Technical Tendering & Bids Specialist

Job title

Technical Tendering & Bids Manager (Bids Lead) — ICT and Engineering Projects

Reports to

Commercial Director / Managing Director

Direct reports

Bid Coordinators, Proposal Writers, Estimators (matrixed technical SMEs during live bids)

1. Purpose of the role

The Technical Tendering & Bids Manager owns the end-to-end bid lifecycle for ICT and engineering opportunities across the SADC region, and periodically across wider Africa — from opportunity qualification through to contract award and handover to delivery. The role converts complex, multi-discipline technical solutions into compliant, competitively priced and persuasive tender submissions that win profitable work.

The postholder is accountable for bid governance, win strategy, pricing integrity, and compliance with public procurement law and donor / IFI procurement rules. They lead a small bid team and coordinate engineers, ICT architects, subcontractors, legal, finance and delivery leadership under tight, non-negotiable deadlines.

2. Key responsibilities2.1 Pipeline and opportunity qualification

• Maintain a live pipeline of tender opportunities across SADC and, where the business elects to pursue them, wider African markets (East, West and North Africa) — sourced from national and municipal e-tender portals, state-owned enterprises, utilities, telecoms operators, mining and industrial clients, and donor/IFI-funded programmes (World Bank, AfDB, EU, UN agencies, DFIs).
• Run a formal bid/no-bid qualification gate assessing strategic fit, technical capability, competitive position, pricing headroom, delivery capacity, risk exposure and probability of win; document the decision and rationale.
• Track registrations, pre-qualifications, vendor databases, CIDB/registration gradings and supplier accreditations across each target country so the business remains eligible to bid.
• Assess entry requirements for non-SADC African markets — local registration, agency or JV requirements, tax presence, work permits, exchange control and repatriation of funds — and flag them at the bid/no-bid gate.
• Report pipeline value, win rate, bid cost and conversion metrics to the executive on a monthly basis.

2.2 Bid leadership and governance

• Own the bid lifecycle end to end, applying a structured governance framework (kick-off, solution review, pricing review, commercial sign-off, final quality gate) with clear owners and dates.
• Produce and enforce the bid plan, compliance matrix, RACI and submission timetable; chase contributors and escalate slippage early.
• Chair bid kick-off, storyboard, pink/red team review and lessons-learned sessions.
• Lead the bid team day to day — allocating work, coaching writers and coordinators, and managing external bid resources or consultants where used.
• Ensure every submission is 100% compliant with the instructions to bidders: correct forms, certificates, signatures, formats, volumes, file naming, portal upload and deadline.

2.3 Technical solution and proposal development

• Interrogate the scope of work, technical specifications, drawings, bills of quantities and service level requirements, and translate them into a clear solution narrative.
• Work with ICT architects and engineering discipline leads (civil, structural, electrical, mechanical, telecoms, instrumentation) to shape a technically compliant, buildable and priced solution.
• Develop win themes, value propositions and differentiators grounded in client evaluation criteria, and ensure they run consistently through the technical, management and pricing volumes.
• Author, edit and quality-assure technical and methodology sections; convert engineering detail into clear, evaluator-friendly prose, tables and graphics.
• Prepare method statements, programmes (MS Project / Primavera), organograms, CV packs, project references, HSE and quality plans, and localisation / skills-transfer plans.
• Manage clarification questions to the client and consolidate responses to client-issued addenda.

2.4 Costing, pricing and commercial strategy

• Lead the cost build-up with estimators, engineers and finance: labour, materials, equipment, licences and subscriptions, subcontract packages, logistics, duties, preliminaries and general, contingency and escalation.
• Interrogate supplier and OEM quotations; run competitive subcontract and vendor tendering to secure best cost and pass-through terms.
• Model pricing scenarios, margin, cash flow, multi-currency forex exposure and payment-term impact; recommend a pricing strategy to the commercial review board.
• Price cross-border delivery realistically — import duties, customs clearance, cross-border logistics, expatriate mobilisation, withholding tax and country risk premiums.
• Ensure the priced BOQ / schedule of rates / activity schedule reconciles fully to the technical solution with no scope gaps.

2.5 Compliance, risk and contracts

• Ensure compliance with applicable public procurement legislation across SADC jurisdictions (e.g. South Africa's PFMA/MFMA, PPPFA and National Treasury instructions; Zimbabwe's PPDPA/PRAZ; Botswana's PPRA; Zambia's ZPPA; Namibia's Public Procurement Act), and rapidly research and apply the equivalent regime in a wider African market when pursuing opportunities outside SADC.
• Apply donor and IFI procurement guidelines (World Bank, AfDB, EU, UN agencies, DFIs), which frequently govern continental opportunities and provide a common framework across borders.
• Manage B-BBEE, local content, indigenisation, citizen-empowerment and preferential procurement requirements as applicable in each jurisdiction, including scorecard positioning and JV / subcontracting structures.
• Identify, vet and structure local partners, agents and consortium members in unfamiliar markets, including due diligence and back-to-back commercial terms.
• Review tender terms and conditions and flag commercial risk — liquidated damages, warranties, liability caps, payment terms, retention, bonds and guarantees, IP and data protection — escalating to legal for mitigation or qualification.
• Coordinate bid securities, performance bonds, insurances, tax clearance and statutory documentation with finance.
• Uphold anti-bribery, conflict-of-interest, fair-competition and information-security standards throughout the bid process.

2.6 Client engagement and post-submission

• Attend site visits, compulsory briefing sessions and clarification meetings; capture intelligence that shapes the bid.
• Prepare and rehearse post-tender presentations, negotiations and best-and-final-offer submissions.
• Secure and analyse debriefs on both wins and losses; maintain a competitor and pricing intelligence baseline.
• Run a structured handover to the delivery team on award, ensuring assumptions, exclusions, risks and priced allowances transfer intact.

2.7 Knowledge management and continuous improvement

• Build and curate a bid content library — boilerplate, CVs, past project references, accreditations, policies, graphics and reusable technical narratives.
• Standardise templates, estimating models and the bid governance framework; drive measurable improvement in win rate and bid cost per submission.

3. Qualifications and experienceEssential

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Technology, Computer Science, Quantity Surveying, Construction/Project Management or a related technical discipline.
• Minimum 8 years' experience in tendering, bid management, estimating or technical proposals, including at least 3 years leading bids or a bid team.
• Demonstrable track record of winning ICT and/or engineering contracts of significant value in the SADC region; exposure to bids in wider African markets an advantage.
• Working knowledge of public sector procurement processes and e-tender portals in at least one SADC jurisdiction, with the research capability to get up to speed quickly on an unfamiliar African jurisdiction.
• St