Strategist, Bids & Business Development

The Role The UK is making a wholesale shift to AI: government, from the AI Opportunities Action Plan through to the tools the Incubator for AI is putting in front of civil servants, and enterprises racing to put AI to work. Scale wants to play a foundational role in building the reliable AI applications both will run on. Our work spans building custom AI applications that reach millions of users, generating high-quality training data for custom LLMs, and providing upskilling and AI advisory services. We're building our UK business from a standing start, and we need someone with a lot of energy to help it move. As a Strategist, you'll help grow Scale's UK business, partnering with technical stakeholders to identify and win opportunities across public sector (central government and defence & security) and enterprise. Public sector is the main focus, but we're a small UK team and you'll flex onto enterprise opportunities where they matter. The role is UK-focussed to start, with scope to extend into Europe and the Middle East as the team grows. You'll sit at the centre of our go-to-market effort, combining business development groundwork with the bids and tender work that turns an opportunity into a contract. You'll work in a dynamic and often unstructured environment, and you'll learn how big AI programmes get sold and delivered into government and large organisations, working right next to the people doing it. This is a technical, commercially minded role. It's a good fit if you're curious about AI and data, can explain technical ideas in simple, precise language, and want real responsibility early. What you'll do • Work with the UK Public Sector Lead, UK leadership, government relations and the wider team on go-to-market strategy across central government, defence & security, and enterprise • Research target departments and enterprise accounts, map who matters, and build target lists, outreach and pipeline • Break into UK enterprise: pick the sectors and accounts worth going after, get in front of commercial buyers, and run deals that sit outside public procurement • Build relationships and partnerships that open routes to new opportunities, from government and ecosystem partners to delivery and channel partners • Help customers across government and enterprise find impactful AI use cases and shape their vision for AI • Run framework applications and tenders end to end (PQQs, RFIs, RFPs), and get to know UK public sector procurement properly (G-Cloud, the Digital Marketplace, the main CCS frameworks) • Develop pitches, proposals and executive-level documents backed by clear business cases, and adapt how we pitch and contract for enterprise, where buyers and cycles look very different from government • Sit in on customer meetings, answer questions as they come up, and turn them into clear next steps that move an opportunity towards a signed deal • Take on whatever the market needs. Roles are loose when a team is this small. What we're looking for • At least 5 years in business development, bids, consulting, strategy or advisory, ideally with some 0-to-1 or market-entry exposure. Public sector experience is a plus, not a must. • A real interest in AI and data, and the ability to explain technical concepts clearly to non-technical audiences • Someone who knows how to use AI tooling well to move faster and work more efficiently across research, analysis and drafting, without compromising on quality • Seriously organised, good with detail, and able to keep several things moving at once • Excellent writing, especially to a deadline, including executive-level materials • Good commercial instincts: you can uncover a customer's challenge and help build the case for how AI addresses it • The ability to earn trust and bui