Main Purpose of Job
Competitive tender and framework procurement is the primary route to market across NHS and public sector language services. Winning consistently in that arena requires more than good bid writing. It requires early market intelligence, credible framework relationships, sharp commercial judgement on which opportunities to pursue, and submissions built around a genuine argument rather than a compliance exercise.
This role owns that vertical end to end. You will take full commercial ownership of Word360's tender function: identifying and qualifying opportunities, owning bid strategy and submission quality, managing our framework relationships, and building the market intelligence that tells the wider commercial team where to focus.
You will manage our Bid Writer directly, raising the quality and consistency of everything we submit. But this is not a role that sits behind a desk writing responses. You will be out in the market, building relationships with framework providers and procurement bodies, attending engagement events, and developing the early-stage intelligence that turns into pipeline twelve months before a tender is published.
Responsibilities and Duties
- Take full ownership of Word360's bid and tender function, from opportunity identification through to submission, feedback, and continuous improvement.
- Own the tender pipeline. Anticipate and identify upcoming opportunities across NHS, ICB, and public sector procurement well in advance of publication, ensuring Word360 is positioned before the tender goes live.
- Make the bid or no-bid decision on every opportunity, applying commercial judgement on fit, win probability, and resource requirement rather than bidding for everything.
- Own bid strategy and win themes for every submission, ensuring each response is built around a clear commercial argument rather than a compliance exercise.
- Write, review, and quality-assure bid responses to an industry-leading standard, holding the pen personally on the most strategically significant submissions.
- Analyse tender outcomes, gathering and interpreting evaluator feedback on both wins and losses, and translating it into measurable improvements in future submissions.
- Build and maintain a bid library, response bank, and standardised bid process that improves quality and reduces turnaround time on every submission.
Framework and partnership management
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- Own Word360's relationships with NHS framework providers, including NHS SBS, HTE and other relevant procurement frameworks, ensuring we maximise the commercial value of every framework position we hold.
- Identify and pursue new framework opportunities, managing the application and accreditation process end to end.
- Represent Word360 at procurement engagement events, market engagement exercises, and supplier days, building relationships with procurement leads and framework bodies.
- Monitor the NHS procurement landscape for direct award opportunities, framework call-offs, and contract expiries across the market, feeding qualified opportunities into the commercial team.
- Work alongside the BDM and Partnerships Manager, who leads on wider public sector, BSL, and private sector partnerships, ensuring the two functions complement rather than overlap.
Market intelligence and commercial insight
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- Build and maintain a view of the NHS and public sector language services market: who is contracted with whom, when contracts expire, and where Word360 has the strongest opportunity to compete.
- Track competitor activity across tender outcomes, framework positions, and market movements, and translate that into practical commercial intelligence for the sales and account management teams.
- Identify opportunities beyond tenders that the BDM and account management team can act on, including trusts approaching renewal, ICBs consolidating contracts, and organisations experiencing service issues with incumbent providers.
- Report on bid pipeline, win rate, and market intelligence to the Head of Sales and Marketing on a regular basis.
Team leadership
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- Directly manage and develop the Bid Writer, setting clear standards for submission quality, managing workload and deadlines, and providing structured coaching and feedback.
- Build the internal capability and knowledge base needed for the bid function to operate consistently and independently of any single individual.
- Work across the business with operations, clinical, finance, and marketing teams to gather the evidence, data, and content that makes a submission compelling.
- Support the marketing team with sector-relevant content that reinforces Word360's positioning in the markets we bid into.
Skills and Attributes Required
This is a senior role with genuine commercial autonomy. We need someone who can operate independently, make good judgement calls without supervision, and raise the standard of everything the function produces.
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- Demonstrable experience managing and winning public sector bids and tenders, ideally within NHS or healthcare procurement. You should be able to point to specific contracts you have won and explain why you won them.
- Strong working knowledge of NHS and public sector procurement processes, including framework agreements, PQQ, ITT, RFP, direct awards, and the practical realities of how procurement decisions get made.
- Genuine commercial judgement. You know which opportunities are worth pursuing and which are not, and you can build a persuasive commercial argument rather than simply answering the question.
- Excellent written communication. You will be writing and editing high-value submissions where the quality of the argument determines the outcome.
- Experience of constructing 500-1000 word qualitative responses
- Experience managing or coaching others, with the confidence to set standards, give direct feedback, and manage performance where it falls short.
- Relationship-building capability. This role requires you to be visible and credible in front of procurement leads, framework bodies, and market stakeholders.
- Self-directed and organised. You will own a pipeline, manage multiple concurrent submissions to hard deadlines, and be trusted to prioritise without close supervision.
Nice to Have
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- Experience within language services, interpreting, translation, or a related health and social care service sector.
- Existing relationships with NHS procurement frameworks or bodies.
- APMP certification or equivalent bid management qualification.
- Experience building a bid function or bid library from a standing start.
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- Full ownership of the commercial vertical that drives the majority of Word360's new business, reporting directly to the Head of Sales and Marketing.
- Salary of up to £60,000 depending on experience, plus an uncapped bonus linked to tender performance.
- Genuine autonomy. This role is being created because we need someone to own this function properly, not to execute someone else's process.
Benefits
- Holiday Allowance: 24 days of holiday per year, plus bank holidays, and an additional day off for your birthday.
- Loyalty Reward: Earn an extra paid holiday for every two years of service, up to a maximum of 29 days.
- Comprehensive Training: Enjoy a structured onboarding process, full training, and ongoing development opportunities, including annual group training to help you excel.
- Employee Recognition: Celebrate achievements with our employee awards and development programs.
- Health and Wellness: Benefit from health insurance, reduced gym memberships, reduced cinema tickets, and more.
- Career Growth: Your efforts drive your success. With our ambitious growth plans, you’ll continually expand your expertise and opportunities.
- Cycle to Work Scheme: Join the cycling revolution with our support.
- Pension Scheme: Secure your future with our workplace pension plan.
- Paid Sick Leave: Rest assured with paid time off during illness.
- Social Events: Engage with colleagues and innovate through business-wide social events.
Recruitment Process
- Successful applicants will complete a short pre-screen, including recorded answers to a few questions, along with a psychometrics test.
- If shortlisted, you’ll be invited to a first interview (via Microsoft Teams or in person).
- Finalists will attend a final interview (again, either online or face-to-face).
- Please note, the process may change
Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing
Diversity, inclusion and wellbeing is an important part of Word360's culture and values. We recruit talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, providing equal opportunities for all to join our team regardless of age, sex, race, sexual orientation, disability, or culture.
We create an exciting and rewarding place to work that aims to fulfil everyone's potential and together to achieve personal and business goals. We offer flexible working patterns to help our staff achieve a good work/ life balance and we encourage candidates seeking flexibility in their next role to apply for any of our vacancies.
Additional Information
If you are successful in receiving an offer of a role with our company a variety of pre-employment screening checks will be completed. Our screening checks can include but are not limited to your eligibility to work, professional and academic qualifications, any criminal records, your financial stability, and references from previous employers. The screening that takes place will be relevant to your role and will vary from role to role.