Pursuits and Proposals Senior Manager

Ideas | People | Trust 

We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world.  

We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high growth businesses that fuel the economy - and directly advise the owners and management teams that lead them.  

We’ll broaden your horizons  

Our Sales & Marketing team is building a function that reflects who we are: open, trusted and focused on shaping what matters. You’ll join a team big enough to offer big priorities and commercial challenges, yet personal enough to ensure you’re supported and empowered from day one. 

Here, we think beyond. You’ll bring ideas, challenge thinking and help shape how we deliver campaigns, insights and engagement across the business. Working closely with internal clients, you’ll deepen your understanding of our sectors and see how connected teams drive our 2028 growth ambitions. 

From strategic storytelling to capability‑building and smarter ways of working, you’ll grow your skills while working with people who care about doing the right thing. 

We’ll help you succeed  

In this team, development is central to how we work. You’ll have access to best‑in‑class training, clear capability frameworks and hands‑on learning that give you the confidence and skills to grow quickly. We make it personal with supportive teams where you belong, are trusted, and take transformative work on early. You’ll collaborate across service lines and leadership levels, building relationships grounded in openness and accountability. 

You’ll bring your best - taking ownership, delivering quality and building trust across the firm. In return, you’ll get clarity, fair feedback and the development you need to succeed. You won’t just complete tasks - you’ll help shape how the team evolves and how we support the business. 

Role purpose

The Pursuit and Proposal Senior Manager is the lead pursuit coach for the firm’s largest and most complex bids, accountable for shaping and executing the overall approach to winning. The role partners with pursuit leads and senior stakeholders to develop win strategy, win themes and differentiation, and to ensure the team’s pitch and presentation approach is compelling, rehearsed and aligned to the written submission.

This role is coaching-led. It drives disciplined pursuit governance (go/no-go inputs, probability-to win thinking, milestone reviews), influences the pursuit team’s behaviours and decisions, and elevates how the firm shows up to buyers. The role may work alongside a proposal manager

supporting production but remains accountable for the strategic “win it” approach and for increasing win likelihood on priority pursuits aligned to growth and market priorities.

Key responsibilities

• Shape win strategy, win themes and “how we win” narrative based on buyer needs, decision dynamics and competitive context.
• Challenge and strengthen differentiation, proof points and risk handling, ensuring the case to win is clear and evidenced.
• Coach pursuit leads and senior stakeholders to improve pursuit behaviours, decision-making and quality of execution.
• Facilitate key pursuit working sessions to align teams around the strategy, storyline and roles.
• Lead pitch preparation and rehearsal approach: narrative structure, choreography, speaking roles, audience targeting and QandA readiness.
• Advise on and enforce pursuit milestones and review gates (strategy, storyline, draft quality and readiness checks).
• Identify risks early (strategy, evidence gaps, capability, time) and escalate with recommendations.
• Work with Content/Markets Activation/Design and Bid Hub Knowledge colleagues to ensure proposals and pitches use the best available assets and proof points.
• Contribute to win/loss debriefs and convert learning into improvements in coaching approach, templates and playbooks.
• Provide insight into pursuit pipeline and readiness for reporting and prioritisation.

You'll be someone with

• Significant experience leading high-value, complex bids and pitches in a professional services or complex B2B environment.
• Strong track record of improving win performance through strategy, coaching and disciplined rehearsal.
• Excellent facilitation and senior stakeholder influence skills.
• Strong commercial judgement and ability to assess probability-to-win and readiness.
• High editorial/storytelling capability with strong buyer orientation.

At BDO, we’ll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development. 

We’re in it together 

Mutual support and respect is one of BDO’s core values and we’re proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture.  From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we’ll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs. 

Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another.  At BDO, you’ll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work. 

We know that collaboration is the key to creating value for the companies we work with and satisfying experiences for our colleagues, so we’ve invested in state-of-the-art collaboration spaces in our offices.  BDO’s people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we’ll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences.  With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you’ll never stop learning at BDO. 

We’re looking forward to the future  

At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy.  Our success is powered by our people, which is why we’re always finding new ways to invest in you. Across the UK thousands of unique minds continue to come together to help companies we work with to achieve their ambitions 

We’ve got a clear purpose, and we’re confident in our future, because we’re adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise. We shape the future together with openness and clarity, because we believe in empowering people to think creatively about how we can do things better.  

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