Bid Manager full_time

Astroscale is seeking to employ a motivated Bid Manager at our UK office based in the Harwell Space Cluster. This is an exciting and unique opportunity to join a dynamic company seeking to make a positive contribution to the growing problem of orbital debris that endangers humanity’s continued use of space.

The successful candidate will report to the Head of Future Business (Europe) within the BD team, will develop bids and secure funding for Astroscale UK, and will support in a number of BD-related areas including proposal production for commercial sales.

Astroscale’s work environment is fast-paced and dynamic, with plenty of opportunities to learn and contribute. This role would suit someone with past experience in bids or sales, ideally in the spacecraft sector or in complex engineering services or products, who wishes to grow responsibility in the space BD area.

Responsibilities

Bid capture management:

• Take responsibility for managing and coordinating entire bids, or parts of bids as required, through the bid process from call opening all the way to bid submission (leading or supporting negotiation as needed).
• Control overall production of the bid volumes to ensure delivery on schedule.
• Draw on other relevant teams in Astroscale (as needed for larger bids), including: projects, engineering, procurement & contractual, finance, business analysis teams.
• Ensure bid execution according to bid PA/QA philosophy; conduct bid/no bid reviews and later stage bid reviews (e.g. gold / red team) as appropriate, conduct win-theme analysis.
• Control bid finances, working with finance team and with external partners on multi-partner / consortium-style to assign / control finances.
• Coordinating partner inputs (scope, finances), with procurement team as needed, for multi-partner / consortium-style bids.

Sales support:

• Support sales team with either face to face end customer engagements to establish customer needs, or indirectly supporting in the background.
• Deliver end customer proposals for commercial opportunities considering end customer needs, product specification, product/service finances or pricing, deliverables and contractual aspects.
• Support the development of value proposition for Astroscale products/services.
• Support account management of selected prospects.

Essential Skills

• 2 – 4 years’ experience working in bid management in the space industry, with a preference for those with experience of the full lifecycle of UKSA and ESA bids or sales experience of products or services.
• An excellent “sales / marketing style” in bid production which can be used to convey the selling points of the business, and to construct competitive but deliverable bids and commercial proposals.
• Strong commercial awareness.
• Self-motivated, proactive, and willing to take initiative.
• Excellent interpersonal, organizational, and written/verbal communication skills including to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong understanding of the space industry and ecosystem.
• Passionate about space with knowledge of the space environment and space debris.

Desirable skills

• Postgraduate degree (in engineering where possible).
• Experience of bidding into the following technical domains: in-orbit servicing, active debris removal, space situational awareness. Space segment bid capacity desirable, ground segment bid capacity also useful but not essential.
• Experience of working on bids of various different sizes, from 1 to 2 pager propositions for expressions of interest, to small R&D bids, to larger mission / service proposals of hundreds of pages.
• Experience of delivering / compiling key volumes for bids: technical, commercial, financial, implementation, management, contractual, risk.
• An understanding of the ESA ecosystem and bidding into ESA calls.
• Experience of ESA bid financials including PSS generation.
• Understanding of project management of space programmes, or some past experience in this area.
• Experience of working in a satellite business development or satellite sales environment.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Opportunity to work with a highly talented, diverse & dynamic international team with cutting edge technology
• Flexible working around core hours in a friendly and supportive environment
• Hybrid working available (dependent on individual role requirements)
• 25 days holiday (increasing yearly up to a maximum of 28 days) + 8 days Bank Holiday
• Life insurance and long-term sick pay
• Private healthcare (taxable benefit)
• Relocation allowance
• Visa sponsorship for employees considered
• New state of the art office and cleanroom facility
• Regular social events 

Location

Astroscale UK (Harwell), with opportunities for travelling.

About Astroscale

Astroscale is the first private company with a vision to secure the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations, and the only company dedicated to in-orbit servicing across all orbits. Founded in 2013, we are developing innovative and scalable solutions across the spectrum of in-orbit servicing missions, including End of Life services, Active Debris Removal, In-situ Space Situational Awareness and Life Extension Services, to create sustainable space systems and mitigate against the hazardous buildup of debris in space.

Headquartered in Japan, our company has rapidly expanding offices in the United Kingdom, United States, Israel and Singapore. We’ve grown to over two hundred Space Sweepers with an international outlook and a shared passion to protect our space environment for future generations. In March 2021, we launched our pioneering technology mission, ELSA-d, the world’s first commercial mission to demonstrate debris removal capability and technology in low Earth orbit.

Note to recruitment agencies: Astroscale operates a preferred Supplier List, and we do not accept unsolicited agency approaches. Please do not forward candidate CVs or details in response to this advert, or to any Astroscale employee.

Our Values

Mission & People Focused

Innovative and Pioneering

Diverse

Transparent

Customer Focused

Note to recruitment agencies: Astroscale operates a preferred Supplier List, and we do not accept unsolicited agency approaches. Please do not forward candidate CVs or details in response to this advert, or to any Astroscale employee.