Bid Writer - Defence

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Bid Writer - Defence
Hybrid - located from either our Solihull, London or Hook office with regular UK travel for meetings/visits
Full Time, Permanent 

£40,000 - £45,000 per annum (dependent on experience)

Serco is a global Defence business and a critical player in the UK Defence Enterprise. We make an impact by delivering agile and resilient services, covering people and training, engineering and infrastructure solutions. We bring together the right people, the right technology and the right partners to support the Defence Enterprise to protect the nation in a volatile world.

As Bid Writer, you’ll be a part of a large writing team who provide professional and high-quality bid writing support for bids, large and small, within our Bidding teams. Although you will excel in support our Defence Business Unit, you will have the opportunity to work with a variety of stakeholders and business units. Working closely with the rest of the bidding team - and thoroughly understanding the proposed solutions - you’ll produce quality bids that meet the client’s brief whilst being visually engaging and compelling. This will include the production of written responses, storyboards, and other bidding collateral.

As well as the satisfaction of working on contracts that directly supports the UK Defence Enterprise, you’ll also benefit from an environment that firmly sets the stage for your own career development and progression, whether you want to specialise, progress upwards, or broaden your career. We offer a wide portfolio of career frameworks, with the right training and development in place to support your aspirations, including in Sales, Bids, Solutions, Commercial and Project Management to name a few.

Main responsibilities:

• Support the bid team in the creation of storyboards and to ensure these are implemented in the writing pathway.
• Work with subject matter experts (SMEs) and other colleagues and specialists to translate solutions and knowledge into crafted written responses.
• Create quality responses which are well-written, accurate, concise, and visually engaging. They will also effectively convey the required message, answer the customer’s requirements (including adherence to word counts, presentational requirements, and evaluation criteria requirements) and score well.
• When required, to conduct additional research to supplement bid responses including collation and presentation of relevant data.
• To incorporate win themes, USPs, sales messages, case studies and ‘hot button’ material into responses, aligned with APMP best practice.

What you’ll need to do the role:

• You will have experience of a complex and varied bidding environment (across different methods of procurement) and will have experience of managing multiple deliverables.
• Experience in Defence tenders.
• Highly competent in MS Office software with some experience of other tools and applications such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Project, Visio, etc. Skills around template creation and document manipulation would be advantageous.
• Excellent communication skills including relationship development and stakeholder management; individuals will be confident and articulate in all communications.

Desirable Skills and Qualifications:

• There are no specific requirements for qualifications for this role although the successful candidate will have previous defence bid writing experience and is likely to have a background in journalism, linguistics, or similar and must be able to write to a very high level (fluency, accuracy, correct messaging etc.).
• Familiarity with using AI within a writing process.
• Practical understanding of Shipley.
• APMP Foundation or higher qualification.

We understand that the skills gap can sometimes prevent us from meeting exceptional candidates – please don’t hesitate to apply, we would love to hear from you.

What we offer:

· Up to 6% contributory pension scheme

· APMP Foundation qualification

· A range of benefits to support the health and wellbeing of you and your family such as Employee Assistance Programme, Simply Health Plans, Annual Leave Purchase Scheme and more

· Access to a huge range of discounts and exclusive deals such as Merlin Attractions, Mobile Phone discounts, Cinema discounts, Leisure, and Hospitality discounts

· Committed to professional and personal development with a wide range of training and coaching opportunities to expand your capabilities

· Up to 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Why Serco:

Meaningful and vital work: In this position, your work is vital to the business, in terms of decisions and growth. You will gain a world of opportunity working for a globally operating business delivering essential services across 5 vital sectors, personal growth, achievement, and development won’t be hard to find. You'll also work with great people. You’ll find yourself working in a highly motivated, supportive environment where no two days are the same, with experienced colleagues who strive for excellence.

About Serco
At Serco, not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play, from caring for vulnerable people to managing complex public services.  We are a team of 50,000 people responsible for delivering essential public services around the world in areas including defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and citizen services. We are innovators, committed to redesigning and improving public services for the benefit of everyone.

By joining Serco you will have unlimited access to our Global Employee Networks – SercoInspire (Gender), SercoEmbrace (Multicultural), SercoUnlimited (Disability) and In@Serco (LGBT & Networks). Serco Employee Networks, led by colleagues who are passionate about diversity, inclusion and belonging. 

Apply
Please click on the apply button to complete your application. Occasionally we receive a large volume of applications for our roles and when that happens we sometimes bring the closing date forward, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment. 

At Serco, we see people first and foremost for their performance and potential. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that supports the needs of all. As such we will make reasonable adjustments at interview through to employment for our candidates and strongly encourage applications from a diverse candidate pool. We are open to discussions around flexibility and flexible working. We operate a hybrid work structure in many of our business areas. We are proudly Disability Confident Leader employers and holder of the Gold Inclusive Employer Standard. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview.  For help with your application please contact 0345 010 4000.
 

At Serco we support fair access to employment for those with unspent criminal convictions through the ‘Ban the Box’ pledge (some may be exempt due to the nature of the role and the security clearance required). Please contact our recruitment team directly on 0345 010 4000 to discuss.