Senior Proposal Manager

Senior Proposal Manager

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What if you could do the kind of work the world needs? At WSP, you can access our global scale, contribute to landmark projects and connect with the brightest minds in your field to do the best work of your life. You can embrace your curiosity in a culture that celebrates new ideas and diverse perspectives. You can experience a world of opportunity and the chance to shape a career as unique as you.

As a member of the Strategic Bids team, you will play a key role in securing profitable business for WSP by managing our most important bid projects.

Reporting to the Head of Strategic Bids, you will be involved in the capture planning process and may be required to lead it.

Once assigned to a bidding opportunity, the Senior Proposal Manager will take charge of managing and supporting the bid team, communicating with clients and partners, organising review and approval meetings, and submitting the proposal. They will lead the formulation of winning strategies, client solutions, tender planning, and response delivery, and ensure successful handover to the delivery team upon winning the opportunity.

In addition to your bid responsibilities, the Senior Proposal Manager will lead the formulation of winning strategies, client solutions, tender planning, and response delivery. They will also champion best practices in work‑winning through personal projects, coaching, and training initiatives, overseeing the management and development of any staff under their management.

The position requires UK‑wide and potentially international travel.

• Lead and manage complex and high‑value strategic bids as bid manager or other senior support roles as required.
• Ensure that the appropriate bid governance and bid review processes are followed.
• Provide input to the strategic bid capture planning process.
• Work with client and the Prospect Director to develop customised solutions that meet the client's specific needs and help them achieve their objectives.
• Assist in prospect qualification throughout.
• Understand internal and external customer requirements and provide resource expertise, supporting and leading strategic bids.
• Provide challenge to operational, technical, commercial and financial proposals to facilitate the development of solutions that provide greatest benefit for the businesses while delivering customer requirements and needs.
• Work with the bid authors /solution architects to convert knowledge from operational and business development staff into winning solutions and proposals.
• Support lessons learnt from bids. Analyse each bid, including customer feedback, to identify and share good practice with operational, bid and business development staff across the business and suggest improvements to process and team dynamics.
• Train and coach colleagues on the bid process and associated skills.
• Contribute to the overall development of the UK Strategic Growth team and its services.
• Take responsibility for liaison with one or more business sectors and attendance at sector meetings to represent the proposals team.
• Collate market and competitor information that will be useful to WSP in the future.

• Qualified to degree level in an appropriate subject.
• APMP Foundation as a minimum.
• Thorough understanding of the public sector procurement process.
• Good experience of producing tenders in the markets that WSP operates in.
• An acknowledged senior bid manager with a demonstrable record of success in winning bids.
• Strong awareness and understanding of bid governance and bid review processes. Good bid writing and management skills, and commercial skills.
• Strong and effective verbal and written communication, with the ability to present complex ideas in a straightforward and simple way.
• Robust project management skills with a meticulous approach to detail and quality.
• Strong time management skills and ability to prioritise.
• Adopt a pro‑active approach, use initiative and take responsibility for own actions.
• Ability to assimilate large volumes of information and…