Bids Manager

THE FIRM

Welcome to Addleshaw Goddard (AG). We are a London headquartered, international, full-service law firm that consistently delivers high-quality outcomes for our clients globally.

We have been advising clients for 250 years, and today we support over 5,000 of the world's most respected organisations. We help them in over 50 areas of business law, across more than 100 countries. And while the opportunities and challenges they bring us vary, we solve each in a uniquely AG way.

Our clients enjoy working with us, we deliver a high-quality experience across everything we do, and we are known for award-winning innovation – all of which we harness to bring impact to clients.

In recent years we were recognised by the FT as one of the top 10 most innovative law firms in Europe; we have been named European Law Firm of the Year 2026, Law firm of the Year 2025, Litigation Law Firm of the Year, Real Estate Law Firm of the Year and Private Equity Firm of the Year in the UK; Corporate & Commercial Firm of the Year in Qatar; and Law Firm of the Year in Oman.

We are committed to inclusivity and sustainability and have a modern culture based on being approachable, collaborative and supporting each other.

In the last few years, we have successfully built out our presence in Europe with new offices in Germany, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain and now the Netherlands. We recently celebrated a decade in the Middle East where we have award-winning teams operating out of offices in Dubai, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and most recently Abu Dhabi.

THE ROLE

This role is about helping our expert Partners to win by delivering unforgettable and persuasive pitches and proposals. You will work alongside our Head of Bids, wider Bids Team, BD professionals, the firm's Partners, and an internal team of other specialists.

The team is well established and supports on a wide range of proposals from "routine" service line opportunities through to major FTSE100 panel opportunities. There are established best practices, and the team prides itself on its ethic of continual improvement.

The role reports to one of the Senior Bids Managers and has close working relationships across many areas of the business, including Partners and Senior Managers.

While there is no direct line report into this role, the Bids Manager will be required to work with other BD colleagues, and others from around the business, who may be less experienced in bids work but who have a deeper knowledge of the client/client's sector.  It is expected that the Manager will feed into other BD teams – Clients, Sectors & Divisions, Marketing, Communications etc. – on key themes being seen in bids and client feedback.

DUTIES

Working as part of the Bids team the Bids Manager will:

• Challenge on Bid / No Bid decisions, with both quantifiable evidence and knowledge of other decisions for the same / similar clients around the business
• Advise and lead partners and associates through the development of a bid strategy and formulation of a winning proposition
• Project manage the overall bid process, including:
  • initial scoping calls
  • document development, editorial control, including writing content
  • developing and challenging key messages/propositions
  • leading the review stage
• Develop and challenge pricing propositions in collaboration with the Pricing Team
• Liaise with the design function in the production of bids responses
• Coach teams at the presentation stages of pitches
• Work with the wider team to ensure all deal information and other information is captured and shared for future bids
• Conduct post bid debriefs both internally and with clients
• Collate, share and disseminate best practice and lessons learned
• Contribute to our library of pre-written bids content, assisting with content reviews and updates
• Work with partners and fee earners to drive account growth and facilitate best practice in account/relationship management
• Liaise with other members of the bids team to improve the overall quality of bids and efficiency of process
• Our systems and processes for storing and sharing data are evolving, and the Manager will be expected to contribute to ideas' sharing and creative challenge. This will include using Generative AI to drive efficiency and enhance our service.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED 

• Project managing bids effectively and calmly to tight deadlines, often simultaneously
• Excellent attention to detail
• Knowledge of the latest Generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Copilot) is a plus
• Ability to engage with different groups and stakeholders around the business – both in the UK and internationally – to promote best practice and develop relationships
• Awareness and interest of developments in the wider legal market, empathy to challenges faced by our clients and commercial acumen around various pricing models
• Ability to make connections between offerings throughout our sectors, practices and locations to articulate a compelling proposal
• Able to demonstrate and use their initiative – looking for continuous improvement and ways to implement positive change
• Confidence to challenge partners constructively and put forward alternative suggestions to positively enhance output
• Understands how to influence the decision-making process appropriately
• Good writing and editorial skills
• Flexibility when managing own workload and priorities to take others' time commitments into account
• A strong team player – willingness to support other colleagues
• Commerciality and acumen around various pricing models engaged by business
• A flexible approach to travel and working hours as some travel between our offices could become an essential element of this role
• Computer literate and can work expertly in Word and PowerPoint and competently in Excel.

BENEFITS

As a firm, we aim to provide a positive experience to everyone who works here and our focus on financial, lifestyle and wellbeing benefits ensures that this experience goes beyond the nine-to-five. As part of this mission, some of the benefits employees of AG can expect are; 

• Life Assurance & Income Protection
• Competitive employer matched pension contribution rate
• Health and wellbeing subsidy, up to £180 per year
• One day per year to volunteer (as part of our CSR initiative)
• Buy/Sell holidays (up to 5 days each year)
• Mental health and wellbeing initiatives such as The Mindful Business Charter, Mental Health Champions and 1:1 sessions with an in-house professional
• Talent referral bonus incentives
• AG Excellence awards for the recognition of exceptional effort
• Opt in private medical and private dental insurance
• Opt in annual health screening
• Voluntary critical illness cover
• Annual discretionary bonus plan