Overview / Responsibilities

Wood is recruiting for a Proposals Manager to be based in our office in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The successful candidate will be responsible for the preparation of proposals across the Middle East Projects Business Units reporting to the Regional Tendering and Proposals Manager.

The individual in this role has the responsibility and accountability for the preparation, managing the preparation of and quality of proposals for their respective businesses. This role is typically assigned and responsible for a specific part of the business within their respective Business Units

The successful candidate will have specialist proposal preparation with requisite commercial skills and knowledge with regards to the Oil, Gas and Chemicals sector and ideally extending across other Wood lines of business. The individual should be highly motivated, have international experience across a large geographic footprint, ideally including GCC countries, and be confident engaging and interfacing at all levels, both internally and client facing.

Responsible for managing proposals within Middle East. Mentors and coach direct reports in proposals processes and procedures, personnel development and training

Providing direction and leadership for all tendering and proposals personnel working within designated region, covering all corporate governance and tendering / proposals deliverables throughout the pre contract activities.

Reporting to the corporate commercial function, ensuring delivery of proposals in accordance with the Tender Governance Procedures and the requisite Delegation of Authority. Implementation and delivery of key policies and procedures including Tender Governance Procedures.

Success criteria includes:

• Increased win rates within the respective businesses
• Ensure the business is properly supported
• Ensure quality of proposals, presentations and other customer responses
• Through proposal audits, ensure process is being followed and best practices are incorporated into customer responses
• Increased amount of boilerplate content for respective Business Unit in Knowledge

Hub Summary of responsibilities include:

• Foster the sell of Wood Solutions \xe2\x80\x93 Encourage and support cross selling of services for Wood across all markets
• Maintain records of active proposals, pre-qualifications and other customer responses with status and submission dates for assigned business
• Support and contribute to the continual improvement of proposal procedures and processes
• Take end-to-end ownership and command of proposal development and related support processes and procedures, including written proposals, oral presentations, Best and Final Offers, Evaluation Notices, Final Proposal Revisions, etc.
• Ensure compliance of Tender Governance Policy gates during pursuit and proposal development
• Assist Regional Tendering and Proposals Manager in auditing past proposals for businesses within the Business Unit
• Provide training on the proposal process and proposal best practices for all proposal team members within their respective Business Unit as well as all major stakeholders of the proposal process
• Manage Proposal Leads and Coordinators for their assigned part of the business including the coordination of workload (allocation of assignments), quality of output, ensure expectations and goals are clear and business is supported
• Evaluate job performance of Proposal Leads and Proposal Coordinators of respective business
• Ensure incorporation of proposal best practices into all customer responses for respective business
• Oversee/support pre-proposal positioning where appropriate, as well as proposal development strategies and implementation. This includes development of capture plan and proposal planning document development, facilitation of strategy sessions to develop the win strategy and theme/value proposition for proposals.
• Oversee the production of proposals of all sizes / types and other customer responses (including prequalifications, expressions of interest, presentations) and ensure that the proposal is compliant and delivered on time.
• This key role collaborates with capture management, SMEs, and proposal staff to write, edit, review, and produce winning proposals.
• Proactively directs and provides interface management to a team of complex skills and functions, including (but not limited to) BU and BG Wood management, Capture Manager, Technical Lead/Project Manager, volume / section leads, authors, SMEs, Legal, Estimating, Commercial
• Ensure customer\'s requirements are fully met. This involves conducting searches for appropriate materials and writing and editing project summaries, resumes of project personnel, and other supporting sections of the proposal, as necessary. Leverages existing archived proposal information.
• Develop and implement the proposal management plan (responsibility / compliance matrix)
• Develop and implement the proposal schedule
• Lead proposal kick-off and review meetings
• Oversee and / or expedite the following proposal processes: information gathering and compilation, data entry, formatting, editing, reviews, reproduction and delivery
• Where appropriate, assist / expedite managers in the management review of contract, tax, and insurance requirements
• Expedite proposal stakeholders to obtain outstanding proposal deliverables per the proposal schedule and in order to make the proposal deadline
• Ensure consistency and branding compliance for all customer responses
• Prepare post-bid submissions, organize the response to requests for clarification
• Manage the development of customer presentations (pre-proposal or post-proposal)

Skills / Qualifications

Qualifications

• Bachelor\xe2\x80\x99s Degree from an accredited university required in Engineering, Business, Marketing, Communications, Journalism, or related majors preferred
• Minimum Eight years proposal experience with similar firms preferred

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Technical and / or engineering experience preferred but not required
• Thorough understanding of and ability to implement industry best practices and Proposals/Marketing techniques
• Industry experience related to the supporting business is preferred but not required
• Possess and ability to apply extensive management skills and knowledge in field of specialization/expertise, in order to ensure functional area performs as expected and in compliance with both internal and external policies, laws, etc.
• Ability to manage projects, interface with customer representatives, interpret customer / stakeholder requirements, manage customer/stakeholder expectations, plan workload, organize proposals team resources and deliver on agreed deadlines
• Strong proofreading, editing and business software skills (style, format, grammar, etc.
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat; Proficiency with SharePoint and InDesign is desired.

Personal attributes

• Consistent personal ethic: integrity, dependability, initiative, and quality in line with our Corporate Vision and Values
• Even tempered in fast-paced, high-pressure environment
• Strategic creative thinker with ability to \xe2\x80\x9cthink outside the box\xe2\x80\x9d
• Proven team player, capable of leading and motivating the proposals team
• Advances analytical skills and ability to follow structured approach

Company Overview

Wood is a global leader in consulting and engineering, helping to unlock solutions to critical challenges in energy and materials markets. We provide consulting, projects and operations solutions in 60 countries, employing around 35,000 people.

Diversity Statement

We are an equal opportunity employer that recognises the value of a diverse workforce. All suitably qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment on the basis of objective criteria and without regard to the following (which is a non-exhaustive list): race, colour, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status, or other characteristics in accordance with the relevant governing laws.

John Wood Group