Bid Manager - Underwater Security

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.

The split of roles is deliberate. The Sales Director owns the customer relationship and the commercial negotiation. The capture and win strategy is owned by the Sales Director or, on strategic pursuits, by the Capture Manager. The Technical Sales Engineer owns the technical dialogue with the client. You own the internal commitment: a feasible scope, a well-founded price recommendation and a compliant submission. Client-facing requirement gathering is not your responsibility; making sure we can honour what is proposed is.

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.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, technical or commercial, or equivalent experience

• At least 5–7 years of professional experience, including demonstrable experience in a bid, proposal or tender management role – ideally for capital equipment or complex systems

• Proven experience with RFI, RFP, RFQ and formal tender processes, including compliance matrices and deadline-driven submissions

• Experience building or owning pricing and cost structures together with Finance

• Experience with international bids involving multiple countries, partners or consortia

• Strong coordination and stakeholder management skills across engineering, operations, finance and sales; comfortable chasing input without formal authority while keeping the tone constructive

• Excellent written English; able to produce a proposal that is clear, consistent and readable – and to read a tender document properly, including the parts that decide compliance

• Strong working knowledge of Excel; experience with a CRM (HubSpot is a plus)

• Eligibility to obtain NATO/Dutch security clearance

Who You Are

You are organised, precise and calm under deadline pressure. You are commercially minded: you understand that a proposal is a priced commitment, not a document. And you are not afraid to recommend a no-bid when the numbers or the risks do not add up.

Nice to Have

• Experience in defence, naval, maritime, offshore energy or critical infrastructure markets

• Experience with government or naval procurement and with European programme or consortium bids (e.g. EDA, EDF or EDIP)

• Working knowledge of export control and dual-use licensing (Dutch/EU regulations; ITAR/EAR exposure is a plus)

• Experience with bids outside Europe, including industrial participation/offset requirements

• APMP certification or equivalent bid management training

• Working knowledge of Dutch

You'll be working with clients in the defense and security sectors, obtaining a Certificate of No Objection issued by the AIVD (Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service) is mandatory. This means you will need to undergo a security screening. For more information, please refer to details on security screening.