What’s it like to be a Proposal Manager at Market Infra?

Laura’s experience

Having just transitioned into her new role as Proposals Manager, we spoke to Laura Chambers about what the role entails and her favourite things about Market Infra.

What is your role at Market Infra?

I started working with Market Infra as a consultant in 2017, but came on board officially, as a permanent employee, nearly 18 months ago. Since then, I have been working as a Senior Bid Writer, however from April 1st, I am stepping up to undertake a Proposals Manager role.

What does your role entail?

As Proposals Manager, I will manage the quality side of bids for clients, which basically means that I will manage the production of all of the written responses, but unlike our Bid Managers, I will not be involved in the commercial side of the bid, which suits me, as numbers are definitely not my thing! I will be working with the Bid Writers to plan out the bid programme and produce tender management plans, along with attending storyboard sessions, liaising with subject matter experts and supporting the writers in producing the tender responses.

In addition, I line manage Katharine, one of our Bid Writers and I am responsible for quality control, making sure that everything that goes to our clients is of the high standard that we are known for. I think this is really important and I am genuinely really passionate about ensuring we produce high quality responses for all of our clients.

What’s your favourite thing about your job?

I’m one of these weird people who really enjoys the adrenalin of working to bid deadlines, it helps me to focus on what I’m doing and stops me from procrastinating too much. I also really love the variety – we work across a number of different sectors and I have experience of writing responses for water, gas, electricity, rail and public lighting, as well as grant funding applications. I think this stops us from becoming stale as we’ve constantly got to be at the top of our game. I am also really pedantic, so I enjoy proofreading responses and making sure spelling and grammar is correct.

What is the best thing about being a bid writer at Market Infra specifically?

It’s such a cliché, but it’s the people. We genuinely all really get on and we all support each other. During lockdown, we’ve all kept each other’s spirits up and it’s made what’s been a really tough time, an awful lot easier. I can’t wait for us to eventually get back to an office and meet in person again!