Bid Director

Principal Bid Lead

Home Based

Full Time, Permanent

£70,000 - £80,000 per annum plus benefits

Company Car + Bonus

Serco are seeking a Principal Bid Lead to join our Growth team with proven experience in structuring, leading and winning bids of significant complexity and scale, with specific focus on Public Sector Bodies.

This role will focus primarily on Skills, Employability, and BPO opportunities within Serco’s Citizen Services Business Unit, but there is an expectation that opportunities to work across the UK&E portfolio will also emerge. This is a crucial role that plays an active part in team development, continuous improvement and cross-portfolio challenge and support.

We’re looking for a proactive and innovative individual with the ability to develop and sell tailored solutions and consistently deliver results. You will possess both technical management skills in the bidding arena and people leadership skills, recognising the importance of creating and sustaining Bid Teams with the capability and capacity to produce winning results.

Serco’s purpose is to impact a better future - we bring together the right people, the right technology, and the right partners to create innovative solutions that deliver positive impact and address some of the most urgent and complex challenges facing governments globally. Our services are powered by more than 50,000 colleagues working across multiple sectors including defence, space, migration, justice, healthcare, transport, and customer services in four regions: UK & Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.

As part of this role, you will:

• Win profitable major tenders or pipelines of tenders
  • Lead winning bids inline with targets set for your area of responsibility
  • Identify and resource the Bid Team in line with approved bid budgets
  • Oversee the development of effective Bid Plans and manage issues
  • Lead the Governance of major opportunities
  • Manage Bid Team capabilities, capacity, and welfare throughout the bidding process
  • Lead customer engagement including negotiation and dialogue, presentations and clarification questions
  • Lead the development of robust analysis to support win strategy, competitive positioning, commercial positioning, risks, and opportunities

• Work in partnership with Business Development colleagues
  • Engage with the Business Unit Business Development Team to build effective approaches for each of our key markets
  • Support and provide positive challenge to the development of Capture Plans that will influence upcoming Bids
  • Work in partnership with Business Development and Solutions colleagues to identify appropriate win themes and develop a price to win
  • Support the application of robust qualification to drive up quality and win rates
  • Support the development of up-to-date competitor intelligence

• Lead on developing relationships with key stakeholders
• • Develop and maintain effective working relationships with key stakeholders within the Business Unit and ensure there is a ‘one team’ approach to the bid within Bidding, the Business Unit, and the wider Growth team.
  • Work with the Solutions Team, Operations, Commercial, Procurement, IT and HR to developing winning solutions that demonstrate the best value for money for our clients.
  • Develop and maintain effective working relationships with the wider Serco community, creating links that will be supportive of deal review, challenge, innovative thinking, and effective governance.
  • Lead negotiation with external providers and suppliers

• Develop winning teams
  • Provide coaching and mentoring to new and junior members of the team, supporting their growth and the longer-term sustainability of the Growth function.
  • Contribute to the continuous improvement of our bidding processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness

What you’ll need to do the role:

• Substantial high value bid experience, showing both technical and leadership skills translating into positive outcomes for the customer, the company and employees working on bids.
• Previous experience in a Senior Bid Management and/or Bid Director role.
• Proven success in winning highly complex, large, competitively tendered opportunities including strategy, negotiation, closing, and handing over to operational teams.
• Ability to assess Capture performance to measure effectiveness, anticipate and resolve problems.
• Strong commercial and financial understanding to enable optimum balance of risk, reward, and price to embed within qualified opportunities.
• Personal high performance, goal-orientated approach with creative problem-solving skills.
• Ability to operate successfully in a challenging, changeable, and high-profile role, within a dynamic market environment.
• Proficiency in bidding methodologies, and ability to flex and adapt to ensure excellence of execution over tick box compliance. Experience in structured methodologies such as APMP, PRINCE2, Shipley, Miller Heiman would be advantageous.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills such as active listening and the ability to articulate customers’ environment and needs to all management levels.
• Demonstrate ability to self-motivate and self-manage whilst providing leadership to a diverse team.

Why Serco:

Meaningful and vital work: in this position, your work is vital to the business, in terms of decisions and growth. You will gain a world of opportunity working for a globally operating business delivering essential services across 5 vital sectors, personal growth, achievement, and development won’t be hard to find. You'll also work with great people. You’ll find yourself working in a highly motivated, supportive environment where no two days are the same, with experienced colleagues who strive for excellence.

From contact centres and complex case management to the administration of flagship employment and health programmes to the operation of local waste management and leisure services, we are committed to delivering better government services to citizens. We help governments to drive cost-efficiencies and meet rising expectations for improved public services. We do this by streamlining frontline and back-office processes and using digital technology to facilitate self-service and increase convenience. As expert service integrators, we form effective partnerships with small enterprises to manage local delivery.

What we offer:

• Company car / £4200 cash allowance.
• Bonus – 10% on target, 20% max.
• Private medical insurance.
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays.
• Annual leave purchase scheme.
• Up to 6% contributory pension scheme
• Flexible working options.
• A Serco benefits portal offering a wide range of discounts for major high street brands in Retail, Leisure & Hospitality.
• A range of benefits to support the health and wellbeing of you and your family such as Employee Assistance Programme, Health Cash Plans, free flu jabs and more.
• A wealth of career development training to suit your future aspirations. These range from role specific training, leadership coaching, formal study and much more to support you to build your career with Serco.
• A safe and supportive culture.
• A company passionate about diversity and inclusion.

About Serco
At Serco, not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play, from caring for vulnerable people to managing complex public services. We are a team of 50,000 people responsible for delivering essential public services around the world in areas including defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and citizen services. We are innovators, committed to redesigning and improving public services for the benefit of everyone.

By joining Serco you will have unlimited access to our Global Employee Networks – SercoInspire (Gender), SercoEmbrace (Multicultural), SercoUnlimited (Disability) and In@Serco (LGBT & Networks). Serco Employee Networks, led by colleagues who are passionate about diversity, inclusion and belonging.

Apply
Please click on the apply button to complete your application. Occasionally we receive a large volume of applications for our roles and when that happens we sometimes bring the closing date forward, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment.

At Serco, we see people first and foremost for their performance and potential. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that supports the needs of all. As such we will make reasonable adjustments at interview through to employment for our candidates and strongly encourage applications from a diverse candidate pool. We are open to discussions around flexibility and flexible working. We operate a hybrid work structure in many of our business areas. We are proudly Disability Confident Leader employers and holder of the Gold Inclusive Employer Standard. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview. For help with your application please contact 0345 010 4000.

At Serco we support fair access to employment for those with unspent criminal convictions through the ‘Ban the Box’ pledge (some may be exempt due to the nature of the role and the security clearance required). Please contact our recruitment team directly on 0345 010 4000 to discuss.