Senior Business Development and Bids Manager


Company:	St John Ambulance
Salary:	£40,443 (ROE) - £45,339 (London)
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	London, EC1M 4DA
Working pattern:	On-site
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	17 Sept 2026
Closing date:	1 Oct 2026

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Summary

Role: Senior Business Development and Bids Manager

Location: Nationwide

Full-time

Our Offer to you

We pride ourselves in being a great place to work, providing a supportive culture with opportunities to grow and develop your career, achieve a healthy work life balance and to be recognised for the great work you do. You will receive:

Competitive salary and pension scheme

33 days holiday (inclusive of bank holidays) - increasing to 38 days over 5 years

Hybrid, Flexible working

Cycle to work scheme

Electric Vehicle Scheme (subject to terms)

Health and Wellbeing portal – access to financial, health and wellbeing support and an Employee Assistance Programme

Discounts – you will have access to Blue Light and NHS Discounts as well as discounts on mobile phones, gym membership, cinema tickets, restaurants, holidays and shopping

About You

We’re looking for someone who:

Has significant experience in business development, bid management, commercial development or a related strategic commercial environment.

Has experience leading business development pipelines and bid activity, from identifying opportunities through to developing and submitting high-quality proposals.

Has strong commercial awareness and experience assessing opportunities based on strategic fit, operational deliverability, margin, risk, stakeholder support and customer value.

Has experience developing and embedding consistent business development and bid management processes and governance.

Has strong market and competitor insight skills, with the ability to identify opportunities to increase market share and drive sustainable revenue growth.

Has experience developing new services, propositions and operating models, taking ideas from initial concept through to a ready-to-execute proposition.

Is commercially astute, with experience developing business cases and understanding financial and commercial considerations.

Is confident influencing and working with senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams to gain support and progress opportunities.

Has excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to develop compelling proposals and communicate complex commercial opportunities clearly.

Is highly organised, able to manage multiple priorities, deadlines and stakeholders while maintaining quality and commercial discipline.

Is proactive, strategic and collaborative, with the ability to challenge thinking and identify new opportunities for growth.

Understands the importance of ensuring propositions are deliverable, commercially sustainable and aligned with organisational purpose and strategy.

About the role

In this role, you will:

Lead St John Ambulance’s business development and bids capability, ensuring strategically important opportunities are identified, developed and progressed effectively.

Lead the development and management of the business development and bids pipeline, ensuring opportunities are appropriately assessed and prioritised.

Develop strong customer and stakeholder relationships to understand requirements, identify opportunities and support successful outcomes.

Lead bid governance, proposal development and quality, ensuring submissions are compelling, consistent and commercially robust.

Embed a consistent business development lifecycle and bid management process across the organisation.

Ensure opportunities are assessed against strategic fit, operational deliverability, margin, risk, stakeholder support and customer value.

Develop new services and propositions that support St John Ambulance’s commercial objectives, increase market share and drive revenue growth.

Work between the Strategy and Commercial teams to develop insight and gather market, customer and competitor intelligence.

Scope, design and develop operating models for new services and propositions that can be effectively delivered by the appropriate Directorate.

Take ideas and opportunities from initial concept through to ready-to-execute proposition, ensuring they are commercially viable and operationally deliverable.

Work collaboratively with Sales, Operations, Strategy, Commercial and other cross-functional teams to develop and progress opportunities.

Influence senior stakeholders and build alignment around new commercial opportunities and propositions.

Support the delivery of St John Ambulance’s ‘Forward Thinking’ strategy through the identification and development of new opportunities.

Develop and present compelling business cases, recommendations and proposals to support commercial decision-making.

Ensure successful propositions are appropriately handed over to the relevant functions for implementation and delivery.

Identify opportunities for organic growth, diversification and new routes to market, as well as supporting potential inorganic growth opportunities.

Maintain strong commercial discipline throughout the business development and bid process, ensuring opportunities support sustainable growth and align with St John Ambulance’s purpose.

Please see the job description for more detail (this can be viewed on our website or once you click apply)

If you are a current St John Ambulance employee, please apply here: Click here

For all other candidates, or St John Ambulance volunteers wishing to apply: please apply below

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive high volume of applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

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