What you will be doing
Responsible for leading the proposals team to deliver high quality, competitive and compelling bids and proposals. This role oversees the end-to-end proposal development process, manages pricing strategies across the business, and ensures successful bid management for large-scale projects.
Employed on a permanent basis and based out of our office in Havant, Hampshire, United Kingdom. Wartsila operates a hybrid working regime that is consistent with the goals of business. Travel to other UK sites and overseas travel can be expected and will be required from time to time.
The successful candidate will demonstrate a strong customer-focused mindset, consistently deliver results on time, and demonstrate a high level of ownership and commercial awareness. Comfortable operating within a technical and engineering-focused environment and possess a proven track record of leading teams to achieve multiple, and sometimes competing, objectives.
As Proposal Manager, your work will focus on these responsibilities:
Team Leadership & Management
- Lead, mentor and develop a team of proposal specialists.
- Allocate resources effectively to meet proposal deadlines and business priorities.
- Promote a collaborative and high-performance culture within the team.
Bid Management
- Take ownership of complex, high-value bids from initiation to submission.
- Coordinate cross-functional teams including sales, operations, legal and finance to develop winning strategies.
- Lead bid kick-off meetings, reviews and post-submission debriefs.
- Create and present review gate presentations and coordinating all required internal and third-party inputs.
- Managing bid resources in line with approvals and allocating specific and clear responsibilities to all members of the Bid Team
- Identifying the full scope of bid deliverables and allocating a “Solution Lead” against each deliverable
Pricing Strategy & Commercial Oversight
- Develop and maintain pricing model and strategies to ensure competitiveness alongside profitability for new build / lifecycle opportunities.
- Ensure all proposals are compliant, persuasive and aligned with client requirements and business objectives.
- Review and approve pricing, ensuring consistency and accuracy.
Stakeholder Collaboration
- Work closely with engineering, operations, finance and lead teams to gather input and ensure proposals reflect operational capabilities.
- Liaise with clients, partners, and subcontractors to clarify requirements and strengthen proposal content.
- Provide regular updates to senior leadership on proposal pipeline, win/loss analysis, and strategic opportunities.
Continuous Improvement
- Drive continuous improvement in proposal quality, efficiency and win rates.
- Monitor industry trends and competitor activity to inform pricing strategies.
To be successful in this role, we expect you to have:
- Strong leadership skills and can demonstrate a team working ethos
- Minimum of 3 years’ experience as a bid manager in a comparable environment
- A demonstrable track record of winning complex bids
- Familiarity with comprehensive Bid Lifecycle Management processes
- Strong stakeholder management skills
- Commercial awareness
- Proven experience in proposal management or bid coordination, or commercial pricing.
- Strong analytical and financial acumen.
- Excellent written and verbal communication abilities.
Desirable:
- Degree level qualification (any subject)
- Experience bidding to UK and overseas clients in the Defence sector
- Experience using MS Project
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