European Tender Desk Manager

Job Description

The role

TOPdesk is looking for a European Tender Desk Manager to lead a growing international tender operation of approximately 60–90 tenders annually. Indicative volumes are 20–30 each in the Netherlands, Germany, and UKI and the Nordics combined, with overall demand increasing over time.

You will lead a team of three Tender Coordinators based in the Netherlands and DACH, supporting these markets locally. You will own the European tender framework, process and quality standards, building the capacity, knowledge and tools to deliver timely, competitive submissions as volumes grow.

What you will do

• Lead and develop the team: manage, coach and develop your three direct reports across the Netherlands and DACH, set clear objectives, oversee performance and development, allocate workload and build effective cross-border collaboration.
• Build the European operating model: establish a single intake route, clear roles and responsibilities, review gates and escalation paths, and partner with local Tender Coordinators to pilot, refine and roll out the approach internationally.
• Plan capacity and prioritise the portfolio: forecast demand and peak concurrent workload, allocate capacity with Sales based on commercial value, complexity, deadlines and likelihood of success, and advise on bid/no-bid decisions.
• Drive process and quality: set support levels and reviews according to tender complexity and risk, oversee milestones and submission readiness, and ensure complete, consistent responses with the required commercial, local and specialist approvals.
• Coordinate expertise effectively: work with Sales, Consultancy, Legal, Security, Product, SaaS/Hosting, Finance and other experts, routing questions to the right owners and escalating gaps early.
• Build reusable tender knowledge: own the central knowledge base, templates, version control and review cycles, make approved answers easy to find and reuse, and run regular quality audits within the tender tool to keep content accurate, current and compliant as usage scales.
• Scale delivery through tools and adoption: develop tooling and AI-assisted analysis and content reuse with review controls, and train local coordinators to increase adoption and reduce manual effort as volumes grow.
• Measure and improve performance: report on tender volumes, workload, timeliness, quality, outcomes and knowledge reuse, and lead lessons-learned reviews that translate feedback into practical improvements.

Your mandate and partnerships

You set and enforce the agreed tender process, deadlines and quality gates. You can return incomplete input, require additional validation, escalate capacity or quality risks and recommend against submission when readiness is insufficient.

Sales retains ownership of the opportunity, win strategy, pricing, bid/no-bid decision and final commercial approval. Local Tender Coordinators organise local contributions and formal submission, supported by the Tender Desk's final quality check and second-person submission review. Consultancy owns implementation feasibility; subject matter experts own the accuracy and approval of specialist content.

Why TOPdesk

• A strong, growing brand with a loyal customer base of more than 5,000 organisations across Europe.
• A people-first culture with real autonomy to build a brand-new function and make it your own.
• The chance to lead one of TOPdesk's most important cross-market initiatives, working closely with Sales leadership.
• Backed by CVC Capital Partners, with the ambition and resources of a scale-up.
• A competitive compensation package.

Qualifications

About you

You are an execution-driven leader who knows how to scale a growing process across an international B2B environment. You bring structure, clarity and accountability, combined with a people-first leadership style.

You bring:

• Proven experience managing complex tenders, bids or RFPs in an international B2B environment, ideally in software, SaaS or IT services.
• Familiarity with European public procurement, particularly in Germany and/or the Netherlands.
• Experience leading and developing teams, ideally across locations, and introducing shared processes that colleagues adopt in practice.
• Experience managing concurrent tenders and planning capacity across countries, with strong prioritisation and stakeholder skills.
• Confidence to challenge incomplete input and resolve competing deadlines.
• Experience with response libraries, quality assurance and tender tooling such as Brainial.
• Fluent English and fluent in either German or Dutch, proficiency in all three is an advantage.
• Willingness to travel between teams as needed.

What success looks like

A shared process across markets; a capable team with capacity matched to complexity and peak demand; reliable reviews and deadlines as volumes grow; greater content reuse and less rework; and clear reporting to improve outcomes with Sales.

What to expect

Our process consists of an introductory call with our recruiter, followed by two interviews with members of our Sales leadership and team, including a case assignment in the second round.

Additional Information

• A strong focus on personal development — including, in the Netherlands, our “10 to Grow” programme: 10% of your time and budget for your own growth.

• A hybrid working environment built on freedom, trust, and responsibility.

• An open, and supportive culture, with collaboration across national borders.

• Excellent employment conditions.

Compensation: 6000 to 7000 (EUR) (MONTHLY)