We are currently recruiting for a Head of Tender and Bids to lead and own the end-to-end tendering and bid function across Sunbelt Rentals UK, operating as a senior member of the Commercial leadership team.
This is a central, business-critical role responsible for driving consistency, governance, and commercial quality across all bids and tenders, from high-volume submissions through to complex, strategic opportunities.
The role combines strategic oversight with operational excellence, ensuring Sunbelt delivers high-quality, differentiated, and commercially disciplined submissions that drive sustainable revenue growth, margin performance, and return on capital.
The position is Warrington-based, with an expectation of regular travel to engage with customers, support key bids, and work closely with sector and operational teams across the UK. Overnight stays will be limited but should be expected where required to support critical opportunities.
Responsibilities:
- Define and lead the UK-wide bid and tender strategy, aligned to Sunbelt’s growth priorities, sector focus, and customer segmentation.
- Act as the senior owner of the central bid function, ensuring consistency, governance, and quality across all business units and bid types.
- Own and manage the bid pipeline, ensuring focus on the right opportunities through structured qualification (bid/no-bid) and prioritisation.
- Partner with the Executive Commercial Director and wider Exec to support strategic pursuits and provide visibility on performance, risks, and opportunities.
- Be able to interpret bid outcomes and opportunities presented to provide insight into market trends, competitor positioning, and customer procurement behaviours
- Lead the end-to-end bid lifecycle: qualification, solution design, pricing, submission, negotiation, and post-bid review.
- Ensure all submissions are high-quality, compliant, and compelling, with clear differentiation and strong customer value propositions.
- Drive a structured “bid spine” process across the function to improve discipline, consistency, and conversion rates.
- Ensure bid responses are highly tailored, insight-led, and specific to each customer and opportunity—minimising generic content and maximising relevance and impact.
- Oversee delivery of a high-volume, complex pipeline (300+ submissions annually), ensuring consistency and quality at scale.
What can we offer you in return? You’ll be joining a highly successful company, the UK’s largest equipment rental provider. We provide an Industry leading flexible rewards package including generous holiday allowance (with the opportunity to buy and sell annual leave), life assurance, retail discount scheme, employee recognition awards and a great Company pension scheme.
If you join the team we’ll provide you with everything you need and ensure you are equipped for success. We’ll talk to you about your training and personal development needs and what you’d like to do to further your career and support your future aspirations.
To succeed in the role you will bring the following skill-set and behaviours:
- Experience in bids, tenders, or proposal management
- Experience in a senior management role, leading teams and influencing at a senior level
- Proven leadership of a complex bid/tender function in a multi-sector or B2B environment
- Strong commercial acumen, with experience influencing pricing and deal structures
- Track record of improving win rates and bid performance at scale
- Experience using CRM and bid management systems (ideally Salesforce) and leveraging technology to improve performance
- Ability to balance strategic thinking with delivery in a high-volume, fast-paced environment
- Strong communication and influencing skills across technical, operational, and commercial audiences
Why Sunbelt?
Whether it's construction sites, energy projects, government initiatives, or unforgettable events, Sunbelt Rentals deliver the equipment and expertise to move every industry forward. With our ambition to an employer of choice this makes Sunbelt Rentals an ideal destination for your next career move.
We are committed to the fair treatment of our staff, potential staff, and users of our services, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, responsibilities for dependants, age, physical/mental disability, or offending background.
Having a criminal record will not automatically bar an individual from working with us. We judge each case on its own merits, taking into account the relevance of the conviction to the role, the circumstances, and the time passed since the offence.
