Bid Manager, Utilities

What you'll do:

The Bid Manager is responsible for leading the PDSS team of bid and proposal specialists to deliver high-quality, compliant, and competitive tenders across Eaton's PDSS portfolio. This role manages the full bid lifecycle-from qualification to submission-ensuring proposals meet customer requirements, align with technical and commercial governance, and maximise win probability.
The Bid Manager provides leadership, coaching, and capability development to the bid team, while acting as the central coordination point for Sales, Product Management, Product Marketing, Engineering, Finance, and Legal.

Team Leadership & Capability Development
Lead, coach, and develop a small team of estimators.
Allocate bid workloads, manage priorities, and ensure the team meets deadlines.
Establish bid management standards, templates, tools, and continuous improvement practices.
Foster a high-performance culture focused on quality, accuracy, and collaboration.
Conduct performance reviews, skills development plans, and training.

End-to-End Bid Management
Own the planning, execution, and submission of strategic bids and major tenders.
Oversee the team's preparation of smaller/standard bids, ensuring consistency and compliance.
Run bid kick-off meetings, define roles and responsibilities, and manage bid schedules.
Ensure tender responses address all specification requirements and evaluation criteria.

Bid Strategy & Win Themes
Support Sales in opportunity qualification and bid/no-bid decisions.
Develop compelling win themes in partnership with Product Marketing and Product Management.
Translate technical and commercial strengths into customer-centric narratives.
Review competitor insights and positioning to shape bid strategy.

Technical & Commercial Coordination
Work closely with Product Managers and Engineering to ensure the proposed solution is compliant, competitive, and deliverable.
Facilitate pricing development using inputs from Product Management, Finance, and Supply Chain.
Ensure technical clarifications, deviations, and solution optimisation opportunities are captured.

Proposal Development & Quality Control
Oversee creation of proposal documents, including executive summaries, solution descriptions, compliance matrices, project plans, and commercial schedules.
Maintain and improve standard content: templates, case studies, safety statements, organisational charts, CVs, project references, and capability modules.
Ensure all bid materials are well-structured, accurate, and aligned to brand and messaging standards (via Product Marketing).

Governance, Risk & Compliance
Manage the tender governance process including pricing approvals, risk reviews, commercial sign-offs, and legal review.
Ensure all submissions meet contractual, regulatory, safety, and ethical requirements.
Identify and manage risks associated with terms, scope, delivery requirements, and liabilities.

Continuous Improvement
Implement best practice bid methodologies (APMP style or equivalent).
Introduce tools for version control, content management, and bid pipeline visibility.
Build a library of reusable content to reduce preparation time and improve consistency.
Measure team performance and implement improvements to increase win rates."

Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Commerce, Communications, or related field.
5-10+ years' experience managing complex tenders in electrical, industrial, engineering, infrastructure, utilities, or EPC environments.
Proven leadership experience managing small teams or bid groups.
Strong project management skills; able to run multiple concurrent bids with competing deadlines.
Knowledge of Australian standards, regulatory environments, or compliance requirements.
Familiarity with AS/NZS standards, utility procurement frameworks, and engineering drawings/specifications.
Background in HV/MV equipment, transformers, switchgear, substations, or electrical distribution.
Experience with CPQ/ERP tools, bid management software, and tender portals.
Demonstrated experience collaborating across technical, commercial, and operational functions.
Excellent writing, editing, and proposal presentation skills.

Skills: