Bid Manager Americas

Location: Austin, United States of America Thales people architect identity management and data protection solutions at the heart of digital security. Business and governments rely on us to bring trust to the billions of digital interactions they have with people. Our technologies and services help banks exchange funds, people cross borders, energy become smarter and much more. More than 30,000 organizations already rely on us to verify the identities of people and things, grant access to digital services, analyze vast quantities of information and encrypt data to make the connected world more secure. Hybrid- Austin, TX Thales is hiring an experience Bid Manager will lead capture, bid, and proposal activities for Identity and Access Management (IAM) opportunities, with a primary focus on Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) offers in the Americas region. This role is responsible for shaping pursuit strategy, coordinating cross-functional contributors, ensuring governance and compliance, and delivering clear, compelling, and competitive proposals in support of Thales’s growth objectives. Thales is investing heavily in its Identity and Access Management (IAM) portfolio, with the OneWelcome Identity Platform as its flagship Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) offer. As solutions become more strategic, larger, and more complex, the IAM Bid Management Team plays a critical role in accelerating go-to-market execution and supporting major opportunities across the Americas. Key Areas of Responsibility Bid Strategy Development: Collaborate with sales, marketing, partner management, product management, solution architecture, professional services, legal, finance, quote-to-cash, deal desk, and technical teams to develop pursuit strategies aligned with business goals and solution capabilities. Analyze customer needs, market trends, and competitive dynamics to define win themes, value propositions, and differentiators. Support bid/no-bid assessments, capture planning, and pursuit strategy development across the opportunity lifecycle. Proposal Preparation: Lead the end-to-end proposal development process, ensuring timely, complete, and compliant submissions. Coordinate cross-functional teams to gather required inputs, including technical content, pricing, legal terms, compliance requirements, references, and case studies. Write, edit, and oversee proposal content that clearly communicates Thales’s strengths, solutions, and customer value. Budgeting and Pricing: Partner with product management, professional services, finance, quote-to-cash, deal desk, and other stakeholders to support accurate and competitive pricing strategies. Analyze cost structures, pricing models, and commercial assumptions to support financially viable proposals. Ensure pricing and commercial inputs are aligned with deal strategy, approval requirements, and internal governance. Risk Management: Identify pursuit, commercial, delivery, and contractual risks and support mitigation planning. Ensure bids comply with legal, regulatory, contractual, and internal governance requirements. Escalate issues appropriately and maintain clear assumptions, dependencies, and decision points throughout the process. Stakeholder Management: Engage with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders to understand requirements, expectations, and decision criteria. Build and maintain strong working relationships across the organization to keep pursuits aligned and moving forward. Facilitate collaboration among stakeholders across regions, functions, and time zones as needed. Quality Assurance: Review and edit proposal content for accuracy, consistency, completeness, and alignment with customer requirements and bid strategy. Ensure response quality, messaging discipline, and compliance with RFP instructions and internal standards. Support proposal reviews and readiness checks before submission. Presentation and Negotiation: Prepare and support customer presentations, executive reviews, and pursuit updates. Help articulate Thales’s value proposition and address customer questions, concerns, and objections. Support negotiation preparation and contribute to the definition of commercial and contractual positions. Bid Tracking and Reporting: Maintain a Loopio database of past bids, questions and answers, reusable content, product updates, proposals, and outcomes. Track lessons learned, identify improvement opportunities, and contribute to the continuous improvement of templates, content, and bid processes. Leverage AI-enabled tools to improve drafting efficiency, content reuse, and proposal analysis, while ensuring accuracy, confidentiality, and human validation. Create and maintain a professional bid template to be used consistently across bids. Minimum Requirements Bachelor’s degree in business, science, engineering, communications, or a related field equivalent work experience 5+ years of experience in bid management, proposal management, capture management, or related commercial roles Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to understand customer needs and translate them into effective pursuit strategies Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex information clearly and persuasively Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to build and maintain strong relationships with prospects, partners, and internal stakeholders at all levels Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple opportunities simultaneously Proficiency in bid management tools, Salesforce, and Microsoft Office Suite Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and deliver high-quality responses under tight deadlines Strong attention to detail and a commitment to quality Ability to work collaboratively in cross-functional teams Fluency in Spanish is a plus Applicant