Location: Crawley, United Kingdom
Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.
2027 Bid Management Apprentice - Level 4 Project Management Associate Apprenticeship
Start Date: Monday 6th September 2027
Salary: £24,000 per annum
Employee Type: Permanent
Location: Crawley
Working Schedule: Monday – Friday, 37 hours a week (8 hours Monday – Thursday, 5 hours Friday)
Transform your curiosity into a rewarding career. Do you think you have a talent for organisation, a common-sense approach and an eye for the detail to link these aspects together to create winning bids? If so, this apprenticeship is perfect for you. Combining academic study with hands-on, practical experience, it offers a fantastic opportunity to grow and thrive within a global, innovative & industry leading organisation. If so, we’d love to hear from you…
Benefits of the Programme:
• Earn a salary while studying for your apprenticeship
• Gain hands-on experience within the Bid & Project Management environment
• Receive job-specific training and development
• Achieve a recognised qualification
• Have your tuition fees fully paid
• Secure a permanent role from the start of your apprenticeship
About the Role:
Bid Management is a key and fast paced role within Thales UK – we deliver proposals to customers to win business by securing new projects which is vital to our success and growth. Bid Managers take responsibility for leading bids and work with other business functions to ensure business strategy is in line with the business goals and targets. As a Bid Management Apprentice, you will take on real responsibility and learn how to lead cross-functional teams to deliver successful bids. You will bring together the right people, information and ideas, manage activities and deadlines and help ensure our proposals demonstrate why customers should choose Thales.
You will gain experience in:
• Understanding and responding to customer requests
• Knowledge in structuring and estimating new projects
• Developing compelling and competitive proposals
• Supporting negotiations and working towards winning new contracts
• Understanding the commercial considerations behind winning business
Bid Apprentices will join a Thales UK domain bid team, you will be encouraged to contribute ideas, build relationships and take increasing ownership as your experience develops. Bid Apprentices will be supported in their learning journey, you will gain hands-on experience across the full bid lifecycle from understanding an opportunity and developing the strategy, through to coordinating and delivering the proposal, supporting negotiations and handing a successful contract over to the project delivery team. No two bids are quite the same, so you will get exposure to different bids/projects/products, customers and challenges while building valuable skills in communication, organisation, project management and business writing.
Responsibilities Include:
• Support the coordination of bids, tenders, proposals and other customer submissions
• Maintain bid plans, action trackers and submission schedules coordinating information and contributions from colleagues across different teams
• Assist with drafting, editing and formatting written responses to help ensure submissions are accurate, consistent, professional and completed on time
• Maintain bid libraries, case studies, standard responses, policies and supporting documentation
• Carry out research into customers, markets and competitors to support bid development
• Assist with preparing presentations and materials for bid reviews and customer meetings.
• Participate in bid reviews…