Background information about the job or company (e.g., role context, company overview)

GardaWorld is a global leader in security services. This role is within the Security Services Business Unit and focuses on opportunities across Africa. The Bid Manager will be responsible for managing the end-to-end bid lifecycle for GardaWorld’s security services opportunities across assigned African markets. The role balances strategic thinking, governance and commercial decision-making with hands-on proposal leadership and content development. The Bid Manager routinely engages country leadership, executive sponsors and subject matter experts to strengthen pursuit strategies, improve win probability and ensure proposals accurately reflect customer requirements, operational capability and commercial objectives. The Bid Manager is expected to leverage data, market intelligence, competitor insights and bid analytics to continuously improve win rates, proposal quality, decision-making and overall bid function maturity.

Responsibilities or duties

The Bid Manager owns the end-to-end bid lifecycle for GardaWorld’s security services opportunities across assigned African markets. This includes leading capture activities to qualify opportunities, defining win strategies, coordinating technical and commercial inputs, ensuring compliance and quality of submissions, and managing post-submission and post-award reviews to capture lessons learned and support operational handover.

Qualifications or requirements (e.g., education, skills)

Minimum 3-5 years’ experience in bid management, proposal management, capture management or commercial support roles. Strong commercial awareness and ability to translate business strategy into compelling customer-focused responses. Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional projects under tight deadlines. Excellent written communication, editing and proposal development skills. Strong analytical and problem-solving capability with the ability to interpret bid data and performance metrics. Experience conducting bid/no-bid assessments and supporting strategic pursuit decisions. Strong stakeholder engagement and executive communication skills. High attention to detail and strong organisational capability. Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, together with CRM, document management and proposal management platforms. Experience working within multi-country, matrix or international business environments. Knowledge of procurement processes, tendering environments and contract structures. Security industry experience is desirable but not essential.

Experience needed

Minimum 3-5 years’ experience in bid management, proposal management, capture management or commercial support roles.

Any other provided details (e.g., benefits, work environment, team info, or additional notes)

The role has a pan‑Africa remit — the Bid Manager is accountable for bids across multiple countries irrespective of base location. Occasional regional travel may be required. The primary office can be Nairobi, Kenya OR Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (office-based).

• Lead early-stage capture activities for medium to high-value pursuits, including stakeholder mapping, customer intelligence gathering, competitor analysis and win-theme development.
• Partner with Sales and Business Development teams to understand customer priorities, procurement drivers, pain points and evaluation criteria.
• Apply a data-driven bid/no-bid qualification framework, assessing opportunities against strategic fit, probability-to-win, profitability, operational capacity, compliance requirements and risk profile.
• Analyse historical bid performance, win/loss trends and market intelligence to support pursuit decisions.
• Coordinate executive sponsor and country leadership engagement to shape and approve pursuit strategies.
• Maintain visibility of future opportunities and proactively support pursuit readiness activities.
• Define and guide the win strategy with the opportunity owner, help clarify value proposition and differentiators for each pursuit.
• Translate win strategies into compelling, customer-focused technical and commercial responses.
• Lead cross-functional win strategy workshops and sprint-based response plans.
• Establish pursuit themes, customer value messaging and executive positioning.
• Act as the primary author/editor for executive summaries, compliance matrices and key proposal content.
• Ensure proposal narratives clearly demonstrate GardaWorld’s operational capability, customer understanding, value creation and delivery confidence.
• Manage proposal resources and workload allocation to ensure priority pursuits are adequately supported.
• Manage the end-to-end proposal process, including planning, scheduling, content development, reviews, approvals, clarifications and final submission.
• Establish and maintain bid plans, responsibility matrices and submission schedules.
• Facilitate structured proposal reviews at key stages of the bid lifecycle, including compliance reviews, peer reviews, red-team reviews and executive approval reviews.
• Implement strict pre-submission quality assurance processes, including compliance checks, formatting reviews, pricing alignment and document control.
• Ensure all submissions comply with customer instructions, tender requirements and GardaWorld brand standards.
• Maintain and continuously improve proposal templates, response libraries, boilerplate content, case studies, CV repositories and evidence playbooks.
• Liaise with Managing Directors, Operations Directors, Country Managers and Business Development teams to ensure alignment across technical, operational and commercial elements.
• Identify contractual, commercial, operational, financial and reputational risks associated with pursuits and coordinate mitigation actions.
• Work closely with Legal, Finance and Operations teams to ensure risk acceptance and approval requirements are understood and documented.
• Support pricing reviews, commercial negotiations and executive approval processes.
• Escalate material risks, resource constraints and approval dependencies to senior leadership as appropriate.
• Lead bid governance activities and ensure compliance with delegated authority requirements and approval frameworks.
• Maintain transparent approval trails and ensure audit readiness across all pursuits.
• Ensure compliance with applicable procurement regulations, licensing requirements, contractual obligations and country-specific operational requirements.
• Ensure proposals accurately reflect GardaWorld’s certifications, accreditations, compliance obligations and security service capabilities.
• Champion the effective use of CRM systems, proposal management platforms and bid analytics tools.
• Promote responsible use of AI-assisted drafting and automation technologies by implementing appropriate controls around accuracy, confidentiality, version control and data privacy.
• Ensure secure document management and confidentiality across all bid activities.
• Own the post-submission feedback process, including customer debriefs, win/loss reviews and internal lessons-learned sessions.
• Conduct structured post-mortems to identify key improvement opportunities.
• Analyse bid metrics and performance data to improve win rates, proposal quality and process efficiency.
• Develop and implement action plans arising from lessons learned.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen bid capability, governance and response quality.
• Support contract award transition activities and ensure a structured handover process to operational delivery teams.
• Ensure all bid commitments, assumptions, risks, pricing mechanisms and contractual obligations are clearly documented and communicated.
• Participate in operational mobilisation and handover meetings where required.
• Work with delivery teams to ensure continuity between proposed solutions and operational execution.
• Coordinate inputs from Operations, Finance, Legal, HR, Procurement, Technical Services and Country Leadership teams.
• Secure timely reviews, approvals and decisions throughout the pursuit lifecycle.
• Present bid/no-bid recommendations, bid status updates and strategic insights to senior management and executive sponsors.
• Build and maintain productive relationships with customers, partners and subcontractors.
• Facilitate collaboration across geographically dispersed teams and multiple countries.
• Mentor and upskill proposal contributors and subject matter experts.
• Promote bid management best practices and proposal excellence across the business.
• Drive standard operating procedures, governance frameworks, templates and playbooks.
• Support capability development initiatives and training programmes.
• Contribute to the maturity and scalability of the Commercial Support Team function.

• Strong commercial awareness
• Ability to translate business strategy into compelling customer-focused responses
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional projects under tight deadlines
• Excellent written communication, editing and proposal development skills
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability
• Ability to interpret bid data and performance metrics
• Experience conducting bid/no-bid assessments
• Supporting strategic pursuit decisions
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills
• Executive communication skills
• High attention to detail
• Strong organisational capability
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Proficiency in CRM, document management and proposal management platforms
• Experience working within multi-country, matrix or international business environments
• Knowledge of procurement processes
• Knowledge of tendering environments
• Knowledge of contract structures

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, Commercial Management, Communications, Project Management or a related discipline.
• APMP Certification (Foundation, Practitioner or Professional) or equivalent bid/capture certification.
• Experience with proposal automation platforms and AI-assisted drafting technologies.
• Knowledge of public procurement regulations and tendering frameworks within African markets.
• Relevant project management, commercial or contract management certifications would be advantageous.