Bid Writer

You've written bids and won some of them. You know most of a tender is evidence and compliance, and you can already see how much of it AI could do for you.

At iO-Sphere you'd find and win the government contracts, frameworks and grants that grow the business, working with our Head of Partnerships.

What you'd do

We're a UK training provider in data and AI. We run apprenticeships and train teams in companies and public bodies, and a lot of the work we want next is bought through tenders, frameworks and grant rounds, most of it in education and skills. You'd find the opportunities, decide with us which ones to go for, write the bids and get them in. We'd agree a target for what we win, and it'd be yours to hit.

We think AI is going to change bid writing completely, and we want to be ahead of it. We use AI for as much of this as we can, and we build our own tools to do it. BidNinja, our bid tool, uses Claude to read a bid pack and draft answers against the scoring criteria. We'd want you dreaming up the next ones and building them yourself with AI tools like Claude Code, whether that's a tool that spots the right tenders the day they're published or one that checks a bid before it goes in.

Your week

• Searching tender portals and grant rounds for the work we should be going for, and keeping our bid pipeline up to date.
• Going to buyer briefings and sector events, in person and online, and getting to know commissioners and the partners we bid with.
• Reading each bid pack properly and making the go or no-go call with our Head of Partnerships.
• Writing the bids, including the method statements, case studies and social value answers, and getting what you need from the rest of the team.
• Keeping our library of past answers and evidence up to date, so we don't start from a blank page each time.
• Building your own AI tools for the slow parts of bidding, and making BidNinja better as you go.
• Getting feedback on every result, win or lose, and using it on the next one.

It's two days a week if you're experienced and three if you're earlier in your career, on the same £25,000 either way. We agree your days up front. Deadlines don't always land on them, so we'd ask for some flex when a big bid is due. We're a startup, so there'll be other things to pick up as we grow, and we'd expect you to help where it's needed.

Why you'd want it

You'd see a bid through from first spotting it to the contract being signed. You'd get very good at building your own AI tools as well as writing bids, and you'd have our backing to build whatever you think we need.

And we're a startup at an inflection point. 2027 is when we scale, and new contracts are a big part of how we get there. How we bid isn't finished. If you see a better way to do it, we'll actually do it.

Who you are

You've written bids, tenders, grant applications or proposals that went to a buyer or a funder, and you know what it takes to score well against criteria. You've found work yourself too, rather than only writing up what someone else found, and you've had a target to hit. You can see how much AI could change bid writing, and you want to be the one who does it here. Ideally you've already built your own tools with AI, an automation or an agent say, using something like Claude Code, Cursor or n8n, and you could walk us through how it works. If you haven't yet, tell us what you'd build first and how you'd learn to do it. You don't need to be a developer. You write clearly to a word limit, and you can turn a delivery team's notes into an answer an evaluator can score. You can keep several deadlines moving at once and chase people for their input without falling out with them.

It helps a lot if you've bid in the UK public sector, onto frameworks or through Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, and if you know UK education and skills, such as apprenticeships, further education or adult skills funding. Grant bids to government or charitable funders help too.

We hire from junior to senior. You'll need the unrestricted right to work in the UK and to be happy working remotely, with some days in London or at events. If that's you, we want to hear from you.

About iO-Sphere

We train people in data and AI by having them do the work. Over 1,000 people have trained with us, and companies including PwC, BAE Systems, Dunelm, Motorway and CBRE send their teams to us. We're one of the UK's fastest-growing data and AI training companies, and a small, tight-knit team that takes ownership, sets a high bar and has a lot of fun.

What the role must achieve

1. 1We see the right UK education and skills contracts, frameworks and grants early enough to bid well, and the go or no-go call is made on evidence.
2. 2Every bid goes in on time, compliant and written to the scoring criteria.
3. 3We get onto the frameworks that public bodies buy training through.
4. 4What we win meets the target agreed with the Head of Partnerships.
5. 5We have AI tools you thought of and built for the slow parts of bidding, and BidNinja gets better with every bid.

What you'll need

We shortlist against these, scored the same way for everyone:

• Bids, tenders, grant applications or proposals written and submitted to a buyer or funder
• Finding opportunities or bringing in new business yourself against a target, in a bid, sales, business development or partnerships role
• Running several pieces of work to fixed deadlines, gathering input from colleagues or partners
• Using AI at work beyond chat, ideally a tool, agent or automation you built yourself (for example with Claude Code, Cursor, n8n or Zapier)
• The unrestricted right to work in the UK
• Available two or three days a week

Good to have, but not needed:

• Bidding in the UK public sector, onto frameworks or through Find a Tender and Contracts Finder
• UK education and skills: apprenticeships, further education, adult skills or Skills Bootcamps funding
• Tools, agents or automations you've built yourself with AI, with a link or a GitHub we can look at
• Grant bids to government or charitable funders
• A bid or proposal management qualification, such as APMP