Senior Programme and Bid Manager

Senior Programme & Bid Manager

Location: UK (with occasional UK & overseas travel)

We're seeking an experienced Senior Programme & Bid Manager to lead and govern a portfolio of complex programmes and bids within a technically demanding environment.

This is a high‑impact leadership role, accountable for bid strategy, programme execution, governance, and performance - from opportunity capture through contract award and into in‑life delivery.

What You'll Be Doing

• Leading and inspiring a team of Programme Managers and Bid Managers, creating a high‑performance, accountable delivery culture
• Owning the overall health of the programme and bid portfolio, ensuring alignment with business strategy and customer priorities
• Providing senior leadership and governance across complex, multi‑stakeholder programmes and bids
• Establishing and maintaining robust programme management processes, proportionate to business size and risk
• Overseeing bid strategy, governance, resourcing, approvals, and handover into delivery
• Ensuring strong control of schedule, cost, risk, change, and benefits
• Balancing resources and priorities across live programmes and concurrent bids
• Identifying, managing, and escalating risks, issues, and opportunities
• Preparing and presenting monthly programme status reports to senior leadership
• Supporting commercial activities including cost estimates, budgets, and revenue forecasting
• Driving lessons learned, continuous improvement, and capability development
• Acting as a senior interface with customers, suppliers, and partners
• Leading performance management, succession planning, and talent development

What We're Looking For

• Proven leadership experience in programme and bid management within complex, multi‑disciplinary environments
• Strong track record of delivering major bids and programmes end‑to‑end
• Deep understanding of matrix organisations and cross‑functional leadership
• Excellent commercial, contractual, governance, and risk management capability
• Confident stakeholder management at senior customer and executive level
• Able to remain credible, decisive, and calm under pressure
• Customer‑focused, commercially aware, collaborative, and influential

Experience & Qualifications

• Strong background in project / programme management, ideally in a defence or regulated engineering environment
• Experience running bids and programmes from conception to delivery
• Exposure to international customers or export contracts
• Ability to manage budgets, forecasts, and financial performance
• Professional qualifications such as APM, MSP, PMP, PRINCE2 (or equivalent)
• Degree or HND in Project Management or related discipline (or equivalent experience)
• APM accreditation an advantage