Bid Manager

Overview

The Bid Manager role involves leading, organizing, and delivering comprehensive proposal responses for multiple complex opportunities within the global travel software sector. Operating remotely, this position manages the full bid process from qualification through submission, ensuring meticulous planning, governance, and cross-functional alignment to produce compelling and compliant proposals.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee entire bid lifecycles, establishing strategic win themes, solution narratives, and governance for numerous concurrent bids.
• Collaborate with Sales and Product teams to devise bid strategies focused on client outcomes rather than internal capabilities.
• Provide bid/no-bid decisions grounded in clear evaluations of risks, commercial considerations, and delivery factors.
• Develop detailed bid schedules, RAID logs, and compliance checklists while coordinating activities across multiple time zones.
• Conduct bid kick-offs, daily check-ins, progress evaluations, and content reviews, applying rigorous control gates until submission.
• Maintain strict version control, governance, and audit-ready documentation throughout active pursuits.
• Transform subject matter expert contributions into persuasive, score-aligned proposal content, ensuring clarity, consistency, and adherence to evaluators' criteria.
• Supervise formatting, document design, and final production quality to deliver high-standard client-facing materials.
• Analyze RFP/RFI/RFQ documents to identify compliance requirements, technical needs, and possible disqualifiers.
• Guarantee all proposals fulfill mandatory criteria and submission guidelines, eliminating any process-related disqualification risks.
• Manage clarification queries, supplier portals, and timeline adherence to minimize compliance risks.
• Engage senior stakeholders across Sales, Product, Engineering, Security, Legal, and Finance to secure quality inputs while coordinating across global time zones.
• Navigate content disagreements diplomatically, maintain decision logs, and align executive contributors on critical trade-offs.
• Set up consistent communications and clear expectations among all contributors in a remote work setting.
• Create and sustain knowledge repositories, standardized templates, case studies, and reusable bid materials to streamline bid cycles.
• Lead lessons learned reviews and drive continuous improvements in bid processes, quality, and success rates.
• Mentor and coach broader bid team members to enhance overall function capability.
• Integrate AI tools and governance in workflows to improve speed, consistency, and quality of bid outputs, while retaining accountability for final content quality.
• Identify and develop AI-enhanced prompt libraries, templates, and reusable assets that benefit the entire bid team.

Desired Expertise

• Knowledge of travel technology domain including airline systems, hospitality tech, or digital travel ecosystems.
• Experience with security and compliance responses such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR/data privacy questionnaires, and technical due diligence.
• Ability to track and analyze bid KPIs, win rates, and cycle times, delivering data-driven insights at portfolio levels.
• Proficiency with design tools like Adobe InDesign or equivalents for producing professional proposal outputs.
• Coordination experience with subcontractors and partners, managing NDAs, defining roles, and aligning joint submission narratives.