Bid Manager

Location: Cheadle, United Kingdom

Thales people provide armed forces customers with operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defence mission systems solutions at land, sea, and air. Our platforms extend across the battlespace including Above and Sonar, Electronic Combat, and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance systems.

Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

​Location: - Cheadle (Greater Manchester), Templecombe (Somerset), Bristol, or Crawley (West Sussex) - hybrid working arrangement 3 days per week in the office vs. home

Working hours: Full time or part time hours available

We are looking for a Bid Manager. In this role you will be responsible for leading the delivery of high‑quality, strategically important bids within our Underwater Systems (UWS) domain. As part of a rapidly growing area of the business, you will coordinate multi‑disciplinary teams, shape robust bid strategies and ensure the creation of compelling, competitive proposals. This is an exciting opportunity to support transformational programmes and contribute directly to the long‑term success of Thales UK.

Core Benefits:

On offer is a competitive salary and benefits package, which includes;

• Performance-related bonus

• Half day every Friday, usually finishing around 13:00

• 28 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) plus opportunity to buy up to 40 hours/year (pro rata)

• 24 hours volunteering paid for

• Private healthcare (grade dependent)

• Pension scheme

• Life cover

• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program and access to mental wellbeing app

• Employee discount shopping schemes on major brands and retailers

• Gym membership discounts

• You can read about some of our other benefits here: UK benefits | Thales Group

Under Water Systems (UWS)

Our purpose is to be the leading provider of underwater sensors and decision superiority, helping navies across the world keep our friends, families and all of us safe. We cover four sectors: Mine Counter Measures, Anti-Submarine warfare, Services and Future Capabilities.

Main Responsibilities:

• Lead and coordinate multi‑disciplinary bid teams, ensuring a structured, well‑governed and timely bid process.

• Create and control bid schedules, requirements baselines and resource plans to support high‑quality deliverables.

• Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders, partners, suppliers and customer representatives.

• Ensure cross‑functional alignment across all bid artefacts, including estimates, compliance, commercial terms and the initial project baseline.

• Lead the preparation of PQQ responses, proposal development and governance reviews to produce winning submissions.

Ideal Experience & Skills:

• Proven experience supporting or leading successful bids and/or projects in complex engineering or defence environments.

• Strong leadership and coordination skills, with the ability to work across multi‑disciplinary and multi‑site teams.

• Excellent stakeholder, customer and supplier relationship management capability.

• Strong commercial awareness, analytical skills and understanding of bid lifecycles, assumptions and risk management.

• Highly effective communication skills (written and verbal), with resilience and the ability to manage change.

Security Clearance Requirement:

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires Security Clearance (SC). It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment.

To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.

Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels.

#LI-DNI

In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.

Great journeys start here, apply now!