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, communications or a related field (MBA preferred).
• Extensive experience in bid management, proposal development or a related role in a global organization.
• Proven experience managing cross‑functional and geographically distributed teams.
• Expertise in leading high‑value, complex bids with significant strategic importance.
• Familiarity with tools and platforms used in bid management (e.g., Salesforce, SharePoint or specialised bid tools). Experience with AI‑based tools is a plus.
• Strong understanding of financial services and travel sector.
• Proposal Management Professional certification is a plus.
• Leadership and Team Management: Proven ability to manage, mentor and inspire diverse teams across global regions.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to craft winning strategies and align proposals with business objectives.
• Project Management: Expertise in managing complex, multi‑stakeholder projects with tight deadlines.
• Hands‑On Expertise: Capable of taking the lead on large, high‑value bids with complex requirements.
• Sales and Commercial Acumen: Understanding of sales cycles, pricing strategies and commercial processes.
• Communication Skills: Strong written and verbal communication skills to articulate value propositions effectively.
• Stakeholder Management: Skilled at collaborating with diverse teams and managing multiple priorities.
• Attention to Detail: Meticulous in reviewing documents and ensuring compliance with requirements.
• Adaptability: Agile in managing bids across different regions, industries and time zones.

Collinson is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes differences in all their forms including: colour, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, family status, age, individuals with disabilities and people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences as we strongly believe this contributes to our on‑going success.

We are focused on continually evolving our purpose driven, high performing culture, providing an environment where our people have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and do interesting and meaningful work. Our company values are: Take Action, Do the right thing, One team and Be insight led. These help guide everything we do internally in terms of how we think, act and interact, right through to how we deliver value to our customers and clients.

In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use (For example - she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, etc).

If you need any extra support throughout the interview process, then please email us at [e-mail]

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