Proposal Manager

Proposal/Bid Manager

Location: Home-base Dublin / Hybrid Dublin, Ireland

Position Summary:

At Bentley Systems, our strategic pursuit of major infrastructure projects globally requires a highly coordinated, high-stakes bidding operation. 

The Bid Manager is the mission-critical anchor of this process, turning complex, multi-disciplinary engineering proposals into highly competitive, winning submissions. Operating in a fast-paced environment with strict external deadlines, this role is required to manage the entire bid lifecycle—orchestrating cross-functional teams including; Sales, Services, Solution Engineering, Legal, Product, Finance and more.

Without the Bid Manager's rigorous project management, stakeholder alignment, and risk mitigation, our pursuits risk losing momentum, falling out of compliance, or missing critical submission deadlines.

By bringing discipline, structure, and strategic focus to every approved bid project, the Bid Manager contributes to the protection of Bentley’s revenue pipeline and elevates our market position on the global stage.

A bid manager will deliver value to the business by:

• Orchestrating Complex Teams: Serves as the primary point of contact, aligning diverse internal stakeholders (from software engineers to legal teams) behind a unified, winning strategy.
• Secure Compliance and Quality: Acts as the gatekeeper, ensuring every bid is meticulously aligned with user requirements, Bentley’s commercial policies, compliance standards and has all required approvals in place.
• Accelerating Bid Velocity: Drives the proposal schedule with absolute discipline, preventing last-minute scrambles and ensuring high-quality submissions are delivered ahead of time.

Responsibilities:

Bid Delivery (Mandatory)

• Manage binding and non-binding opportunities.
• Develop bid plans and schedules.
• Coordinate contributors and reviews.
• Ensure compliance and quality standards.
• Manage proactive proposals.
• Ensure delivery of approved response within the user deadlines.

Stakeholder Management (Mandatory)

• Maintain regular engagement with all required primary stakeholders within the bid.
• Attend regional pipeline meetings where applicable.
• Provide opportunity status reporting.
• Support pursuit strategy execution.

Process Excellence (Mandatory)

• Apply bid management best practice.
• Drive consistency and quality.
• Capture lessons learned.
• Contribute to continuous improvement activities.

Artificial Intelligence (Desirable)

• Workflow Automation: Hands-on experience using AI software to automate first drafts and accelerate the overall bid lifecycle.
• Advanced Prompting: Strong prompt engineering skills to tailor complex technical responses to specific customer requirements.
• Tender Analysis: Ability to leverage AI summarization tools to rapidly parse dense RFPs and identify key compliance risks.
• Content Maintenance: Actively updating centralized AI content libraries to ensure high match rates for automated Q&A.
• Quality Control: Proficient in critically reviewing and refining AI-generated text to inject human nuance and specific win themes.

Additional Initiatives (Desirable)

• Support regional growth initiatives.
• Contribute to reporting and analytics.
• Support sales enablement activities.

Success Measures (Mandatory)

• On-time submission rate
• Bid quality scores
• Stakeholder feedback
• Opportunity conversion

Qualifications:

• Languages: Fluent in English, Fluent in German (written and spoken), other languages a bonus.
• Education: Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Engineering, or a related field and/or demonstrable commercial experience within a solutions/IT provider.
• Experience: 3+ years of experience in bid, proposal, or tender management. Proven track record of managing high-value, complex bids (e.g., public sector, RFP, RFI).
• Certifications: APMP Certification (Association of Proposal Management Professionals) at Foundation, Practitioner, or Professional level.
• Methodology: Proficiency in structured bid frameworks (e.g., Shipley Associates methodology).
• Project Management: Strong project management skills (PMP or PRINCE2 certifications are a major plus).
• Tools: Advanced proficiency in MS Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and experience of Proposal Automation Tools would be a benefit.

What We Offer:

• A great Team and culture – please see our colleague video. 
• An exciting career as an integral part of a world-leading software company providing solutions for architecture, engineering, and construction - watch this short documentary about how we got our start. 
• An attractive salary and benefits package. 
• A commitment to inclusion, belonging and colleague wellbeing through global initiatives and resource groups. 
• A company committed to making a real difference by advancing the world’s infrastructure for better quality of life, where your contributions help build a more sustainable, connected, and resilient world. Discover our latest user success stories for an insight into our global impact. 

About Bentley Systems

Around the world, infrastructure professionals rely on software from Bentley Systems to help them design, build, and operate better and more resilient infrastructure for transportation, water, energy, cities, and more. Founded in 1984 by engineers for engineers, Bentley is the partner of choice for engineering firms and owner-operators worldwide, with software that spans engineering disciplines, industry sectors, and all phases of the infrastructure lifecycle. Through our digital twin solutions, we help infrastructure professionals unlock the value of their data to transform project delivery and asset performance. www.bentley.com 

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Bentley is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and considers for employment all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, religion/belief, national origin, caste, age, or any other characteristic protected by local law or unrelated to job qualifications.