Sales Manager Tendering

About the Role 

We are seeking a highly driven and detail-oriented Sales Manager - Tendering to own the end-to-end bid management lifecycle across defence, government, and enterprise opportunities. This role is critical in ensuring timely, compliant, commercially optimized, and high-quality proposal submissions that improve win rates, protect margins, and support annual order booking objectives. The ideal candidate will have strong experience in defence tendering, techno-commercial proposal management, and cross-functional stakeholder coordination. You will act as the central point of ownership for all bid-related activities, ensuring proposal quality, submission discipline, and effective collaboration across technical, finance, sales, business development, legal, and operations teams.

Key Responsibilities 

Bid Management & Proposal Ownership

● Own the end-to-end lifecycle of RFI, RFQ, RFP, tender responses, and techno-commercial proposal submissions
● Ensure all proposals are complete, compliant, accurate, and aligned with customer requirements
● Manage proposal timelines from customer requirement freeze through final submission
● Ensure zero misses on customer submission deadlines

Cross-Functional Coordination

● Coordinate with technical, finance, sales, business development, legal, budget owners, OEM partners, and operations teams to gather inputs and drive proposal completion
● Manage bid schedules, dependencies, reviews, and approvals across stakeholders
● Ensure timely closure of action items and maintain proposal delivery discipline

Commercial Structuring & Margin Protection

● Drive commercial structuring and pricing strategies to maintain target gross profit margins
● Standardize costing assumptions, exclusions, commercial terms, and risk notes
● Support bid/no-bid qualification decisions and response strategies with sales leadership

Proposal Excellence & Win Rate Improvement

● Improve proposal turnaround time (TAT) while maintaining quality and compliance
● Develop compelling, customer-focused proposals with a high probability of success
● Track proposal outcomes and maintain bid performance metrics
● Monitor competitor pricing intelligence, market trends, and bid learnings to strengthen future submissions

Process Governance & Knowledge Management

● Maintain proposal repositories, templates, compliance matrices, and submission checklists
● Ensure proper version control and documentation governance across all bid activities
● Continuously improve bid processes to reduce rework, errors, and submission risks
● Establish best practices for proposal development and review cycles

Operations & Trial Support

● Extend documentation and proposal-related support to operations teams during customer trials, demonstrations, and evaluations
● Ensure technical and commercial documentation is maintained accurately throughout the customer engagement lifecycle

Qualifications & Skills

Education

● Bachelors Degree in Engineering, Business Management, or a related discipline
● MBA preferred

Experience

● 6–10 years of experience in Bid Management, Proposal Management, Tendering, or Defence Sales Support roles
● Mandatory experience in defence, government, aerospace, homeland security, or strategic technology sectors
● Proven track record of managing complex techno-commercial proposals and tender submissions

Technical & Functional Skills

● Strong understanding of RFI, RFQ, RFP, tendering, and proposal management processes
● Experience in techno-commercial proposal preparation, costing, pricing, and bid strategy
● Strong commercial acumen with experience protecting margins and managing risk considerations
● Excellent proposal writing, documentation, and compliance management skills
● Experience managing multiple high-value bids simultaneously

Stakeholder Management

● Strong cross-functional coordination and stakeholder management skills
● Ability to influence teams and drive execution without direct authority
● Excellent communication, presentation, and negotiation skills

Mandatory Knowledge Areas

Working knowledge of:
● Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP 2020)
● Defence Procurement Manual (DPM 2009)
● Government procurement and tendering frameworks
● Defence and public sector bidding processes

Key Success Metrics

● Proposal submission turnaround time (TAT)
● Bid win rate and conversion ratio
● Proposal quality and compliance adherence
● Gross margin protection on awarded contracts
● Zero missed submission deadlines
● Stakeholder satisfaction and coordination effectiveness
● Accuracy and completeness of techno-commercial proposals