Our Client based in Woodmead is looking for a Proposal Development Specialist to join their dynamic team

Proposal Development Specialist

Contract role 3-4 Months

Job Description

An important role in ensuring the success of the local SET team whilst gaining valuable sales work experience. Client is currently looking for a Proposal Development Specialist candidate, who will be expected to support local bids as well as global bids as and when required. You will be expected to work with various internal teams to support the preparation of sales proposals for new and repeat business.

The candidate shall achieve this by:

• Gaining a thorough understanding of, and actively participating in Client’s internal process.
• Interpreting and understanding the proposal requirements and to action the applicable tasks accordingly.
• Bringing to bear, their understanding of commercial requirements stemming from RFX’s / Tenders in order to assist with the appropriate responses.
• Extracting base information from our repository, producing and/or executing compliance checklists and ensuring consistent responses and response format whilst adhering to Client guidelines.
• Being responsible for the end to end administrative requirements of a proposal and also assisting the Bid Manager during the entire tender process.

Summary of Key Responsibilities:

• Act as the main point of contact for the bid team.
• Manage cross functional daily engagements with Commercial teams.
• Maintain compliance with requirements, internal Client controls, external regulations (e.g., procurement process), and sales methodology.
• Ensure that at the various stages of the bid response you interact with various stakeholders, contributors and experts to gather information, review and amend accordingly.
• Must understand proposal-related implications related to statutory requirements such as EE, BBBEE etc
• Understand and follow Client’s proposal process.
• Receive tenders, contribute to and execute compliance checklist by understanding proposal requirements.
• Set up SharePoint sites and update team collateral.
• Conduct content, CV (Client teams) and global Client credential searches whilst supporting bid team’s responses to client’s questions.
• Participate in proposal work and be responsible for certain proposal sections, bid management tasks or finalizing a proposal for submission.
• Support bid teams in the use of content repository.
• Be responsible for all local standard proposal contents, working closely with other Global sales support specialists maintaining a South African content repository including Credentials.
• Work with solution delivery and sales teams in identifying, analysis, solution, developing business case, proposal preparation and presentation to client
• Write standard proposals by analysing the proposal requests and customising templates and interfacing effectively with sales and solutions team under standard guidelines

• Manage all aspects of proposal development for strategic or high-value sales opportunities
• Create, manage and maintain proposal development schedule, proposal design and execute quality control functions, including work plans, schedules and milestones
• Lead day-to-day proposal management activities, in accordance with the work plans, schedules, and milestones
• Determine milestone review and prepare review-ready drafts of proposal and lead milestone proposal reviews
• Manage resources, coordinate action items from internal reviews, and interact with proposal teams to complete work products to ensure timely completion of activities, and perform quality assurance check
• Establish production schedule, prepare production-ready files and arrange and oversee proposal production (includes electronic and/or physical copies) in accordance with RFP instructions
• Manage all proposal documents and the flow of information to and from proposal participants, including the proposal SharePoint site

Requirements from Candidates:

• Be familiar with tendering processes and sales/business development support.
• Be able to read, analyse and interpret requirements resulting from the RFI, RFP, RFQ, RFS and other tendering processes for South Africa to ensure overall compliance
• Be a team player working with various cross functional teams (i.e legal, finance, marketing, operating groups, solution offerings teams and creative and printing services).
• Assist with preparations of presentation materials, marketing collateral, logistics for various client visit, workshops, demonstrations by various business sectors and or with Client partner/alliance communities
• Be able to communicate at all levels (junior to senior members of the organisation).
• Be flexible with reliable transportation as you may be required to work overtime and on weekends as and when required.
• Be able to work independently as well as in a team
• Be able to logically interpret requests from internal and external clients

Qualifications/Skills:

• At least 3-5 years of relevant working experience.
• Fluent in English with excellent communication skills
• Ability to work in a fast pace environment, with accuracy, flexibility and attention to detail
• Result and deadline oriented
• Ability to thrive in a stressful environment and to work effectively as part of a team.
• Good organizational skills with ability to use own initiative
• Flexibility to cope with several tasks simultaneously to meet and exceed agreed deadlines
• Excellent time management skills
• Competent in Microsoft Office Packages (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook) and SharePoint (to also to demonstrate advanced application of such tools).
• Be Competent in Adobe Acrobat 

Please note that shortlisted candidates will be required to undergo reference, credit and criminal checks etc. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Ref: JHB000050/SS