Proposal and Engagement Manager

Role: Proposal and Engagement Manager

Location: Flexible, we have offices in Northamptonshire and London

Start: Flexible

Are you passionate about evidence‑based healthcare? Do you enjoy working in a collaborative, fast‑paced environment where your work helps shape better decision‑making in global health?

Initiate Consultancy is looking for a Proposal and Engagement Manager to join our growing team.

Initiate

Initiate is a global market access and health economics consultancy working with novel products designed to help people living with rare or life‑limiting disorders.

Our core values are collaboration, empowerment, integrity and pragmatism. We seek to recruit exceptional individuals who share these values and have a genuine passion to learn, deliver and grow.

Job Purpose

The Proposal & Engagement Manager plays a pivotal role in strengthening Initiate’s commercial performance by leading and driving the development of high-quality, compelling and compliant proposals, and overseeing the visibility of the ‘live’ proposal pipeline.

Sitting within the Commercial team, reporting directly to the Head of Business Development & Commercial Engagement, the role owns the day-to-day operational management of the bid pipeline, and the end-to-end delivery of all proposals.

Operating beyond process coordination alone, the Proposal & Engagement Manager is responsible for creating structure, pace and clarity across all live opportunities - ensuring that our technical bid teams are mobilised early, aligned to clear agreed priorities, and are working to a defined plan. The role acts as the central point of control for all our bid activity, maintaining pipeline accuracy, enforcing process, and driving accountability across multidisciplinary teams.

By bringing discipline, visibility and proactive management to the bid process, the Proposal & Engagement Manager directly contributes to improving win rate, turnaround speed and overall commercial effectiveness, while reducing reactive working and ensuring the business is consistently prepared and positioned to succeed.

Responsibilities

Pipeline Management & Reporting

Own our pipeline visibility and accuracy

Own and maintain a live, accurate bid pipeline (via Synergist and associated reporting tools)

Provide clear visibility of the overall pipeline position and forward workload

Regularly update the commercial team on the status, values, and timelines of all opportunities

Chair and lead regular operational pipeline review meetings, providing clear visibility of status, priorities and forward activity

Support commercial forecasting through reliable bid data collection and recording

Bid Coordination, Delivery & Accountability

Run our bid process and delivery

Lead the end-to-end bid process from RFP receipt through to proposal submission, and bid follow-up

Establish and manage clear plans, timelines, and ownership for each bid individual opportunity

Ensure timely bid scoping, coordinating strategic and technical inputs from relevant team members

Act as the central point of control across multiple concurrent bids - proactively driving progress, maintaining pace and momentum

Ensure all bids are delivered to a high, consistent standard – maintaining strong bid discipline in a deadline-driven environment, reducing delays and ensuring consistent delivery

Follow-up and challenge as necessary to ensure delivery to agreed timelines - holding contributors accountable for their individual inputs and outputs

Proposal Content Control

Shape our proposal content for clarity and impact

Lead the development and coordination of high-quality complete proposals, ensuring clarity, accuracy, and alignment with client needs

Translate technical inputs from HTA, HEOR, Access, and Evidence Synthesis teams into clear, compelling and client-ready narratives

Use approved proposal templates, methodologies, and branded materials to ensure consistency and compliance in tone and presentation

Apply corporate style, referencing, branding, and compliance standards

Assemble complete, submission-ready proposal documents, including key sections such as executive summaries

Develop budgets using standard templates, aligned with scope and commercial strategy

Opportunity Triage & Prioritisation

Prioritise our high-value bid opportunities

Coordinate the review and assessment of incoming RFPs and opportunities

Support go / no-go decision-making with structured input

Ensure focus is applied to the most valuable opportunities

Align bid activity with overall commercial objectives

Team Mobilisation & Coordination

Mobilise our teams and coordinate input

Build strong working relationships across project teams to ensure accurate, evidence-based bid content

Identify and engage appropriate technical and commercial contributors

Mobilise multidisciplinary teams early to ensure sufficient preparation time, and a single coherent response

Identify and communicate risks, issues, and dependencies early to stakeholders

Ensure clarity of roles, responsibilities and expectations - managing dependencies between contributors

Quality Assurance & Sign-Off

Ensure our quality, compliance and approval readiness

Ensure all proposals meet required standards of quality and compliance

Manage review cycles and approval processes

Enforce consistency in formatting, content and messaging

Ensure appropriate sign-off is obtained ahead of submission

Continuous Bidding Improvement

Gather bid learnings

Capture lessons learned from bid outcomes (win/loss)

Track client feedback

Improve processes, templates and working practices over time

Bid Asset Management

Maintain our bid content assets

Ensure structured, accessible and audit-ready bid documentation

Develop capability statements, case studies, and client-ready decks

Maintain and continuously improve the proposal library (slides, boilerplates, team bios, case studies)

Identify opportunities to enhance proposal quality, consistency and template effectiveness

Stakeholder & Client Engagement

Engage stakeholders and clients with confidence

Act as the key interface between Initiate’s commercial and technical delivery teams, ensuring clear communication and alignment

Engage confidently with senior internal stakeholders, providing clarity, updates and direction across live opportunities

Liaise with clients during the bid process where appropriate, ensuring professional and timely communication

Support structured follow-up activity post-submission, to maintain engagement and momentum

About You

Highly organised, commercially aware, bringing energy and pace to the proposal generation and bid process

Ability to take clear ownership for driving activity and maintaining pipeline momentum.

Ability to constructively challenge, maintain collective focus, and hold contributors to account, comfortable directing colleagues at all levels.

Disciplined project management and communication skills

Ability to translate technical input into clear, consistent and compelling proposal content, ensuring quality and coherence throughout.

Ability to anticipate pressures and identify risks early, creating the structure and forward planning needed to reduce reactive, last-minute working

Comfortable operating at pace and maintaining control in a deadline-driven environment.

Collaborative team player who builds strong relationships with colleagues and clients and contributes positively to team culture.

Values led, working with collaboration, integrity, pragmatism and empowerment, with a desire to take ownership and solve problems proactively.

Additional benefits

Competitive salary

Bonus scheme

25 days holiday (excludes bank holidays)

3 days leave ‘Privilege Days’ at Christmas time

Birthday off

Healthcare insurance scheme

Life insurance

Personalised development programme: the job holder will r