Bid Manager/Writer

Are you an experienced Bid Manager looking for a new and exciting opportunity to join a developing team?

CML have built a desirable reputation over the last 40 years as one of the leading suppliers in the UK rail sector, delivering maintenance and renewals works throughout England and Wales for Network Rail and other infrastructure clients. As our client base continues to grow, both within rail and the wider infrastructure market, we are looking for a Bid Manger / Writer to drive improvements in our approach, creating winning strategies and producing quality bid submissions.

The right candidate will coordinate and produce high‑quality bids within the UK building and civil engineering sector. You will work closely with operational, commercial, planning, design and compliance teams to produce compelling, compliant, and competitive tender submissions.

This is a great opportunity for a bid writer or manager to develop more junior members of the team, review and improve work winning systems, and ultimately to have a tangible impact on our business, working collaboratively with multiple invested departments to create compelling bids.

Job Description

• Manage all aspects of producing a bid, leading the end-to-end process of creating and submitting PQQs and ITTs to secure new contracts.

• Manage the bid programme, deliverables schedule and responsibilities matrix, coordinating all stakeholders contributing to the bidding process.

• Coordinate multi‑disciplinary inputs ensuring all technical, commercial and quality information is integrated and aligned with bid strategy.

• Implement quality assurance processes, ensuring clarity, technical accuracy, and brand consistency.

• Develop a continuous improvement process to improve the success rate at PQQ & ITT.

• Supervision and mentorship of more junior roles within the bid team and supporting with mentorship of apprenticeship and graduate development programmes within the business.

• Review contents of tender documentation and provide guidance, ensuring that the client’s requirements, scope of works and tender deliverables are fully understood.

• Support bid/no‑bid decisions through early tender analysis and client intelligence.

• Identify key client drivers and develop win themes and differentiators.

• Prepare all necessary written content required for the technical and relevant commercial aspects required for submission.

• Manage design partners, supply chain inputs, and specialist consultants supporting the bid.

• Work with estimating and commercial teams to ensure technical solutions align with cost, risk and value propositions.

• Identify potential opportunity/risk and evaluate options, developing win strategies.

• Ensure submissions are fully compliant with client requirements, industry standards and internal governance.

• Maintain bid libraries, templates, and best‑practice writing standards.

Person Specification

To be successful in the role, you will have:

• Similar experience working within a contracting environment for at least 3-5 years, particularly in the rail sector.

• Strong understanding of NEC contracts, CDM regulations, civil engineering methodologies, and project delivery processes.

• Excellent writing, editing, and communication skills.

• Highly organised, with ability to manage multiple bids simultaneously.

• Collaborative, confident, and proactive communicator.

• Strong attention to detail and commitment to quality.

• Creative mindset with ability to develop compelling value propositions.

Key Skills:

• Project management

• Time management

• Technical writing

• Stakeholder management

• Commercial awareness

The Package

• Competitive Pay

• A collaborative and friendly working culture, focussed on investing in people

• Up to 25 days holiday + Statutory Bank Holidays

• Ad hoc Hybrid working, depending on business needs

• Company Sick Pay

• Annual professional subscription costs

• Excellent training & development opportunities, provided by our award nominated in house Training team

• Paid Volunteering days and Charity events

• Annual Flu Jabs

• Employee Assistance Programmes for advice and counselling

• Access to a committed Mental Health First Aider team

• Company Pension and Death in Service scheme of 2x annual salary

• A generous Employee Referral scheme of £1000 per successful hire
  

At CML we are committed to creating a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture where everyone can be themselves and reach their full potential, not only because this is the right thing to do, but because it makes us a better business.

We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and experiences and all applicants will be considered purely on their merits and potential, regardless of where they are from, their age or gender, their lifestyle choices , their beliefs or what disability they may have.

We’re also striving to be a Disability Confident employer and we’ll try our best to adapt the process and offer a reasonable alternative to help support people with disabilities apply and interview for roles.