Business Development Partner - Public Sector Bidding
We are delighted to partner with one of the UK's leading charities to help them attract a talented, driven Business Development Partner to expand their Income Generation team.
The client is a very large UK Charity that specialises in a number of areas including Care for Children, Community Mental Health and Social Prescribing, Employability Services and Justice Support (both in and out of a Prison setting). They show demonstrable year on year growth with excellent financial reserves and a clear strategy that is solely focused on social impact and developing services that meet the needs of their service users.
The Income Generation Team is robust with access to specialist functions like Service Design, Financial Modelling, HR, Contracts, Partnerships and Legal that work specifically with the Bid Team to streamline and enhance the bidding process.
This is a 100% Home Based role with occasional travel for Commissioner events or meetings. There is no line management responsibility element to this role.
The Job
The Business Development Partners work as the lead bidder on opportunities and this includes responsibility for writing in conjunction with other colleagues who may be assigned to the bid with you. The team is structured in a way that allows for their Partners to lead on some bids but take a "second in command" role on others dependant on the needs of the team and size of the bid. All bids are Commissioned by the Public Sector so you can expect to work on a mix of NHS, Local Authority, MOJ and DWP opportunities throughout the year.
A very brief summary of duties include:
- Managing a project team and leading on the end-to-end process of bid opportunities, including developing project plans, researching and writing to submit high-quality bids.
- Working closely and building strong relationships with multiple departments, including Finance, Operations, Research and Development, Partnerships and other internal and external stakeholders, to support the development of service offers.
- Co-ordinate the production of supplemental tender requirements such as financial models, staffing structures and implementation plans, considering dependencies within the project plan.
- Overseeing and facilitating (where relevant) the running of focus groups and development workshops, for specific tender opportunities, with operational colleagues, partners and other stakeholders to develop methods of delivery, delivery models and customer journeys in line with tender requirements.
- Representing the organisation at dialogue/bidder interviews as appropriate.
- Leading on the governance sign off process, including writing detailed sign off papers and risk registers, in partnership with finance, operations and legal teams. You will be responsible for presenting the tender opportunity to the Senior Management Team to ensure organisational risks from commercial activities are visible, mitigated and managed in line with the approved risk appetite policy.
The Person
We are looking for Bid Professionals who have managed end to end bids but still love writing. A background in Public Sector bid work is essential, especially Local Authority work as these bids are more numerous throughout the year.
A brief summary of our client's essential our requirements include:
- At least two years of proven track record of successfully managing competitive tender process / bid writing leading to securing strategic, high value (£5m+) government funded or commercial contracts within one or more of the following areas: employability, children's services, mental health and wellbeing, justice, learning and skills
- Experience of successfully project managing a large team of stakeholders for the production of complex bids within tight deadlines
- Experience of leading/facilitating service design processes including co-design and co-production with internal and external partners
- Excellent written communication skills, capable of producing persuasive, informed and high-quality bids and supporting documents with high attention to detail.
- Excellent project management and organisational skills and capable of meeting challenging deadlines
- High level of commercial acumen
- Able to build and maintain strong relationships internally and externally, capable of influencing at all levels and unafraid to constructively challenge
Salary and Benefits
- Salary Banding from £45,000 to £52,000
- Contractual home working as standard
- Annual cost of living wage increase
- 25 days holiday plus all bank holidays
- Option to purchase one additional week of annual leave per year
- Matched pension up to 6% (12% in total)
- Health Cash Plan for you and up to four dependants (includes dental)
- 2 days paid volunteering
- Internal Apprenticeship scheme with options up to Masters level in some specialisms