Graduate Trainee Bid Writer

About us

Every day in the UK, bodies such as local councils, government departments and housing associations procure goods and services through the competitive tender process. This process requires organisations to create written bids (proposals), responding to various questions about their proposed approaches, in order to be awarded a contract.

Executive Compass is an independent bid writing company which exists to support these organisations to write high-quality, detailed, and persuasive proposals and maximise their likelihood of success. As a result of continued growth, we now have a vacancy for up to four graduate/trainee bid writers to join our team. Full training will be provided to support the successful applicant(s) to develop into skilled and knowledgeable bid writing professionals.

In the past 14 years, we have developed a highly effective graduate training scheme with intensive support and full training provided, allowing you to develop skills, confidence and capabilities. Our trainee roles will give you experience of working on live bids and the opportunity to work alongside other trainees as part of a professional team. Following two years’ experience in the role, you would then join our career pathway, supporting your career progression in line with our policy of promoting team members to senior positions.

Working arrangements

As a trainee/graduate bid writer, you will work as part of our team at our Hoults Yard office in Newcastle Upon Tyne. With the attractive North East region offering relatively low living costs and access to the Northumberland coastline and countryside, members of our team include recent graduates wanting to stay in the area and others who have chosen to relocate.

The role will initially be office based during the training period, but with requests for flexible working arrangements including hybrid working always considered; our current team includes a combination of colleagues working full time in the office, full time from home, or on a hybrid basis. Those working at home have frequent and regular interaction with the team including a daily morning meeting and periodic office visits.

We provide access to private healthcare and, for those based in the office, our office is handily placed within walking distance of the local Metro train service and the city centre, or free parking is available.

The role

You will receive intensive, instructor-led training covering rules and regulations of UK public procurement; key topics, sectors and disciplines relevant to our customer base; methods for researching specification documents and preparing storyboards and answer plans; persuasive, evidence-based writing styles; and advanced writing techniques to support your development into a professional writer.

Once qualified, your primary role will be to write persuasive, compelling and detailed responses to tender questions on behalf of our clients, all of whom are organisations submitting bids (proposals) to various buyers.

To do so, you will be supported to gather high-quality information from the client, as well as undertaking your own research. Once trained and confident, you will provide end-to-end support, managing the whole process on behalf of the client and guiding them through the process.

As an independent bid writing consultancy, we support clients across a diverse range of industries and sectors. We therefore require a candidate who will be able to write compelling, persuasive text across a very wide-ranging field of businesses and functions. As this is a trainee/graduate role, you will not necessarily be expected to have any prior knowledge or experience of the various topics, industries, and sectors relevant to our work, but you must be a skilled and confident writer, with an appropriate vocabulary and an eagerness to learn.

We work in a very fast-paced environment and, once fully trained, you will be writing multiple bids concurrently whilst simultaneously managing clients and their expectations. The role therefore requires you to be hardworking with excellent attention to detail, as well as an ability to work independently and manage your own workload, but support is always available via the team of fellow bid writers and managers. Some work outside of typical office hours may occasionally be required.

Main duties

Main duties for the role include:

• Creating business-winning written responses that support the client to maximise their likelihood of success
  
  
• Project managing the process from end-to-end on your own initiative, ensuring submission deadlines are always met
  
  
• Speaking with clients and helping to manage client relationships
  
  
• Helping to maintain bid libraries (records of documentation relevant to each client)
  
  In line with your development (typically within six months to two years), opportunities will be made available to incorporate additional duties, such as:
  
  
• Becoming a specialist bid writer in a chosen field; current team members specialise in health and social care, construction, property services and other disciplines
  
  
• Supporting with internal quality assurance checks
  
  
• Offering guidance and assistance to other writers
  
  
• Reviewing successful and unsuccessful submissions, feedback and lessons learned to assist with our continuous improvement
  
  
• Becoming involved in all parts of the business, including strategy, sales, business development and more.
  
  Skills and experience
  
  As this is a graduate/trainee role, prior knowledge and experience of the tender process is not expected. Successful candidates will be enthusiastic, ambitious and committed. Strong IT skills and outstanding writing, editing and verbal communication skills are essential, and you should be educated to degree level or above.
  
  While a business-related or English degree may be preferable, candidates with a degree in any discipline which has required them to write to a high quality (e.g. humanities, languages etc.) should feel confident to apply.
  
  Benefits
  
  You will become part of a small but vibrant, thriving and supportive team, as well as benefiting from:
  
  
• Salary increases following completion of probation (typically six months) and regular pay reviews in line with progress
  
  
• A generous bonus scheme: when bids win, the resultant revenue is shared with the writers who supported the project, with experienced writers in our team earning on average up to 15% of their annual salary in bonuses
  
  
• Opportunities to undertake paid overtime in line with business need
  
  
• 25 days holiday per annum plus bank holidays (rising to 30 days on completion of qualifying period)
  
  
• Birthday holiday day, once passed six-month probation period
  
  
• Opportunities to progress via training and development (fully funded and time spent in training paid)
  
  
• Opt-in private healthcare and healthcare cash plan (post-probation)
  
  
• Regular socials and annual events such as summer barbecues, Christmas parties
  
  
• 4pm finishes on Fridays.
  
  We are an equal opportunities employer and value diversity and so encourage applications from all sections of the community.
  
  Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
  
  Salary: Starting at £25,000 (increasing to £30,000 after 6-months) and rising to £45,000 (£36,000 achievable within 18-months), plus performance related bonuses of up to £6,000 p.a. from the outset. Details of our pay bands and incremental scale will be shared during the recruitment process