Senior Proposals Manager (Development Solutions)

Willmott Dixon are seeking a Senior Proposals Manager (Development Solutions) to join our strategic bid team based in London (hybrid). The strategic bid team supports our ambition to grow the business by ensuring that we secure business critical national frameworks, bid for Department for Education projects and this new role of bidding for Development opportunities as part of our dedicated National Development Solutions Team.

The Development Solutions team plays a pivotal role in securing long term land, development and regeneration led projects supporting the long term growth across all areas of our operational geography. Typical multi sector contracts we target and secure are circa £100m - £500m over 5 -10yrs.

The main duties of this Senior Proposals Manager is to manage the quality of submissions and actively work with our Strategic Head of Proposals and the Development Solutions team to develop compelling, customer centric and strategic quality bid submissions. You will have a strong understanding of the end to end (campaign/capture – submission and lessons learnt) bidding best practice process and have an appetite for curiosity, innovation and continual learning and improvement.

You’ll also support creation of clear and effective customer presentations and provide creative ideas and initiatives throughout the end to end bid process.

You will lead and deliver up to four bids per year, which provides an opportunity for anyone who has had enough of bid churn and wants to spread their wings and demonstrate/implement bidding best and next practice at its highest standard. Having the time to think strategically and innovatively within a team of likeminded, energetic, high performing professionals.

 

Role Criteria

You will ideally have experience as a Bid/Proposals Writer or Manager and preferably have experience within Marketing and Communications and worked in the world of land, regeneration or development.

You are happy to work remotely as well as in the London office on average of 2/3 days per week depending on task/activities.

You will be able to create and edit high quality written responses to achieve high quality, winning bids/submissions that meet the requirements and expectations of our customers. Knowledge and experience of the Adobe Suite, particularly InDesign is desirable, but full training will be provided if required.

• Experience of leading capture planning and delivering campaign and influencing strategies and plans.

• Experience of facilitating tender launch, win themes workshops, competitor/rival analysis, answer plan sessions, and managing the tender and quality response review process.

• Experience of bid writing and bid editing, creating compelling and persuasive responses.

• Meticulous organisational skills: management of content library and stakeholder/subject expert leadership/management.

• Experience of using Microsoft Office.

• Use of Adobe Indesign and Photoshop.

• UKAPMP membership and certified desirable.

 

What you’ll bring to the role

• Strategic, customer-focused thinking:Ability to identify key value propositions, competitive advantages and differentiators that help us stand out in the competitive bidding process, with the customer at the heart of every proposal

• Creativity and writing:Crafting compelling narratives and persuasive proposals is a central aspect of the job; you’ll take pride in effectively communicating our response to customer needs through well written, engaging proposal content.

• Problem solving:It’s usual to encounter complex challenges during the proposal development process, such as aligning diverse ideas from multiple stakeholders, addressing technical complexities or mitigating risks. You’ll enjoy the problem-solving aspect of this role, finding solutions that meet both customer requirements and internal needs, then sharing any learning with the team and wider business.

• Leadership and teamwork:Our Proposals Managers work closely with cross-functional teams, including estimators, designers, engineers and subject matter experts. You’ll enjoy collaborating with diverse professionals, leveraging their expertise and fostering teamwork to develop comprehensive and well-rounded proposals, while providing the team with positive leadership throughout the bid process.

• Bidding best practice:With a passion for ensuring bidding best and next practice on every proposal, you’ll have extensive experience of storyboarding (answer planning), drafting, peer reviews, formatting and submission, and onto lessons learned and feedback analysis.

• Desire to learn:Our industry is dynamic and ever-evolving, with new technologies, methods, and trends emerging constantly. You’ll enjoy staying updated on industry developments, learning about new innovations and implementing best practices to enhance the proposal development process.

 

Additional Information

At Willmott Dixon we provide an inclusive and flexible working environment for people to thrive in and we are happy to support agile working wherever possible.

We are a proud member of the Disability Confident Scheme.

Benefits

In return we reward our people generously with a competitive package that gives you flexible benefits to fit your lifestyle and priorities. This includes but is not limited to, an enhanced pension scheme, full / heavily discounted private medical, life assurance, incentive bonus and a car scheme which will make us a market leader in sustainable company travel. Applicable roles will benefit from a motoring expenditure allowance (MEA) and everyone can access a new generation of low carbon and electric cars via the Willmott Dixon run car leasing scheme.

 

About Us

With over 170 years of rich history, Willmott Dixon’s purpose is beyond profit; delivering brilliant buildings, transforming lives, strengthening communities and enhancing the environment so our world is fit for future generations. Ensuring that we add lasting value to the neighbourhoods we work in; our values, people, innovation, partnerships and focus on sustainability has allowed us to build a successful and solid privately owned business where our people can thrive. Willmott Dixon was awarded No 1 in the Best "big" Companies (2022) to work for and the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality 2024 and is the first major contractor and developer to win a King’s Award for Enterprise in the category of sustainable development.