The Lead – Bids & Proposals is responsible for managing the complete bid lifecycle—from opportunity identification and qualification through proposal development, submission, and post‑submission follow‑ups. This role ensures high‑quality, compelling, and compliant proposals that maximize win potential. The Lead partners closely with Sales, Pre‑Sales, Delivery, Finance, Legal, and Senior Leadership to drive strategic, timely, and commercially strong responses to RFPs/RFIs/RFQs.
Key Responsibilities
1. Bid Management & Strategy
Lead end‑to‑end bid management across all stages: initiation, planning, content development, review, submission, and handover.
Assess bid requirements and develop clear win strategies, themes, and value propositions.
Facilitate bid/no‑bid decisions by evaluating strategic fit, risks, and resource requirements.
Create bid plans, schedules, and resource assignments, ensuring on‑time delivery.
2. Proposal Development
Write, structure, and edit proposal content to ensure clarity, quality, accuracy, and persuasiveness.
Coordinate inputs from technical, commercial, and operational teams to produce cohesive proposals.
Ensure proposals comply with all customer requirements and internal governance standards.
Develop standardized templates, boilerplates, and content libraries for efficiency and consistency.
3. Stakeholder Coordination
Work closely with cross-functional teams—Sales, Solutions, Delivery, Finance, Legal, HR, Risk—to gather content and approvals.
Conduct proposal reviews and steer strategic improvements.
Serve as the single point of contact for all proposal‑related communication with internal teams.
4. Commercial & Risk Management
Support pricing teams by providing inputs on assumptions, scope, and deliverables.
Identify risks and mitigation strategies, ensuring commercial soundness.
Validate adherence to contractual, financial, and legal guidelines.
5. Quality Assurance & Continuous Improvement
Maintain high standards of proposal quality, formatting, messaging, and compliance.
Analyze bid outcomes and conduct post‑mortem reviews to refine future processes.
Manage and update knowledge bases, case studies, and proposal archives.
Required Qualifications & Skills
Education & Experience
Thorough understanding of procurement & tendering processes of Capital & Revenue procurement of MoD.
Min 4 years of experience in bid management, proposals, pre‑sales, or business development in defence & aerospace sector.
Proven track record of leading complex, multi‑million-dollar bids of MoD
Technical & Professional Skills
Strong understanding of RFP/RFI/RFQ processes and proposal frameworks.
Exceptional writing, communication, and storytelling abilities.
Ability to interpret technical solutions and articulate them in business language.
Proficiency in CRM, MS Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and proposal automation tools.
Strong project management and organizational skills with attention to detail.
Behavioral Competencies
Strategic thinking and ability to influence diverse stakeholders.
High ownership, accountability, and ability to work under tight deadlines.
Collaborative, proactive, and solution-oriented mindset.
Ovii Interpretation
This role leads bid and proposal work for defence and aerospace opportunities, from qualification and response planning through submission and follow-up. It coordinates commercial, technical, legal, and operational contributions to develop compliant, persuasive responses and improve future bids.
Role at a glance
Bid lifecycle managementProposal writing and editingRFP/RFI/RFQ responsesDefence and aerospace tendersCommercial and risk reviewCross-functional coordination
Plan and coordinate bids from opportunity qualification through submission and handover.
Shape win themes, value propositions, and bid/no-bid recommendations based on fit, risk, and resources.
Draft, edit, and coordinate proposal content, ensuring customer requirements and internal standards are addressed.
Gather reviews, approvals, pricing inputs, assumptions, scope, and deliverables from cross-functional contributors.
Track bid schedules and resources to meet submission deadlines.
Review commercial, contractual, financial, and legal risks and support mitigation planning.
Maintain proposal templates, reusable content, case studies, and archives; analyze outcomes to improve the process.
Good fit signals
At least four years in bid management, proposals, pre-sales, or business development within defence and aerospace.
Understanding of Ministry of Defence capital and revenue procurement and tendering processes.
Experience leading complex, multi-million-dollar Ministry of Defence bids.
Strong proposal writing, communication, and storytelling, including translating technical solutions into business language.
Able to coordinate varied stakeholders, influence decisions, and deliver accurately under tight deadlines.
Meet Newspace
NewSpace Research and Technologies (NRT) is a Bengaluru-based aerospace and defence R&D company developing autonomous and uncrewed systems for military and civilian missions. Its work spans persistent UAVs, High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellites, swarm robotics, collaborative combat aircraft, loitering systems, unmanned ground vehicles, GPS/GNSS-denied navigation and AI-enabled autonomy. Publicly identified users and collaborators include India's Ministry of Defence, Indian Army, Indian Navy, DRDO, National Disaster Response Force, Ministry of Home Affairs and Department of Telecommunications. Its programs combine aircraft design, robotics, sensor fusion, computer vision, machine learning and distributed autonomous systems for surveillance, communications, logistics and precision-mission applications.
Founded
2017
Company size
501-1,000 employees
Company stage
Not known
Headquarters
Bengaluru, India
Why work here
NewSpace offers engineers direct exposure to aerospace and defence R&D involving autonomous UAVs, swarm robotics, GNSS-denied navigation, HAPS, computer vision, sensor fusion and AI at the edge. Current roles publicly reference C++, Python, ROS/ROS2, PX4, ArduPilot, PyTorch, OpenCV, CUDA, TensorRT, NVIDIA Jetson and Docker, indicating substantial hands-on work across software, hardware and flight systems. Its technology has been used in Indian defence programs, including DRDO's ULPGM-V3 trials, and the company is actively expanding its engineering workforce. Candidates should also consider the realities of a defence-focused growth company: many roles are onsite, programs can involve field deployments, and government procurement and long R&D cycles can create execution variability.
Industry
Aerospace & Defence - Autonomous and Uncrewed Systems
SJSameer JoshiCo-Founder, CEO and DirectorView bioHide bio
Co-founder and CEO. Joshi is a former Indian Air Force fighter pilot who served during the Kargil War and later worked with TeamIndus and Threye Interactive. His experience spans aviation, defence technology and unmanned systems, and he leads NewSpace's strategy around autonomous aerospace and future-warfare technologies.
JAJulius AmritCo-Founder, COO and DirectorView bioHide bio
Co-founder, COO and Director. Amrit previously co-founded TeamIndus and held leadership roles at Wincere, Avendus, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered. He studied at IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta and brings experience across aerospace ventures, operations, finance and company building.
JMJaideep MaolankarExecutive Vice President - Technology DevelopmentView bioHide bio
Leads technology development at NewSpace. A retired Commodore with more than 35 years in Indian Naval Aviation and flight testing, including service during the Kargil conflict, he contributes operational and flight-test expertise to autonomous and mission-critical aerospace systems.
NNNaveen NavlaniHead of Business Development & SalesView bioHide bio
Leads business development and sales at NewSpace. An Army veteran of Operation Vijay, Navlani has experience in defence project management, electronics-warfare programs, alliances and technology sales, connecting NewSpace's engineering programs with defence and institutional customers.
NewSpace tests RATO booster on Sheshnag-150 long-range strike drone
IDRW·
NewSpace's GryphonWorks team successfully tested a rocket-assisted take-off booster for the Sheshnag-150 one-way attack drone. The capability is intended to enable runway-independent launches and more flexible deployment of the long-range unmanned platform.
Newspace Research in talks to raise $35-40 million from 360 One, Avendus, others
Mint·
NewSpace was reported to be seeking $35-40 million in Series C financing through a combination of equity and debt. Existing investor 360 ONE Asset had provided a term sheet, while other investors and family offices were participating in discussions.
DRDO completes development trials of ULPGM-V3 integrated on NewSpace UAVs
Press Information Bureau, Government of India·
DRDO completed development trials of the ULPGM-V3 precision-guided missile in air-to-ground and air-to-air configurations. The Government of India confirmed that the system used UAVs developed by NewSpace Research and Technologies for the trials.