Key Responsibilities and Duties
Looking for a career where you can apply your writing skills to something which really matters? Bid Writing may be perfect for you. We help clients to win contracts worth 100s of millions of pounds every year and our graduate/traineeship programme is highly successful at fast-tracking the first steps of a highly lucrative career path.
The Need-To-Knows
Location: Bolton (Hybrid)
Hours: 37.5 (Mon - Fri)
Salary: £26,227.50 - £30,000 depending on experience, with annual salary review and profit share bonus
What we do
We write winning bids for companies across a diverse range of sectors – In 2022 we worked in 74 industries from Forestry Conservation to Utilities and everything in between, we’ve got it covered. We’ve been helping businesses to grow since 2009 and have since grown in numbers to have a large, directly employed bid team split across our 3 key divisions – Bid Writing/Management, Bid Resource and Bid Training. This makes us one of the largest bid consultancy organisations (and one of the largest bid teams full stop) in the UK. We’re the full package.
Our Graduate Bid Writers receive a range of training and support to enable quick progression. This includes a mentoring programme, our CPD-certified Bid Training course and undertaking the Association for Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) foundation accreditation.
Our people
We have a diverse team of bid professionals. But more than that, we are readers, bikers, climbers, amateur chefs, dog lovers, film lovers, opera lovers, linguists, sports fans, parents, volunteers and lots more!
Our Hiring Process
You find this job advert
You read the ad and we have your attention
You tell us you’re interested (apply, email, call, shout)
If your CV fits what we’re looking for, we’ll get in touch
If everything looks good, we’ll invite you to interview and send you a quick writing task
If we’re all on the same page and we think you’d be a good fit, we’ll make you an offer
You accept the offer and tell everyone how amazing your life has become
Our process is highly streamlined so we’d only expect all of the above to take between 1-3 weeks!
Our culture
- We’re creative and open-minded
- We pursue growth and learning
- We embrace and drive change
- We build open and honest relationships with communication
- We build a positive team spirit
- We’re passionate and determined
- We’re a Disability Confident employer and our line managers have received neurodiversity training.
- We provide a well-defined career path (our Trainee and experienced hires have gone onto many senior roles, from Senior Bid Writer all the way up to Director-level. For some, their salaries have more than doubled.
Our Benefits
- Flexible/hybrid working for a better work/life balance (equipment provided)
- Enhanced annual leave of 22 days +BH, rising to 25 days +BH with service
- Extra paid day off for your birthday
- Health cover from day 1, with 24/7 GP access and EAP
- Trained Mental Health First Aiders
- Access to discounts at high street and online retailers
- Regular social events, as well as bigger company events in summer and winter
- Clear in-house progression opportunities
- All our team have access to and gain APMP accreditations
What you’ll be doing
You’ll provide a broad range of bid writing and support to our clients, assisting them to win business across a range of sectors (including healthcare, facilities management, construction, professional services and utilities to name just a few). Tasks you’ll be undertaking as a Graduate include:
- Supporting bid project management, planning and coordination
- Undertaking gap analyses to identify information that is required to develop the best possible bid submission
- Researching markets, competitors and other bid-related topics
- Assisting with drafting, reviewing, writing and submitting persuasive tender responses
- Adding value to our clients’ bids through creativity, knowledge and ideas
- Building effective working relationships and communicating with clients
- Ensuring compliance with all bid requirements including the Thornton & Lowe house style
Person specification
What you’ve done so far (Essential Criteria)
Ideally, you’ll be educated to NVQ Level 4, HND, Degree qualified or equivalent OR are from a journalistic/professional writing background or equivalent
You have the ability to work calmly and efficiently in a fast-paced environment with demonstrable experience of prioritising workloads and working to deadlines
What you’re good at
Thinking creatively and using your initiative
Communication – excellent written and proofreading skills
Working effectively as part of a team and independently
Ideally (desirable but not essential) have 1-2 years’ work experience within a professional business or sales environment with some understanding of procurement and the bid writing process.
If you’re excited by this opportunity, please apply and don’t be afraid to ask questions!
For more information about our Graduate/Traineeship Programme, please request a copy of our brochure from [email protected].
We’ve made a positive commitment to employing disabled people. We offer disabled applicants the option of requesting that their application is considered under the terms of our Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS). If you wish to apply under the GIS, please indicate this in your application cover letter.
This job advert has been reviewed against Diversity & Inclusivity Best Practice - If you have any feedback on this job advert, please contact us.
Thornton & Lowe has been helping businesses to grow since 2009! We have since grown in numbers and now have a directly employed core team of professionals split across our 3 key bid divisions; Bid Writing, Bid Resource and Bid Training. Our vision is to consistently deliver a customer centred, high performance service, which adds value for our clients, advance the development of our staff ahead of competitors and to assist more clients in securing contracts than any other consultancy business. Our core values are Passion & Drive, Accountability & Responsibility, Integrity & Honesty and Learning & Development.
