Winning Lead Planning, and Design

Overview

Arup’s purpose, shared values and collaborative approach has set us apart for over 75 years, guiding how we shape a better world.

Arup is the creative force at the heart of many of the world’s most prominent projects in the built and natural environment. Working in more than 140 countries, the firm’s designers, engineers, architects, planners, consultants, and technical specialists work with our clients on innovative projects of the highest quality and impact. As a wholly independent organisation, we are owned in trust for the benefit of our employees and their dependants: with no shareholders or external investors we determine our own business priorities and direction.

The Opportunity

The Work Winning Lead oversees Priority Pursuits and bid support needs in the CPD Portfolio in the UKIMEA region, while also partnering with the portfolio leadership team to shape and implement work winning strategies. The role blends tactical bid delivery with strategic pipeline development, client engagement plans, bidding, performance insight and analysis.

The Work Winning Lead coordinates and inputs to pursuits, develops bids with proposal teams, and supports client-specific Business Development activities. They also work closely with Portfolio and Business Development leadership to design and embed work winning frameworks, knowledge management, upskilling, and client-centric strategies that increase win rates and operational confidence.

The Work Winning Lead manages the UKIMEA CPD work winning team, assigns tasks, gives advice and direction on bid practice, and guides their professional development. The Work Winning Lead continually role models and promotes bidding best practice and improvement. The overall remit of the team is to help increase win rates.

Key responsibilities:

• Work with the CPD portfolio leadership to establish and manage a pipeline of opportunities
• Lead proposal management and bid coordination across CPD teams in UKIMEA
• Guide pursuit and positioning strategy, scheduling, compliance and submission production through the full capture and bid cycle – with a view to increasing quality of capture, bids, win rate and return on investment
• Work closely with the CPD marketing business partner to maintain the Arup brand through all stages of the capture, work winning and delivery cycle
• Collaborate with technical teams, bid directors, bid managers and MCBD colleagues to deliver winning submissions
• Drive client engagement planning and pre-positioning for Priority Pursuits, using an integrated approach
• Promote structured use of CRM and bid lifecycle tools to enhance pipeline visibility and efficient reporting, bid production and bid quality
• Supervise work winning team members and contribute to talent development and succession planning to ensure it has the right capabilities now and for the future
• Oversee consistency and excellence in Arup’s work winning process and submissions by taking part in win strategy workshops, answer planning sessions, pink reviews and red reviews
• Contribute to and champion wider work winning and relationship improvement initiatives via the MCBD skills network
• Embed knowledge management and insights reporting to inform future pursuits

Is this role right for you?

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, business or related field
• Proven success in leading work winning teams located across different geographies and of contributing to winning major CPD sector bids
• Strong understanding of procurement practices and relevant regulations, particularly in the public sector
• Knowledge of the CPD sector and markets, including key clients, partners and competitors
• Knowledge of the Design & Build market, key contractors and characteristics of such bids
• Experience in managing a pipeline of Priority Pursuits, including the use of digital tools such as MS Dynamics CRM
• Experience of leading and contributing to improvement initiatives that directly affect the skills, tools and processes relevant to winning work
• Ability to work collaboratively with others under pressure
• Competitive drive and dedication to delivering high-quality submissions within challenging deadlines
• Ability to identify and communicate work winning…