Tender Manager

Do you want to take ownership of how tenders are won, rather than simply contributing to them? Valcon is looking for an experienced Bid Manager to take the lead across the entire bid and tender process. From identifying and qualifying opportunities to defining the strategy, coordinating decision-making, managing stakeholders, safeguarding quality and evaluating results. The primary focus will be on European public tenders. This is explicitly not a traditional bid writing role. Rather than spending your days writing proposals yourself, you ensure that the right people deliver the strongest possible content at the right time. You create structure, challenge subject-matter experts, safeguard the strategy and quality, and keep stakeholders aligned throughout the process. But in case of emergency it is important for you to also be able to write a tender yourself, which occasionally will happen. The principle is simple: don’t write it yourself – enable the team to write it better. What will you do? As Bid Manager, you will be responsible for the end-to-end management of bids and tenders. You will oversee the full tender pipeline and take the lead on complex bid processes involving multiple disciplines, seniority levels and stakeholder interests. Your responsibilities include: • Centrally identifying, qualifying and prioritising relevant tenders and commercial opportunities; • Organising and facilitating Go/No-Go decisions and according to the required approval process; • Developing and safeguarding the bid strategy; • Translating it into a clear plan and structured tender process; • Independently leading multidisciplinary bid teams consisting of partners, managers, consultants, subject matter experts and in some cases external stakeholders; • Managing timelines, progress, compliance and quality throughout the entire bid process; • Organising reviews and critically assessing contributions before submission; • Safeguarding legal and procedural requirements, particularly for European public tenders; • Reporting on the tender pipeline, results and performance to the CRO; • Evaluating completed bids and systematically translating lessons learned into improvements; • Further developing governance, processes, tooling, knowledge management and reporting within the Tender Desk; • Using data, technology and AI to make the bid process smarter, more efficient and more effective; • Training and coaching colleagues who contribute to bids and helping to increase bid management maturity across the organisation; • In case of emergency, it is important to also be able to write tenders yourself. As Bid Manager, you ensure that the overall process works: that the right people contribute, deadlines are met, decisions are made and strategy, quality and content come together. You are a Bid Manager, not a Bid Writer That distinction is important. At Valcon, consultants, partners and subject-matter experts provide the content and contribute to the actual writing of bids. Some colleagues will be specifically trained to participate regularly in tender processes, while others may have limited experience with public tenders. Your role is not to take over their writing. Instead, you ensure the team understands what is required, why it matters and when it needs to be delivered. You are therefore a project manager, strategist, quality gatekeeper and challenger at the same time. You are comfortable challenging an experienced consultant or partner when their contribution is not yet strong enough. You ask the right questions, keep the team focused on the agreed strategy and know how to create momentum without relying on formal authority. Strong stakeholder management is therefore essential. You need to be able to lead complex projects and influence senior