Business Development Manager

Job Introduction

Sodexo's Government Segment have a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Business Development Professional to join us in a really exciting period of growth. 

You will lead and engage in client-facing discussions and negotiations as part of the procurement process for new tenders we chose to bid for.

You will have experience in leading and managing the bid life cycle end to end, ideally this will be in the public sector market, however, we are open to talking with individuals from the private sector who are willing to learn the differences in public sector contracts and the drive to be successful in this area. 

You will be commercially minded with an understanding of the operational services we deliver to our clients in order to effectively sell Sodexo to potential new customers.

We are particularly interested in candidates who have been involved, as part of a business development team, in major, complex public sector bids (10m+) for FM services. 

An understanding of Soft FM services, including catering, would be helpful

This is an exciting time to join our segment where we have a strong pipeline of new business opportunities for you to be heavily involved in.

You will be home based and due to the nature of the role travel will be expected across the UK.

Role Responsibility

• Lead allocated bids for new business, retention or cross-selling opportunities
• Co-ordinate and manage the relationship with commercial, Service Operations and other functions to ensure the best outcomes are delivered
• Work with internal and external partners on solution design to effectively address and convey technical elements of bid responses
• Lead and engage in client-facing discussions and negotiations as part of the procurement process, testing our proposed solutions.
• Lead/oversee/coordinate/coach sales team members, workstreams and partners through the entire bid lifecycle including developing successful bid strategies and detailed operational solutions to ensure excellent outcomes and ultimately, win the contracts
• Successfully analyse bid questions and structure responses to maximise scores against client evaluation criteria
• Remain up to date with competitor analysis and market changes.

For a full list of responsibilities please review the attached job description

The Ideal Candidate

• An understanding of Soft FM services, including catering, would be beneficial as well as experience of working on complex public sector bids
• Proven and successful experience of leading & managing bids.
• Extensive experience in successfully running the end to end bid lifecycle on opportunities including effectively incorporating bid governance and processes, as well as developing and implementing bid strategy
• Ability to manage and motivate multi-disciplinary, virtual and diverse teams
• Proficient at analysing bid questions and structuring and writing responses to maximise scores against evaluation criteria
• Good interpersonal skills, influence and impact, working with others
• An influential and persuasive communicator, with a high standard of written and verbal communication skills

Package Description

£65,000, plus bonus, car allowance and flexible benefits fund

We also offer Sodexo Discounts site promoting discounted mobile phone tariffs, savings across restaurant chains and days out, where you and your family can save money on everything from your weekly food shop to the latest cinema blockbuster and much more

About the Company

In the UK and Ireland, Sodexo employs some 36,000 employees to deliver integrated facilities management services to clients at over 2,000 locations in the energy, corporate, healthcare, education, leisure, defence and justice sectors. With an annual turnover of over £1bn, we provide everything from catering, cleaning and reception to security, laboratory and grounds maintenance services, enabling our clients to focus on their core business

At Sodexo we are committed to a leading role in promoting equality opportunities and valuing diversity and inclusion. We seek to create a work environment based on mutual respect for all individuals, building a culture that appreciates and values the experiences and skills brought by each person to benefit our organisation and work hard to ensure that all people, whatever their age, disability, gender, transgender, marital or family status, race or ethnicity, religious belief of sexual orientation are welcome to and included within our business. We are building on our support to the Armed Forces community through the development of specific pathways within our recruitment process to  support ex-forces personnel and reservists, those applying for jobs with us who meet the ideal candidate criteria for the role advertised are guaranteed to progress to the selection process