Proposal and bid manager jobs in Edinburgh

Our client is a charity that works directly with, and for unpaid carers, providing personalised information, advice and tailored support making it easier for those caring for someone else to continue living their lives to the fullest. With a committed, dedicated staff team and clear plans to scale reach, support and impact, this charity lives its values by being positive, collaborative and ambitious in all it does.

Business Development Manager

Hybrid - predominantly home-based with occasional travel

Permanent

22.5 - 30 hrs hours per week (negotiable, 3-4 days a week)

£39,000 - £45,000 (pro-rata for part-time hours)

Reporting to the Director of Income and Engagement, you will identify, assess and manage contract and funding opportunities. You'll lead the development of compelling, high-quality and cost-effective bids and proposals (including re-securing existing contracts), coordinating bid plans and bid teams to ensure a consistent approach. You will also support mobilisation of new contracts and services and build relationships with commissioners, funders and partners. Using insight, outcomes data and carers' feedback, you'll strengthen bids, inform service improvement and support the development of innovative service models that improve outcomes for carers.

To be successful in this role, you will bring a strong track record of securing new contracts and re-securing existing contracts, with experience of commissioning and procurement processes in health, social care or the voluntary sector. You'll have proven experience of leading bid development activity and bid teams, producing high-quality, persuasive proposals to tight deadlines, alongside strong senior stakeholder engagement skills with commissioners, funders and partner organisations. You'll bring a good understanding of health and care systems (including Local Authority and Integrated Care System priorities and pressures), plus experience of service design and improvement, working collaboratively with multi-disciplinary teams and people with lived experience.

How to apply

At Prospectus we invest in your journey as a candidate and are committed to supporting you with your application. We welcome all candidates to apply, regardless of age, sex/gender, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, marital status or pregnancy/maternity. If you have any disability and require reasonable adjustment/s to any part of the process then please contact Femke Vorstman at Prospectus.

If you feel you meet some of the criteria but not all, we really hope you'll enquire and learn more. Prospectus can advise and support on each part of the role and hopefully your application, so we look forward to hearing from you.

In order to apply please submit your CV in the first instance. Should your experience be suitable, we will arrange for a meeting to brief you on the role. You'll then have all the information you need to formally apply. To formally apply, you will need to complete a supporting statement (max. 2 sides of A4) by COB on Monday 8 June.

As a key member of the Trusts & Grants team, The Trusts & Grants Fundraiser will work closely with the Trusts & Grants Manager to raise funds from a portfolio of charitable trusts in accordance with Child Bereavement UK’s budgets and targets.

Initiative, creativity, excellent organization and writing skills are required, together with the ability to develop persuasive proposals and nurture effective relationships with key stakeholders across Child Bereavement UK and externally.

This role comes at a particularly important time for CBUK when the charity is looking to evolve and grow services, diversify into new areas, and raise significant funds for ongoing work. The Trusts & Grants Team are a vital part of the charity’s expansion into new areas, and the post-holder will have the opportunity to work with frontline staff to develop new projects and bids.

Main Responsibilities

Leadership

• Create timely and compelling bespoke proposals and applications to charitable and corporate trusts, Lotteries and Government bodies.
• Develop and deliver to donor care plans to provide excellent supporter care to trust funders; aim to involve supporters in the achievement of the Child Bereavement UK mission and maximise the value and longevity of their support – providing accurate and informative reports and invitations to project visits and events where appropriate.
• Support in the development of new case for support and project documents; work with front-line staff to develop new bids and budgets.
• Keep up to date with Child Bereavement UK’s work, key priorities and future plans to effectively match with supporters’ interests and identify opportunities for support.
• Contribute to the Trusts and Grants annual business planning process as well as monthly planning and budget reforecasting.
• Undertake rigorous identification of prospective grant funders and detailed research into strong leads (through desktop research and face to face/virtual networking).
• Work closely with colleagues in other areas of fundraising and other departments across the charity, as well as volunteers and supporters to build strong working relationships and maximise cross selling opportunities.
• Ensure the effective management of all relevant information, including maintaining accurate information for prospects and donors on the charity’s database (Sales Force).
• Utilise a range of internal work and planning tools to ensure bids are of a good quality, relationships are maintained, and internal stakeholders are included in any decisions.
• Develop personal knowledge of trust fundraising, including completing relevant training and regularly reviewing relevant press and publications from relevant organisations.

Person Specification

Essential

• Educated to GCSE level or equivalent
• Trust fundraising experience
• Managing a varied workload
• Verbal and written communication with internal and external contacts
• Proven track-record of managing funder relationships with positive outcomes
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent numeracy and analytical skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to prioritise, work under pressure and to deadlines whilst maintaining excellent attention to detail
• Able to take responsibility for own work, consistently achieving and delivering to high standards, on time.
• Strong organizational skills
• Strong working knowledge of MS Office, in particular Word and Excel. Good numeracy skills

Desirable

• Experience of generating funds through government contracts
• Stakeholder relationship management
• Using Sales Force or another CRM database
• Experience of account management in the third sector
• Experience managing relationships with large-scale funders, including, but not limited to, the National Lottery, local government bodies, the NHS, Children in Need etc
• Research skills
• Relationship management

Benefits

• 25 days’ holiday plus bank holidays (pro rata if applicable) with increase for long service.
• TOIL for our hours work.
• Contributory pension scheme.
• Company sick pay.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Life assurance.
• Training loans.
• Enhanced family friendly policies.

Recruitment Timetable

Application deadline: 16th June 2026 at midnight

We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if we receive a high number of applications for the role before the closing date.

Please refer to our recruitment pack for further details on the interview process.

Sight Scotland is Scotland’s leading charity providing specialist care, education and research for people with vision impairment. The charity has been in existence for over 230 years, and offer a variety of services in the community as well as education, transcription into alternative formats and residential care for adults and children. Their vision is of an inclusive Scotland where people of all visual abilities have the opportunity to thrive. To achieve their mission they are looking for a Fundraising Manager focused on trusts and grants who will cultivate a pipeline of opportunities and ensure an excellent funder experience, to provide Sight Scotland with sustainable income.

The Fundraising Manager – Trusts is responsible for developing trust income. There is a robust pipeline in place, and huge scope to look beyond the pipeline and work with the service delivery teams to identify new funding opportunities. This role will focus on larger funding bids, and exploring the potential for funding for Sight Scotland Veterans. The role supports the organisation’s purpose to make a significant impact on the lives of people living with visual impairment in Scotland by maximising fundraising income to deliver brilliant services and create a positive impact on our ability to deliver for the long term. 

This specialist manager role would suit someone who is already operating at a senior trust fundraiser level, or someone who can demonstrate experience of developing a trust and grants pipeline, creating compelling applications and directly delivering income success.This role will line manage a Trusts Fundraiser (a brand-new post to Sight Scotland), so this could be the ideal opportunity for someone looking to take on people management for the first time.

Whats on offer

• Hybrid, working from Edinburgh office for 1-2 days a week

• 37 days leave pro-rata (inclusive of bank holidays) 

• Contributory pension scheme – up to 12% employer contribution 

• Enhanced policies

Application notes 

Please download the Candidate Info Pack provided for further information about the role, timelines and next steps.

To progress your application, please contact THINK Recruitment to organise an informal screening call. Please note, we cannot shortlist candidates who have not had a screening call so please allow enough time to have a call before the closing date.

Closing date for applications: Midnight Monday 8th June 

Interviews are expected to be held on Wednesday 17th June 

The National Youth Agency is looking for a Business Development Manager

Business Development Manager
Contract: 12-month fixed term (Maternity leave cover)
Hours: Full-time - 37 hours per week
Salary: £43,054 per annum (dependent on experience and qualifications)
Location: Home-based in England with occasional travel for meetings, workshops, and team activities. Head Office is in Leicester.

What we do

As the national body for youth work, the NYA has a dual function. We are the professional statutory and regulatory body (PSRB) responsible for qualifications, quality standards, and safeguarding for youth work and services in England. In line with our charity mission and aims, we also champion youth work through research, advocacy, campaigns, and programmes.

We work in partnership and believe in collaborative leadership, listening to youth workers and the youth work sector so that we can understand their needs and respond to the challenges they face. We are ambitious for youth work and for young people and integrate youth voice and influence across our work

About the Role

We are looking for an entrepreneurial and proactive Business Development Manager to develop relationships and opportunities with new clients, drive income generation and to grow the reach of the charity.

This role leads on securing new business opportunities across tenders, grants, consultancy, training, and government contracts, managing the process from initial research through to submission and handover. It focuses on building and maintaining relationships with partners across the public, voluntary, and private sectors, while promoting the NYA’s services and quality framework.

Key Responsibilities

As a Business Development Manager, you will:

• Seeking and attracting new opportunities for the NYA to work with public sector, voluntary sector, and private sector partners.
• Identifying and assessing prospects across tenders, grants, commercial proposals and government frameworks/contracts.
• Developing win themes, evidence, pricing assumptions (where applicable) and coordinating with internal and external stakeholders to develop bids.
• Managing clarifications, presentations/interviews and negotiation stages with commissioners/funders/clients.
• Keeping pipeline and plans up to date and reporting progress/risks against targets.
• Developing relationships with and maintaining existing relationships with clients and funders.
• Taking bids through to close including final agreements and contract sign off.
• Promoting NYA products, resources, consultancy services and training offer.
• Delivering market research, developing business strategies and pitches, managing projects, and identifying new business opportunities.
• Working as part of the wider Business Development Team to achieve income targets
• Working with our youth work specialists and Programmes and Research teams and reporting to the Head of Business Development.

Why Work for NYA?

• NYA operates as a people-focused organisation, prioritising the well-being and needs of its employees.
• NYA offers an exceptional flexible working approach which encourages our team to balance professional responsibilities with their personal life.
• A remote based team, spread across England, fostering inclusivity and diverse talent. Despite geographical distances between team members, NYA maintains a highly motivated and connected team through the optimisation of digital tools.
• NYA is committed to supporting the continual personal and professional development of our team and helping them achieve their ambitions.
• We provide 25 days leave plus 8 days, life assurance scheme, 5% employer pension contribution and a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme via Spectrum.life with unlimited specialist support available to all NYA employees.

Closing date: 5pm Friday 26th June 2026
Please note: we reserve the right to close this vacancy early
Interviews: Week commencing 6th July 2026 (subject to change)

Interested?

If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

The National Youth Agency is an equal opportunities employer. 

At NYA our inclusive culture means that we embrace individual differences and understand that we need a diverse team to achieve our organisations mission.

We wish to recruit candidates from all backgrounds to ensure our team reflects the rich diversity of the communities we serve. We encourage applications from anyone regardless of disability, ethnicity, heritage, gender, sexuality, religion, socio-economic background and political beliefs but we particularly welcome applications from global majority candidates and those from other minoritised ethnic groups in the UK as they are currently underrepresented in our team.

Please note: We use AI detector software, so applications or CV’s with high levels of AI generated content may be disregarded. We understand that AI tools can offer support to candidates who have learning differences, which is why we will accept applications with some AI assistance.

No agencies please.