Bid Manager - Underwater Security

About this role

Optics11 is a fast-growing high-tech company based in Amsterdam, developing advanced fiber optic sensing systems for the most demanding environments. Our technology detects the earliest signs of failure in critical assets – from high-voltage energy infrastructure to subsea and defence applications – and gives our customers precise, real-time data they can act on.

Within our Underwater Security business we develop sensing technologies that help detect and monitor underwater threats. Our solutions include OptiBarrier, designed for immediate, over-the-horizon threat detection, and OptiArray, our low-power optical thin-line towed array for unmanned underwater vehicles and submarines.

About the role

Our opportunities are increasingly large, international and tender-driven: navies, ministries of defence, prime contractors and European consortium programmes, across Europe and increasingly beyond. As Bid Manager you will own those proposals end to end – internally aligned, correctly priced, compliant and on time. You will be part of the Bid & Capture Management team within Global Sales and support our regional Sales Directors on multiple parallel bids.

This is an internal-facing role with a high degree of ownership. You take the opportunity and win strategy from the Sales Director – or from the Capture Manager on strategic pursuits – and the defined technical scope from the Technical Sales Engineer, and you turn them into a proposal and a pricing structure the organisation can stand behind. That means establishing internally what we can actually deliver, when and at what cost.

You pull in Product Management for roadmap fit, R&D for engineering effort on customised and engineered-to-order scope, the Project Management Office for planning and resourcing, Production for lead times and capacity, Finance for cost and margin, Legal for terms and conditions, and Export Control for licensing.

In your first 6–12 months you will run a portfolio of live international bids, embed our four-stage bid process and approval route, and build the templates, content library and pricing models that let us bid faster and with less effort as we scale.

Key responsibilities

• Own bids end to end from the bid / no-bid decision onwards, through our four bid stages: identification and qualification, kick-off and proposal development, internal review and final approval, and submission – and hand over cleanly to project delivery after award.
• Run bid kick-offs: translate the capture plan and win strategy from the Sales Director or Capture Manager into a bid plan, agree roles with the Technical Sales Engineer and contributors, and set the internal schedule and deadlines.
• Establish internal feasibility: test the proposed technical scope against the product roadmap, engineering capacity and effort, project planning and production lead times, and classify the opportunity as standard product (SPO), configured/customised (CTO) or engineered to order (ETO).
• Build the proposal: structure, storyline, compliance matrix, scope description, assumptions, exclusions and clarification questions to the client – with the win themes carried through every section.
• Own the cost build-up and price recommendation together with Finance – cost, margin, options, spares and services, payment milestones, currency and price validity. The final price is approved through our Level of Authority matrix; the Sales Director leads the commercial negotiation with the client.
• Drive the internal approval route in line with our Level of Authority matrix, so management knows exactly what we commit to before it leaves the building.
• Manage bid risk: flag commercial, technical, delivery, contractual and export-control risk early, and make a clear bid / no-bid recommendation where the opportunity does not hold up, together with the Sales Director or Capture Manager.
• Coordinate international bids: manage bids across Europe and other continents – national MoD and navy tenders, bids via prime contractors and system integrators, and European programme and consortium tenders (e.g. EDA, EDF, EDIP) – including local requirements such as language, local content or industrial participation, local partners or agents, Incoterms and time zones.
• Safeguard export control compliance: ensure every proposal is screened with Export Control for dual-use and military export licence requirements and end-user documentation before submission, and that sensitive and classified information is handled correctly.
• Handle tender administration: portals, formats, certificates, deadlines and submission logistics.
• Support contracting: work with Legal and the Sales Director on terms and conditions, warranties, liabilities, deviations and consortium or teaming agreements.
• Maintain and improve our bid infrastructure: templates, reusable content library, pricing models, bid calendar and lessons learned after each submission – and automate where it saves time.
• Keep bid status and documentation current in HubSpot so pipeline, bid workload and win/loss results are visible at any moment.

What we offer

• Join one of Europe’s fastest-growing deep-tech scale-ups.
• Real impact: your work directly shapes our growth and success.
• A great team in an international organisation with colleagues from more than twenty nationalities.
• A competitive salary and benefits package.
• 30 days of holiday per year.
• Fresh team lunches five times a week, plus regular team activities and company events.