Head of Bid Writing

Head of Bid Writing

Location: Manchester, National

Company: The Growth Company

Contract type: Permanent/ Full- time

Salary: Up to £65,000 per annum

Ref No: 4878

The Growth Company is a mission-led social enterprise dedicated to making a positive difference. We deliver high-impact services helping people, businesses, and places overcome social, economic, and business challenges.

We're now seeking a strategic and hands-on Head of Bid Writing to lead and oversee the development of large, complex, and innovative bids across our key markets: Employment Services, Justice, Health, and Business Support.

Why Join Us?

At GC, you'll be part of a collaborative, high-performing team. We embrace flexible working, enabling you to work remotely while staying connected through cutting-edge technology and twice monthly team meetups in Manchester.

You'll help shape the future of our organisation and the communities we serve.

As Head of Bid Writing, you will:

• Develop your own high-quality written responses whilst managing and coordinating input from colleagues to deliver winning submissions.
• Work with colleagues across the Business Development Team, coordinating the creation of winning bids , ensuring high-quality, high-scoring submissions through writing, reviewing and editing processes.
• Provide oversight and sign-off on, storyboards, and drafts for bids.
• Develop and challenge the team to increase the quality scoring of bids.
• Coach and support the wider business development team in bid writing and production.
• Collaborate across departments to shape innovative written responses and secure existing and new contracts.
• Drive the continuous improvement of bid writing scores using commissioner feedback and lessons learnt.
• Utilise all available resources including AI to enhance the quality of bids.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop your own high-quality written responses
• Oversee the production of bids, tenders, and frameworks to maximise scoring potential.
• Maintain and increase the quality scoring potential of all bids/tenders/frameworks.Act as a challenge and sign-off point for bid content and structure.
• Deliver training and support to enhance bid writing capability across GC.
• Maintain and improve bid documentation, templates, and best practice resources.

What You'll Bring:

• Proven success in writing, leading and winning large-scale public sector bids.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong commercial awareness and creative thinking.
• Deep understanding of public procurement and commissioning processes.
• Experience working with funders such as DWP, ESFA/DfE, MOJ, DBT, DESNZ Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Authorities.
• Ability to lead storyboarding, editing, and final production of high-quality submissions.
• Excellent project management and stakeholder engagement skills.

Essential Experience & Skills:

• Minimum 5 years' experience in bid development and writing within relevant markets.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven track record of writing and delivering winning bids.
• Degree-level education or equivalent.
• Familiarity with tendering portals and public sector procurement.
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities.
• IT proficiency, especially in Microsoft Office 365.

We are committed to increasing workforce diversity and offer a guaranteed interview to applicants who meet the essential criteria and either have a disability or are from a diverse ethnic community.

If this applies to you, you can request consideration under this scheme during the application process. Your request will be shared only with the Hiring Manager and Internal Recruitment Team.

We also aim to make our recruitment process inclusive and accessible. If you need reasonable adjustments or have any general enquiries at any stage or the recruitment process, please contact or call us on .

Examples include:

• Meeting the hiring manager or touring the venue in advance
• Extra time for tasks
• Interview questions shared beforehand
• Accessibility software or equipment for assessments

We're proud to support the Ban the Box campaign, which helps people with convictions access job opportunities. As part of this, we've removed questions about convictions from the initial application stage.

GC is committed to fostering a culture of flexibility and agile working. Many roles will increasingly support full agile arrangements. If you require more permanent flexibility, we encourage you to discuss this during your interview so your request can be considered early in the process.