Lead Author

Costain; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading engineering solutions provider in the UK is seeking a Lead Writer to oversee and manage the bid submission process. The candidate will support the authoring team and ensure high-quality submissions. Key qualifications include extensive experience in strategic bids and strong leadership skills. This is a full-time role suitable for someone with mid-senior level expertise in marketing, public relations, or writing/editing.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience of leading and securing successful strategic bids.
• Exceptional planning and organizing skills.
• Effective problem-solving abilities.

Responsibilities

• Support the Bid Director to lead the authoring team.
• Take responsibility for ‘one voicing’ responses prior to submission.
• Actively support senior authors to illustrate “what good looks like” in submissions.

Skills

Leadership

Influencing

Strategic Thinking

Problem Solving

Planning and Organizing

Job description

Costain brings together a unique mix of engineering solutions for increasingly complex problems. Our commitment to creating connected, sustainable infrastructure is core to all our activities within our four strategic markets of transport, water, energy and defence.

Together with our customers we work to shape, create and deliver pioneering infrastructure solutions, bringing together a mix of construction, consulting and digital experts to engineer solutions to the most complex infrastructure problems.

A strong track record in seamlessly leading the quality submission and leading authors on complex bids. They take full responsibility for all quality aspects of winning a bid.

This individual is a strong collaborator and influencer, adept at managing a diverse mix of stakeholders including Sector Directors and SMEs to retain high degrees of confidence that the bid will be submitted to the highest possible standard.

The Lead Author is responsible for managing a team of authors and overseeing and actively managing the end‑to‑end quality submission process, from storyboard development to final submission, ensuring all outputs, including those of their team, are high‑quality, compliant, and compelling.

Responsibilities

Leadership And Team Guidance

• Support the Bid Director to lead the authoring team, providing clear direction on submission strategy and structure, this includes incorporating VP/Win Themes.
• Brief Authors, SMEs, and stakeholders on response approaches, client scoring mechanisms, and win themes (approach to incorporating them into responses).
• Ensure SMEs understand their roles, responsibilities, and how they contribute to the overall pursuit.
• Contribute to bi‑annual Authors Day to align ways of working, understand areas of improvement and lessons learned.

Strategic Response Development

• Support the development of response strategies tailored to the client’s scoring criteria, question requirements, and incorporating value propositions and win themes.
• Support Senior Authors, Authors and Question Owners in strategically translating the value proposition into high‑quality written responses.

Quality Assurance

• Take responsibility for ‘one voicing’ responses prior to submission.
• Work with Bid Manager and lead SMEs and Authors, to achieve quality response milestones (storyboard, pink and red reviews deadlines) to the necessary quality, making team accountable for their actions.
• Lead pink, red and gold review meetings. Translate high‑level feedback during reviews.
• Implement work‑winning best practices (as per authoring guide), governance, and quality standards throughout the process.
• Escalate unresolved quality/output/ relationship challenges to Bid Manager or Bid Director (as appropriate).

Continuous Improvement & Training

• Actively support senior authors and authors to illustrate “what good looks like” in submissions.
• Drive continuous improvement in quality.
• Embed improvements/ learnings.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Work collaboratively with Sector Directors during review processes to ensure alignment with strategic goals and client expectations.

Essential

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

• Extensive experience of leading and securing successful strategic bids.
• Strong leadership qualities around influencing people and leading quality submission.
• A strategic and creative thinker ensures the client needs are at the heart of every quality submission.
• Exceptional planning and organising skills, aligning to activities to successfully achieve outcomes.
• Anticipates, understands, and balances multiple stakeholders needs.
• Effective problem solving.

Desirable

• Experience bidding both construction and consultancy opportunities.
• Experience in the Transportation and Natural Resources sectors.

About Us

Costain helps to improve people’s lives with integrated, leading edge, smart infrastructure solutions across the UK’s energy, water, transportation and defence markets. We help our clients improve their business performance by increasing capacity, improving customer service, safeguarding security, enhancing resilience, decarbonising and delivering increased efficiency. Our vision is to be the UK’s leading smart infrastructure solutions company. We will achieve this by focusing on blue‑chip clients whose major spending plans are underpinned by strategic national needs, regulatory commitments, legislation or essential performance requirements. We offer our clients leading edge solutions that are digitally optimised through the following five services which cover the whole life‑cycle of their assets: future‑shaping strategic consultancy; consultancy and advisory; digital technology solutions; asset optimisation and complex programme delivery. Our culture and values underpin everything we do.

Costain appreciate the time and effort taken when applying for one of our positions but, due to the high volume of responses, we are unable to provide individual feedback on candidates at application phase. We do share individual feedback following an interview.

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that discloses they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer.

Seniority level

• Mid‑Senior level

Employment type

• Full‑time

Job function

• Marketing, Public Relations, and Writing/Editing

Industries

• Civil Engineering

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