Senior Bids & Tenders Manager

We're on an ambitious growth journey, with our Marketing & Business Development Group playing a pivotal role in shaping the firm's future. This is a business that invests in its people, values collaboration, and gives its teams the space and support to do their best work.

Our recently refreshed M&BD strategy has been developed following an in‑depth review and is fully endorsed by our UK Board. It's not a side initiative, it's embedded in how we operate and how we grow, giving this role real influence and momentum from day one.

The Team

Winning new work in a crowded and competitive market means standing out, and our Bids team sits right at the heart of that challenge. Working closely with partners, lawyers and business services colleagues, the team leads the firm's most strategically important bids, pitches and panel appointments. From short‑term opportunities to long‑term sector priorities, the work is varied, fast‑paced and highly visible. No two days are the same. You might be shaping the strategy for a major panel appointment, guiding partners through a pitch rehearsal, or steering multiple live bids to submission, all while collaborating across sectors, practice areas and offices to bring together the very best of the firm.

The Role

We're looking for an experienced Senior Bids Manager to provide leadership and strategic direction across our bid activity, from early opportunity assessment and bid/no‑bid decisions through to submission and post‑bid debriefs.

You'll play a central role in ensuring we consistently produce high‑quality, compelling and commercially focused submissions that maximise our chances of success. Working as part of a close‑knit and highly collaborative team, you'll bring clarity, structure and confidence to complex bid processes.

A key part of the role is influencing and aligning stakeholders. You'll work closely with partners and senior colleagues, as well as teams across marketing, knowledge management, IT and finance, to articulate our proposition, showcase our strengths and respond intelligently to client needs and expectations.

This is a role with real scope to shape how we bid, how we improve, and how we win.

The Person

• Proven experience leading end‑to‑end bid processes at a senior level, ideally within a professional services environment.
• A strong track record of directing virtual bid teams and coordinating diverse stakeholder inputs, including subject matter experts, pricing and commercial specialists, and risk and compliance colleagues.
• The ability to oversee multiple live bids simultaneously while maintaining a high standard of quality, strategic alignment and attention to detail.
• Well‑developed skills in creating clear win strategies, compelling themes and differentiated value propositions.
• Experience of driving continuous improvement through structured post‑bid reviews and client debriefs.
• Confidence in building trusted relationships across an organisation and coaching senior colleagues through pitch and presentation stages, with the credibility to influence at partner level.

Location and Working Style

The role can be based in any of our UK offices (Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, Newcastle, Plymouth, or Southampton), or remotely, provided you're able to attend an office when needed.

We operate a hybrid working approach, with most colleagues typically spending around three days a week in the office and two working from home. We're pragmatic and flexible, balancing individual needs with the requirements of the role and the team.

What makes it great to work here?

We continually work hard to create an open culture that sets us apart from other firms. Our culture gives us much more of a human feel, emphasising that we're more than just suits! Through our DEI initiatives we create an environment in which difference is valued. We have an Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Group, led by our Board Sponsor, which works with our colleague networks (we currently have firm supported networks for race, ethnicity, and cultural heritage, LGBTQ+, disabilities, neurodiversity, families, and women's career development and we're in constant dialogue with our people about how we expand our networks to better support everybody). Find out more about DEI at WBD here. We encourage applicants from all social backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, gender identities and sexual orientations.

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long term condition and need us to make any adjustments to give you the best possible recruitment process, please let us know by contacting the recruiter.

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