Bids Manager

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We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world.

We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high‑growth businesses that fuel the economy - and directly advise the owners and management teams that lead them.

Our Marketing team is the driving force behind the creativity and growth keting has a broad remit here. Their main goal is to equip the business to win and there are teams covering most touchpoints of the customer journey.

BDO’s Bids and Pursuits team sits within MSC (Markets, Sales & Clients). Its core focus is winning profitable, high-quality work from new and existing clients and audited entities. The team identifies and prioritises opportunities and drives the pursuit and bid process to maximise our chance of winning.

We are seeking an enthusiastic and experienced bid professional to join our team. You will already be experienced in delivering all parts of a bid response but now you will be keen to own and drive the bid process from end to end.

Reporting to an experienced Pursuit Opportunity Conversion Lead (POCL), you will focus on supporting bids that are strategically important to the firm across all sectors and streams of the business.

• Assist the Pursuit & Opportunity Conversion Lead (POCL) in Chances of Winning conversations, including deputising where appropriate.
• Design and build the project plan to ensure the correct process and approach is taken and correct skill sets are leveraged to deliver maximum value.
• Assist the POCL in kick-off sessions, stakeholder meeting preparation sessions, value proposition and storyboard development.
• Write the first draft of proposal Executive Summary.
• Brief design teams to produce concepts that reflect the win themes, and provide feedback.
• Co-ordinate the production of the final proposal & pitch materials, ensuring they have been signed off by the appropriate team members.
• Support other Bid Managers by performing RFP compliance reviews on their opportunities.
• Manage day-to-day activities of the client team throughout the response process and be a central point of contact for queries and concerns.
• Drive activity and leverage the correct skills to deliver the plan & maximise chances of success.
• Advise team and partner on pursuit or bid process and steps based on firmwide best practice approach.
• Assist the POCL in presentation planning and preparation.
• Ensure best practice is implemented on each bid as appropriate through support from POCL.
• Maintain statistics on win/loss ratio, opportunity scores and contribute to analysis on firm-wide trends in winning and losing.
• Help spread best practice across the firm by updating “self-service” bids content on BDO’s intranet, taking part in “lunch and learn” sessions, and producing posts for the Bids Team Viva Engage Board.

• Professional bids experience with a strong motivation to ‘win’.
• Proven experience of working in a bids and pursuits team (from a professional services business).
• Stakeholder management skills.
• A good understanding of, and experience in delivering, the ‘end-to-end bid process’.
• The ability to converse comfortably with senior stakeholders.
• Confidence to ask insightful questions to both understand and challenge thinking.
• Strong project management experience.
• Strong writing and communication skills.

We’re committed to agile working, and we offer every colleague the opportunity to work in ways that suit you, your teams, and the task at hand.

At BDO, we’ll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development.

Mutual support and respect is one of BDO’s core values and we’re proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture.