Assistant Proposals Manager

About the role

This role supports the development of high-quality, customer-focused proposals, including PQQs and tender submissions that help secure profitable work across the Power T&D business.

Working under the guidance of the Senior Proposals Manager and Senior Bid Writer, the Assistant Proposals Manager plays a key role in the planning, development, coordination, and delivery of compelling submission content across a variety of clients and opportunity types.

The focus is on proposal development, bid writing, and stakeholder engagement. You’ll collaborate closely with Bid Managers, operational teams, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and the wider Work Winning function to produce persuasive, evaluator-focused responses aligned with customer requirements and scoring criteria.

You’ll also help shape customer-facing narratives, develop win themes and key messaging, and ensure all submissions are compliant, high-quality, and consistently delivered to a professional standard.

What you'll be doing

Proposal Development & Bid Writing

• Support the development and delivery of high-quality proposal responses across multiple live opportunities
• Contribute to storyboard and answer planning workshops, helping define structure, win themes, and key messages
• Write, edit, and refine responses for PQQs, ITTs, frameworks, presentations, and supporting collateral
• Translate complex technical and commercial information into clear, persuasive content
• Develop tailored responses aligned to customer drivers, scoring criteria, and evaluation methodology
• Ensure submissions clearly articulate value, differentiation, delivery capability, and strategic fit

Stakeholder & SME Management

• Work closely with Bid Managers, engineers, planners, commercial teams, and SMEs to gather and refine content
• Challenge and enhance SME input to improve clarity, structure, and customer focus
• Coordinate contributors to ensure content is delivered to the required quality and within agreed timescales
• Build strong relationships across the business to support collaborative proposal delivery

Proposal Planning & Coordination

• Support the planning and coordination of proposal activity across multiple bids
• Help manage proposal programmes, answer plans, and review schedules
• Coordinate review cycles, ensuring feedback is incorporated and actions are closed off ahead of submission
• Assist with formal proposal reviews where required

Compliance, Quality & Continuous Improvement

• Support the delivery of high-quality, compliant submissions aligned to customer and internal requirements
• Ensure consistency in quality, tone, grammar, formatting, and presentation
• Assist with tender reviews, health checks, and submission sign-off activities
• Capture lessons learned and support ongoing improvement of processes, tools, and best practice

Knowledge Management & Content Development

• Maintain and improve the bid content library, including core narratives, case studies, and boilerplate responses
• Develop and update high-quality case studies aligned to strategic priorities
• Maintain CV libraries and supporting submission materials
• Ensure content remains current, relevant, and aligned to evolving customer expectations
• Promote knowledge sharing across the Work Winning function

Business Development & Customer Support

• Support the creation of presentations, capability documents, and value propositions
• Assist with customer presentations and clarification responses where required
• Contribute to the development of consistent, customer-focused messaging

Who we're looking for

Essential

• Experience within a bid, proposals, tendering, or work-winning environment
• Strong bid writing and proposal development skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Experience facilitating or supporting storyboard / planning workshops
• Ability to produce persuasive, customer-focused responses
• Strong stakeholder management skills
• Ability to challenge and refine technical content from SMEs
• High attention to detail with the ability to maintain quality under pressure
• Strong organisational skills and ability to manage multiple deadlines
• Proficient in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel

Desirable

• Experience within construction, infrastructure, engineering, utilities, or major projects
• Understanding of public sector procurement processes
• Experience using Adobe InDesign or similar tools
• Knowledge of proposal review processes

Why work for us

Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK’s most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities.

Why join us?

As if contributing to and supporting work that makes life better for millions wasn’t rewarding enough, we offer a full range of benefits too. You’ll have the freedom to shape the package that’s right for you and your life. Here are some of our key benefits:

• Smart working, giving you more flexibility such as staggered start and finish times, with up to 40% remote working, where roles allow.
• 25 days paid annual leave (pro rata)
• Family friendly policies which include 28 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave and four weeks full pay for paternity/partners leave
• Pension, share incentive plan, volunteering leave, recognition schemes and much more…

Balfour Beatty’s Power Transmission & Distribution teams work with regional, national and international electricity network owners and operators to provide technical engineering solutions across the full spectrum of the electricity grid, including overhead lines, cabling, substations and distribution networks.

From scoping and feasibility, to design, construction and on-going maintenance, our in-house experts, flexible resources and industry-leading innovations support customers in the development of some of the UK’s most ambitious power transmission and distribution projects.

Diversity and inclusion

At Balfour Beatty we believe that diversity and inclusion are essential components of any successful, happy workplace. Through our Value Everyone Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan, we are growing our diverse workforce and developing our inclusive culture where everyone is able to thrive and reach their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. To find out how we are making this a reality, visit www.balfourbeatty.com/diversityandinclusion

To help and support us with our desired commitment to create an inclusive culture we are members of WISE, enei, Business Disability Forum and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE). In 2020, we signed the Audeliss and Involve Open Letter to demonstrate our commitment to taking key long term and sustainable actions on Black Inclusion. Balfour Beatty is also a Gold Award holder in the Ministry of Defence 'Employer Recognition Scheme' and actively encourage applications from Armed Forces personnel, veterans and reservists.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to working with people who have disabilities and long-term health conditions to remove barriers for them in obtaining employment. We are also committed to offering applicants with a disability an interview if they meet the minimum requirements for the role. For more info, visit: https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/

We are looking to continually improve our resourcing process and ensure that it is fair and inclusive for all. If you have any feedback on the process, please share this with us at: ***email_hidden***

Job Reference: BBUK19549