European Tender Desk Manager

• Compensation: EUR 6,000 - EUR 7,000 - monthly

At TOPdesk, we help organizations improve their service delivery with user-friendly IT Service Management (ITSM) and Enterprise Service Management (ESM) software and a people-first approach. With more than 5,000 customers, we have grown into a leading player in Europe.

Public and enterprise tenders are an increasingly important route into our largest European markets. As demand grows across the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Ireland and the Nordics, we're building a dedicated European Tender Desk to make our bid process faster, more consistent and more competitive.

The ambition for the coming years is clear: build a single, scalable tender operation across our core European markets, starting from roughly 60-90 tenders a year today and growing as demand increases. To get there, we're investing in a shared framework, quality standards and a growing knowledge base that helps local teams win more faster.

The role

TOPdesk is looking for a European Tender Desk Manager to lead a growing international tender operation of approximately 60-90 tenders annually. Indicative volumes are 20-30 each in the Netherlands, Germany, and UKI and the Nordics combined, with overall demand increasing over time.

You will lead a team of three Tender Coordinators based in the Netherlands and DACH, supporting these markets locally. You will own the European tender framework, process and quality standards, building the capacity, knowledge and tools to deliver timely, competitive submissions as volumes grow.

What you will do

• Lead and develop the team: manage, coach and develop your three direct reports across the Netherlands and DACH, set clear objectives, oversee performance and development, allocate workload and build effective cross-border collaboration.
• Build the European operating model: establish a single intake route, clear roles and responsibilities, review gates and escalation paths, and partner with local Tender Coordinators to pilot, refine and roll out the approach internationally.
• Plan capacity and prioritise the portfolio: forecast demand and peak concurrent workload, allocate capacity with Sales based on commercial value, complexity, deadlines and likelihood of success, and advise on bid/no-bid decisions.
• Drive process and quality: set support levels and review according to tender complexity and risk, oversee milestones and submission readiness, and ensure complete, consistent responses with the required commercial, local and specialist approvals.
• Coordinate expertise effectively: work with Sales, Consultancy, Legal, Security, Product, SaaS/Hosting, Finance and other experts, routing questions to the right owners and escalating gaps early.
• Build reusable tender knowledge: own the central knowledge base, templates, version control and review cycles, make approved answers easy to find and reuse, and run regular quality audits within the tender tool to keep content accurate, current and compliant as usage scales.
• Scale delivery through tools and adoption: develop tooling and AI-assisted analysis and content reuse with review controls, and train local coordinators to increase adoption and reduce manual effort as volumes grow.
• Measure and improve performance: report on tender volumes, workload, timeliness, quality, outcomes and knowledge reuse, and lead lessons-learned reviews that translate feedback into practical improvements.

Your mandate and partnerships

You set and enforce the agreed tender process, deadlines and quality gates. You can return incomplete input, require additional validation, elevate capacity or quality risks and recommend against submission when readiness is insufficient.

Sales retains ownership of the opportunity, win strategy, pricing, bid/no-bid decision and final commercial approval. Local Tender Coordinators organise local contributions and formal submission, supported by the Tender Desk's final quality check and second-person submission review. Consultancy owns implementation feasibility; subject matter experts own the accuracy and approval of specialist content.

Why TOPdesk

• A strong, growing brand with a loyal customer base of more than 5,000 organisations across Europe.
• A people-first culture with real autonomy to build a brand-new function and make it your own.
• The chance to lead one of TOPdesk's most important cross-market initiatives, working closely with Sales leadership.
• Backed by CVC Capital Partners, with the ambition and resources of a…