Senior Proposal Bid Manager

Location/s: All UK office locations considered
Recruiter contact: Pranjali Ahuja

Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management, and development consultancy with over 20,000 employees across more than 50 countries and 140+ offices. 

We work across incredible global industries, delivering exciting work that is defining our future and making an important societal impact in the communities we serve. Our people power our performance – we succeed when they do. With countless opportunities to collaborate, learn, and grow, the possibilities for excellence are as varied as every individual. 

Whether you want to grow as a subject matter expert or broaden your experience with roles across our international community, you’re surrounded by global specialists who want to combine their expertise and champion you to be your best. As a proudly employee-owned business, we benefit our clients, our communities, and each other, investing in creating the right space for everyone to feel empowered, included, and valued. Whatever your ambition, Mott MacDonald is where people come to be brilliant.

Overview of the role

Be part of our award-winning win community: 

Over the last three years Mott MacDonald has invested in its win teams and approaches to enable our Europe and UK (EUNA) region to meet exciting growth ambitions across the full breadth of its engineering, management and consultancy offering. We have: introduced visibility and rigour around opportunity planning; built and restructured our professional win capability; led by example whilst supporting a diverse pipeline of pursuits through capture and bidding phases; trained and coached technical colleagues in pursuit best practice; and embedded a roadmap of win-based improvements.

This targeted approach to capturing future leads and convincing clients through compelling proposals has underpinned a number of major pursuit successes and led to our win community being recognised as the Association of Proposal Management Professional’s 'Bid and Proposal Team of the Year' in the 2024 to 2025 Global Gala. We're rightly proud of the journey we are on and our achievements - but we know that we need to maintain momentum and build on what we have started.

Our existing professional win resources are structured through five unit-facing teams which support pursuits across our advisory, buildings, energy, transportation and water and environment sectors. We have several vacancies for senior proposal bid managers to join these established unit teams. The individual will report to a Win Team Lead who oversees the day-to-day management of the unit’s bidding professionals, and be an integral part of a likeminded community of bid managers, co-ordinators and graphic designers who lead proposals, share best practice and drive improvement. As an experienced hire, line management and coaching responsibilities are anticipated in due course.

Key responsibilities and duties include:

• Working with unit teams to lead and facilitate capture planning on pipeline pursuits from the early identification of major opportunity leads
  • Driving capture planning on specific pursuits to maintain momentum, develop customer-focussed solutions and build preparedness
  • Undertaking research and intelligence gathering (internally and externally) to identify competitors and opportunities for differentiation
  • Working with those who will be involved in bid and project delivery stages to develop clear bid strategies, storyboards and win themes
  • Identifying appropriate bid team structures for each pursuit - working with technical leads and win teams to assign suitable individuals
• Taking a hands-on role as the Proposal Bid Manager by driving a rigorous and professional process on our largest complex pursuits (>£10m)
  • Seeing that appropriate proposal governance, best practice and review processes are understood, embedded and followed
  • Agreeing and promoting a clear proposal plan to drive the delivery of each submission (inc activities, programme, deliverables etc)
  • Leading communication across the proposal team to maintain understanding (inc leading kick off, workshops, stand-ups etc)
  • Proactively managing proposal team performance and delivery - taking early actions where necessary to overcome concerns
• Providing structure and coaching to authors by overseeing the writing of compelling responses which convince the client
  • Setting a framework for compelling high-quality responses - undertaking tasks from storyboard facilitation to ‘one voice’ editing
  • Taking ownership of the authoring of specific answers - leading by example to demonstrate the expectation for written responses
  • Managing and participating in storyboard, draft and production reviews to see responses are clear, compelling and high scoring
  • Facilitating post-submission reviews to capture lessons and knowledge - seeing that these are shared to benefit future pursuits
• Supporting the regional win community in identifying and embedding best practice approaches throughout our win activities
  • Identifying improvements to existing win approaches - working with region-wide colleagues to develop and implement solutions
  • Actively participating in the region-wide win community by joining monthly webinars, annual forums, steering groups etc as required
  • Supporting training and coaching activities to develop our APMP win professionals and wider ’safe hands’ within technical teams
  • Providing inputs to Group initiatives to see organisation-wide approaches meet the needs of (and are embedded into) local teams

Candidate specification

Essential:

• Experience of managing high value (>£10m) and complex multi-disciplinary pursuits within the infrastructure industry
• Understanding of public and /or sector procurement processes (inc frameworks, open competition tenders, design and build etc)
• First-hand knowledge of implementing techniques for planning, managing and controlling bids in line with evolving best practice
• Collaborative behaviours in diverse team settings – ability to build and manage strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders / partners
• Strong and effective verbal and written communication skills - personal credibility and attention to detail to win over and convince an audience
• Motivated self-starter who can work as part of a team and independently - prioritising / flexing workload as required in a pressurised environment

Desirable:

• APMP qualification and membership – ideally at (or working towards) practitioner
• Wider proposal and behavioural training - eg Shipley, Miller Heiman, Mindflick etc
• Commercial awareness / business acumen as we link our quality and price promises
• Proficiency in relevant software / systems (CRM, knowledge management, AI etc)
• Imaginative, persuasive and persistent – challenging leaders on existing approaches whilst suggesting positive improvements

UK Immigration

Mott MacDonald Ltd. are not currently offering sponsorship to candidates under the Skilled Worker visa route in the UK. This decision is as a consequence of the changes made to the Skilled Worker route by the UK Government in April 2024. We continue to welcome applications from candidates who are eligible for alternative immigration routes in the UK, that do not require sponsorship as a Skilled Worker now or in future.

Agile working  

At Mott MacDonald, we believe it makes business sense for you and your manager to choose how you can work most effectively to meet your client, team, and personal commitments. We offer a hybrid working policy that embraces your well-being, flexibility, and trust.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion 

We put equality, diversity, and inclusion at the heart of our business, seeking to promote fair employment procedures and practices to ensure equal opportunities for all. We encourage individual expression in our workplace and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels they can contribute.

Accessibility

We want you to perform your best at every stage in the recruitment process. If you are disabled or need any support to enable you to apply or attend an interview, please contact us at reasonable.adjustments@mottmac.com and we will talk to you about how we can support you.

We offer some fantastic benefits including:

Financial wellbeing

• We match employee pension contributions between 4.5% and 7%.
• Life assurance equal up to 4 x your basic salary, with an option to increase the level of cover to 6 x your salary.
• Our income protection scheme provides a financial benefit, as well as absence and return to work support due to long-term illness or injury.
• Flexible benefits, including increased life assurance cover, critical illness insurance, payroll saving and will writing.
• As an independently owned business we share the financial success of the business with all our colleagues in various ways including annual bonus schemes.

Employee Ownership

• Our employee ownership model means no external investors, just us, creating a culture of shared success.
• Our employees have a stake and a voice in our business, giving them a direct connection to our success through our personal and group performance bonuses.
• As your career grows, so does your stake, recognising your long-term impact and contribution.
• Your voice matters, with the opportunity to connect directly with senior leadership through formal channels to help shape our future.
• For our senior roles you will have a direct pathway towards ownership from day one.

Health and wellbeing

• Private medical insurance for all UK colleagues.
• Health cash plan to support you with every day health costs and treatments.
• Access to Peppy, providing free support from menopause experts for all UK colleagues.
• A variety of wellbeing support is available through our comprehensive wellbeing program, including access for you and your family.
• Ability to flex your salary to opt into a wide range of health benefits, many of which can be extended to your family too.

Lifestyle

• A minimum of 33-35 days holiday each year, inclusive of public holidays and dependent on level, with the ability to buy or sell leave through our flexible benefits programme.
• Holiday entitlement increased to a minimum of 35 days after 5 years’ service.
• Variety of employee saving schemes and discounts from high-street retailers.

 Enhanced family and carers leave

• Enhanced family leave policies, including 26 weeks paid maternity and adoption leave, and two weeks paid paternity/partner leave.
• Our shared parental leave matches maternity leave meaning we pay up to 24 weeks at full pay.
• Up to five additional days leave are provided for those with significant caring responsibilities, two of which are paid.

Learning and development

• Primary annual professional institution subscription.
• A broad range of opportunities to enhance both technical and soft skills through mentoring, formal training, and self-development options.

Networks, communities, and social outcomes

• Join a wide range of groups including our Advanced Employee Networks which support our LGBTQ+, gender, race and ethnicity, disability, and parents/carers communities.
• Make a difference within our communities through our social outcomes.

Apply now, or for more information about our application process, click here.