Job Vacancies

Job Description

KDC is seeking an experienced and motivated Bid Manager to join our client’s facility based in Harwell, UK. 

The successful candidate will report to the Head of Future Business (Europe) within the BD team, will develop bids and secure funding, and will support in several BD-related areas including proposal production for commercial sales.

The work environment is fast-paced and dynamic, with plenty of opportunities to learn and contribute. This role would suit someone with experience in bids or sales, ideally in the spacecraft sector or in complex engineering services or products, who wishes to grow responsibility in the space BD area.

What you’ll do

Bid capture management:

• Take responsibility for managing and coordinating entire bids, or parts of bids as required, through the bid process from call opening all the way to bid submission (leading or supporting negotiation as needed).
• Control overall production of the bid volumes to ensure delivery on schedule.
• Draw on other relevant teams (as needed for larger bids), including: projects, engineering, procurement & contractual, finance, business analysis teams.
• Ensure bid execution according to bid PA/QA philosophy; conduct bid/no bid reviews and later stage bid reviews (e.g. gold / red team) as appropriate, conduct win-theme analysis.
• Control bid finances, working with finance team and with external partners on multi-partner / consortium-style to assign / control finances.
• Coordinating partner inputs (scope, finances), with procurement team as needed, for multi-partner / consortium-style bids.

Sales support:

• Support sales team with either face to face end customer engagements to establish customer needs, or indirectly supporting in the background.
• Deliver end customer proposals for commercial opportunities considering end customer needs, product specification, product/service finances or pricing, deliverables and contractual aspects.
• Support the development of value proposition for our clients products/services.
• Support account management of selected prospects.

What you’ll need

• 2 – 4 years’ experience working in bid management in the space industry, with a preference for those with experience of the full lifecycle of UKSA and ESA bids or sales experience of products or services.
• An excellent “sales / marketing style” in bid production which can be used to convey the selling points of the business, and to construct competitive but deliverable bids and commercial proposals.
• Strong commercial awareness.
• Self-motivated, proactive, and willing to take initiative.
• Excellent interpersonal, organizational, and written/verbal communication skills including to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong understanding of the space industry and ecosystem.
• Passionate about space with knowledge of the space environment and space debris.

Desirable skills

• Postgraduate degree (in engineering where possible).
• Experience of bidding into the following technical domains: in-orbit servicing, active debris removal, space situational awareness. Space segment bid capacity desirable, ground segment bid capacity also useful but not essential.
• Experience of working on bids of various different sizes, from 1 to 2 pager propositions for expressions of interest, to small R&D bids, to larger mission / service proposals of hundreds of pages.
• Experience of delivering / compiling key volumes for bids: technical, commercial, financial, implementation, management, contractual, risk.
• An understanding of the ESA ecosystem and bidding into ESA calls.
• Experience of ESA bid financials including PSS generation.
• Understanding of project management of space programmes, or some past experience in this area.
• Experience of working in a satellite business development or satellite sales environment.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Opportunity to work with a highly talented, diverse & dynamic international team with cutting edge technology
• Flexible working around core hours in a friendly and supportive environment
• Hybrid working available (dependent on individual role requirements)
• 25 days holiday (increasing yearly up to a maximum of 28 days) + 8 days Bank Holiday
• Life insurance and long-term sick pay
• Private healthcare (taxable benefit)
• Relocation allowance
• Visa sponsorship for employees
• New state of the art office and cleanroom facility
• Regular social events 

Location

UK (Harwell), with potential for some