Senior Author

Costain; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading infrastructure solutions firm in the UK seeks a Mid-Senior level professional to lead strategic bids. Responsibilities include supporting authors, ensuring client needs are met, and driving quality in submissions. Ideal candidates will possess strong leadership skills and significant experience in bid management. This full-time role offers an opportunity to influence project outcomes across diverse sectors in civil engineering.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading and securing successful strategic bids.
• Strong leadership qualities around influencing people and leading quality submission.
• Ensures the client needs are at the heart of every quality submission.

Responsibilities

• Support Lead author in briefing SMEs and stakeholders.
• Clearly incorporate win themes and value proposition into responses.
• Contribute to bi‑annual Authors Day to align ways of working.

Skills

Leadership qualities

Planning and organizing skills

Problem solving

Job description

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 construction, consulting and digital experts to engineer solutions to the most complex problems.

Responsibilities

• Support Lead author in briefing SMEs and stakeholders on response approaches, client scoring mechanisms, and win themes.
• Clearly incorporate win themes and value proposition 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.
• Support the development of response strategies tailored to the client’s scoring criteria, question requirements, and value proposition.
• Support fellow Authors and Question Owners in strategically translating the value proposition into high‑quality written responses.
• Work with Bid Manager and SMEs to achieve quality response milestones (storyboard, pink and red reviews deadlines) and hold the team accountable for their actions.
• Lead with the support if required of Lead Author in pink, red and gold review meetings.
• Translate high‑level feedback during reviews.
• Implement best practices, governance and quality standards throughout the process.
• Escalate unresolved quality/output/relationship challenges to Lead Author, Bid Manager or Bid Director.
• Drive continuous improvement in quality.
• Embed improvements/learnings.
• Work collaboratively with Lead Author/Senior Author and Bid Directors during review processes to ensure alignment with strategic goals and client expectations.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading and securing successful strategic bids.
• Strong leadership qualities around influencing people and leading quality submission.
• Ensures the client needs are at the heart of every quality submission.
• Exceptional planning and organising skills, aligning activities to successfully achieve outcomes.
• 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.

Seniority level

Mid‑Senior level

Employment type

Full‑time

Job function

Marketing, Public Relations, and Writing/Editing

Industries

Civil Engineering

Employer Information

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.

Costain appreciates the time and effort taken when applying. Due to the high volume of responses we are unable to provide individual feedback on candidates at the application phase, but we do share feedback following an interview.

A Disability Confident employer will offer an interview to any applicant that discloses a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job, subject to recruitment constraints.

For more details, visit the Disability Confident website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign

Locations

Telford, England, United Kingdom • Bridgnorth, England, United Kingdom