Bid Specialist

You will be part of the EMEA Bid Management team, responsible for helping to develop and deliver creative and winning tender documentation in response to client requests. Working with stakeholders and subject matter experts across the region, you will support every stage of the process from opportunity through to proposal delivery, playing a critical part in helping us to win new business. Requirements Opportunity management, from ascertaining a client’s request, identifying the service requirements and managing the sales process through to writing a proposal and client acceptance of our offer, including the following responsibilities: - Prepare responses to client questionnaires for tender documents incorporating standard company information - Monitor Etimad, Ariba and other relevant portals - Assist team members in the preparation of proposals, qualifications and tenders - Draft, organize and coordinate content and presentation to deliver high quality and on time - Liaise closely with internal operations teams to ensure involvement and subject matter expertise input as needed - Monitor and register the business on client / procurement portals - Communicate and coordinate with editorial and creative teams when required - Work within a system of governance ensuring, and promoting, adherence to all applicable internal policies and standard operating procedures - Monitor the proposal creation process to continually optimise and improve the quality of responses, working together with the relevant operations teams - Serve as an exemplar of best-practice proposal delivery and contribute to the development and improvement of internal documents, processes and tools promoting new initiatives - Update and maintain the proposal pipeline on the in-house database systems - Update the knowledge content library with case studies, references and standard answers - Ad hoc research as required, particularly around organisations and project opportunities to help inform proposal creation Knowledge and Experience: Essential - Excellent Arabic and English language, both written and spoken - Knowledge of how international businesses are affected by complex political, reputational, ethical and commercial risks - Ability to understand, assess and define client problems verbally and in writing - Bid project management experience; bid/proposal writing and coordination, ideally within a similar industry sector - Understanding of best practice bid methodology tools and creative approaches to improve our competitive ability to win tender processes Useful but not essential - Understanding of innovative approaches to bid management - Brief and engage with the Design/Graphics team and guide them on creative concepts that will support the value proposition. Qualifications and Specialist skills - Qualified to degree level or equivalent in a relevant subject area - Strong experience of MS-Office applications, particularly Word, Excel and PowerPoint and Adobe InDesign - Excellent writing and communications skills - Systematic and process-driven - Effective organisational and project management skills to bring all the elements of the bid (i.e. solution, finance and commercial, bid writing/production) together to produce winning submissions - Understand, assess and define client requirements verbally and in writing - Able to work to tight deadlines for multiple stakeholders with varying opinions - Ability to manage complex and multiple work-streams - Strong levels of attention to detail - Effective decision-making and judgment - Assertiveness when required with strong influencing skills - Strong interpersonal skills – building trust and rapport across teams and geographies - Ability to facilitate and chair bid planning sessions Competencies - Communicates clearly verbally and in writing (English and Arabic) - Plans and organises own workload, prioritising when necessary - Understands business terminology - Works with colleagues in a co-operative and supportive manner to achieve joint aims - Is clear, commits and delivers on what is required in the role and strives to exceed expectations - Shows drive and determination to achieve high standards - Shows initiative in work, contributing new solutions or ways of doing things