Head of Bids

at  HippoDigital

ACCOUNTABILITIES

Bid transformation and continual improvement: Develop and deliver Hippo’s bid transformation plan taking us into our next phase of growth. You will be responsible for ensuring we have the skills and structure to win bids, working with our existing bid team. In addition you will work to continually improve bid outcomes, leveraging detailed market and feedback analysis, to drive action.
Frameworks: Proactively monitor and gain a comprehensive understanding of the structure and requirements of UK government procurement frameworks, ensuring compliance with all legal and commercial regulations, including new Procurement Act 2023 implementation. This also includes actively pursuing opportunities to secure positions on new frameworks, expanding our reach and potential within the public sector.
Manage the delivery of high-quality bids: Oversee the bid process, ensuring the right team with the right skills is in place for each bid by working with the wider business to identify input required, and have direct involvement in high value and strategic bids. Drive excellence in bid submissions by continually improving best practices in bid writing and presentation. Develop and leverage a deep understanding of upcoming tenders, potential buyers, and competitors to support, and challenge, business development colleagues with strategic bid triaging, win strategy and prioritisation.
Team performance: Provide leadership, performance management, and professional development to the bid team, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and high-quality results. As the business expands, you will be responsible for identifying, justifying, and recruiting for additional bid roles, as well as managing and integrating these new team members effectively.
Build and develop strategic partnerships: Establish and nurture successful relationships with colleagues from across Hippo business, including Business Development, Delivery, Commercial, Legal and Executive Board, as well as with external partner companies supporting strategic relationships.
Knowledge management and process optimisation: Enhance and leverage existing systems to capture and leverage insights from successful bids, fostering continuous learning and improvement. Optimise bid processes by streamlining the handling of standard components, reducing repetitive tasks, and implementing automation through technology to increase efficiency and accuracy. Maintain and iterate a centralised repository for bid-related documents, templates, and tools, ensuring consistency and promoting collaboration. Design and deliver training for colleagues on latest bidding best practices, techniques and compliance requirements.
Reporting, bid analysis and insights: Ensure feedback is captured on all bids to understand reasons for outcomes, share insights with the wider business, and drive changes to improve bids in the future. Deliver accurate, insightful board and operational reporting, incorporating in-depth analysis to enhance decision-making.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE THAT YOU NEED

In terms of experience, the successful candidate will have:

• Proven experience in bid management within a digital or data services business of significant scale (500+ people/£100m+ turnover).
• Familiarity with public sector digital procurement frameworks e.g. Digital Outcomes & Specialists, Gcloud, Digital Specialists and Programmes.
• Knowledge of Procurement Regulations (including new Procurement Act) and/or industry best practices (via UKAPMP etc)
• Experience in managing large (£10m+) public sector bids.
• Proven ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, managing multiple bids simultaneously and adhering to short turnaround times (e.g. 2 weeks).
• Experience in implementing and enhancing key processes and systems, such as knowledge management, bid tools, reporting and analysis.

In addition, you will be able to demonstrate:

• Strong people management skills, with the ability to lead, motivate, and develop a high-performing team
• Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise, multitask, and adapt to a flexible, fast-paced environment.
• Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, and the ability to cultivate strong working relationships with a diverse range of colleagues and stakeholders
• Senior stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence, collaborate, and lead virtual teams.
• Strong attention to detail and a focus on accuracy in all aspects of work.
• The ability to work independently and deliver high levels of internal customer service to the wider team.
• Be comfortable working under pressure and adapting to rapidly changing priorities.

DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING AT HIPPO

At Hippo, we’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We understand that having a diverse team unlocks our capacity for innovation, creativity and problem solving. Only by building a community of diverse perspectives, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds can we create an environment where all can contribute and thrive.
We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process that reflects our workplace culture. We are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.
Hi, we’re Hippo.
At Hippo, we design with empathy and build for impact. We do this by combining data-informed evidence, human-centred design and software engineering. We’re a digital services partner who is genuinely invested in helping our clients thrive as modern organisations. Our delivery methodology is truly agile, from concept to reality, supporting innovation and continuous improvement to achieve your desired outcomes.
We firmly believe that technology should serve humanity, not the other way around. We take a human-centred approach to everything we do because we understand that complex problems require a service design approach. This means understanding how users behave and ensuring our solutions work for them in the real world.
Our combination of data, design, and engineering delivers bespoke digital services that make a positive and meaningful impact on organisations and society. We’re confident in our abilities, authentic in our approach, and passionate about what we do. If you’re looking for a digital services partner that can deliver real results, let us help you build for the future and make a lasting impact.

Hippo is seeking an accomplished and proactive Head of Bids to drive performance and lead the strategic development and transformation of bids at Hippo. We are looking for someone who enjoys working in a fast paced environment and will further mature our established bid function and organisational bid capability, enabling us to increase the volume of bids we pursue, win larger (£20m+) scale bids, and increase our overall win rate.
You will lead and manage the team of 3 Bid Managers and report to the Commercial Director. The successful candidate will drive bid management strategy, oversee bid processes, directly lead on strategic high value bids, and continually improve best practices to enhance our competitive positioning and meet the needs of our fast-paced growing company.
This is a hybrid role with travel across our offices and client locations as required.