Senior Bid Manager in Reading, Berkshire

Senior Bid Manager - Tier 1 Contractor - Civil Engineering - Remote

Reporting to: Head of Bid Management

As Senior Bid Manager, you will own a portfolio of opportunities from qualification through submission, clarification and post-tender review. You will establish the plan, define responsibilities, manage dependencies and keep operational, technical, commercial and senior stakeholders aligned to clear deadlines. The portfolio is deliberately varied, combining major framework procurements with a high volume of smaller in-framework opportunities. Success will depend on your ability to apply proportionate governance, maintain momentum across concurrent bids and ensure every input, review and final output is complete, coherent and submission-ready.

We're a leading, Tier 1 UK contractor working in the water and civil engineering sectors, delivering projects that help improve everyday life. From building pipelines and upgrading pumping stations to maintaining reservoirs and drainage systems, we support cleaner water, stronger infrastructure and more reliable services for communities.

Requirements

The company are looking for an experienced, hands-on bid professional with the judgement and resilience to manage several opportunities at different stages. You will be accountable for the overall bid process and submission outcome, coordinating diverse contributors, setting expectations and following through on actions. Strong writing and editing skills remain important, but this is first and foremost an ownership role for someone who can create order from complex inputs, keep senior stakeholders engaged and deliver consistently against immovable deadlines.

• Proven experience managing and delivering bids for a main contractor. Direct UK water-sector bidding experience would be a significant advantage. Candidates without water-sector experience should bring relevant bidding experience from civil engineering, infrastructure or electrical and MEICA contracting.
• Strong experience controlling concurrent bids through clear programmes, deliverables matrices, action tracking, review schedules and disciplined progress reporting.
• Experience working as part of a pre-construction team and using informed questions to help operational, technical and commercial specialists develop credible methodologies covering sequencing, resources, logistics, interfaces, constraints and risk controls.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the confidence to secure timely inputs, challenge missed commitments, resolve dependencies and escalate risks early.
• Commercial awareness and the ability to understand how pricing strategy, programme, contractual obligations, assumptions, exclusions, risk and opportunity influence both the proposed solution and the written submission.
• Strong Microsoft 365 skills, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and SharePoint.
• APMP accreditation or a relevant bid/project management qualification would be advantageous.
• Direct UK water-sector bidding experience would be a major advantage. We will also consider strong candidates from civil engineering, infrastructure or electrical and MEICA contracting who can demonstrate relevant pre-construction experience and the ability to transfer their knowledge into water-sector solutions.
  

You do not need to be a Quantity Surveyor, engineer or technical designer, but you do need enough commercial awareness and technical curiosity to test assumptions, understand how the proposed solution will be delivered and recognise where programme, cost, risk and contractual considerations affect the bid. You must also know when specialist judgement is required and bring the right people together to resolve an issue.