Associate Director, Bid Advisor - Defence

Connect to your Industry

Deloitte LLP is a leading professional services firm employing over 20,000 partners and staff across 23 locations in the UK. The firm has a large Government and Public Services (G&PS) practice with over 2,500 dedicated partners and staff working across all parts of the public sector including defence, security & justice, central government, health and infrastructure, transport & regional government.

Deloitte’s G&PS practice is one of the largest and most experienced providers of professional services to public sector clients in the UK and we are a Strategic Supplier to Government. Purpose and impact are pivotal to our work.

Due to the regulated nature of procurement in the public sector, the firm has established a specialist, business critical team, the Public Sector Bid Team (PSBT). Tasked in managing and supporting the firm’s public sector bidding activity, PSBT drives quality and operational improvements on public sector bids and helps the business to win work in a highly competitive marketplace.

As a Defence bid advisor, you will support some of our most significant bids to help drive our ambitious future growth plans. If you have a passion for making things happen in an environment that matters, then this role could be for you.

Connect to your career at Deloitte

Deloitte drives progress. Using our vast range of expertise, we help our clients' become leaders wherever they choose to compete. To do this, we invest in outstanding people. We build teams of future thinkers, with diverse talents and backgrounds, and empower them all to reach for and achieve more.

What brings us all together at Deloitte? It’s how we approach the thousands of decisions we make every day. How we behave, our beliefs and our attitudes. In other words: our values. Whatever we do, wherever we are in the world, we lead the way, serve with integrity, take care of each other

Connect to your opportunity

We are looking for an experienced bid professional with knowledge to join our Public Sector Bid Team. Working closely with bid teams, the remit of this role will be broad and engaging, focused on helping to develop high-quality proposals and win business. To be truly effective in this role, you will need exceptional project management skills, and the confidence to influence and manage stakeholders at all levels and a strong team ethic.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Shaping and managing scaled pursuits within Defence, from capture to completion, delivering on time and to high-quality standards. This will include:
• Leading bid meetings (e.g. qualification, strategy, bid kick-off, storyboarding, review, lessons learned) – managing the outputs and driving the actions
• Providing bid management direction, support and coaching to guide bid team members
• Advising on how to respond to bid questions in line with client requirements and evaluation criteria
• Liaising with other support functions e.g. quality & risk team, commercial support team as expected
• Maintaining relationships with subject matter experts and third parties
• Managing internal governance requirements and compliance checks
• Driving bid reviews, ensuring solutions are aligned with client needs and our capabilities
• Managing and motivating bid teams, ensuring they have a clear understanding of their roles, the evaluation criteria, objectives and deliverables
• Supporting with the preparation of presentations to clients
• Sourcing bid related information/collateral
• Managing the Defence opportunity pipeline, including chairing pipeline discussions, prioritising bid support requests, representing the Defence sector on industry-wide pipeline calls and articulating how opportunities align with our growth strategy

Connect to your skills and professional experience

You take initiative - you bring out the best in others and are a strong team player. You’ll help to grow our business without compromising standards, integrity or culture.

You have relentless focus on bid quality and enjoy using your strong bid experience to make sure that we deliver compliant, winning proposals for our defence clients.

Essential:

• Experience of leading and winning scaled public sector pursuits and coaching others throughout the bid lifecycle
• Experience of managing bids involving complex ecosystems including subcontractors, alliances, consortium members, global delivery networks etc.
• Knowledge and experience of bidding for opportunities within the Defence industry (UK and NATO)
• Experience of developing/facilitating bid-related training and upskilling others in bidding best practices
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
• Strong organisational and project management skills with the ability to manage own workload independently
• Confidence to ask insightful questions to understand, challenge, influence and advise on bidding matters at a senior level
• A keen eye for detail and focus on quality/accuracy
• Ability to multi-task and prioritise effort to develop high quality, compliant proposals within tight deadlines
• Strong interpersonal skills and use of initiative
• Experience of leading, motivating and developing others
• Ability to deal with ambiguity and adapt to change

Desirable:

• Understanding of public sector frameworks and the UK Public Contracts Regulations/Procurement Act 2023
• Experience of working in a professional services organisation (or similar)
• Experience of using AI in proposals
• Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) Foundation or equivalent/higher certification

Connect to your business - Technology and Transformation

Distinctive thinking, deep expertise, innovation and collaborative working. That’s what connects us. That’s what makes us Deloitte. If you want to help solve some of the biggest tech and transformational challenges around, join us. Together, we’ll make an impact that matters.

Personal independence

Regulation and controls are standard practice in our industry and Deloitte is no exception. These controls provide important legal protection for both you and the firm. We are subject to a number of audit regulations, one of which requires that certain colleagues abide by specific personal independence constraints (e.g., in relation to any financial interests and employment relationships). This can mean that you and your "Immediate Family Members" are not permitted to hold certain financial interests (shares, funds, bonds etc.) with audit clients of the firm, and also prohibitions on certain employment relationships (e.g., you are not permitted to hold a secondary employment role with SEC audit clients of the firm whilst being employed by the firm). The recruitment team will provide further details as you progress through the recruitment process, or you can contact the Independence team upon request.

Connect with your colleagues

"Deloitte’s a large, complex and fast-paced organisation but it’s open to new ideas. Everyone is encouraged to show initiative and challenge the norm.” -Deloitte Employee, Technology & Transformation

Our hybrid working policy

You’ll be based in Belfast, London, or Manchester with hybrid working.

At Deloitte we understand the importance of balancing your career alongside your home life. That’s why we’ll support you to work flexibly through our hybrid working policy. Depending on the requirements of your role, you’ll have the opportunity to work in your local office, virtual collaboration spaces, client sites and remotely. You’ll get the chance to meet face to face when needed, while you collaborate and learn from colleagues, share your experiences, and build the relationships that will fuel your career and prioritise your wellbeing. Please check with your recruiter about the specific working requirements that may apply for your role.

For a full job description, please visit our online Deloitte Careers portal.