Technical Sales Manager (Industrial Refrigeration Bristol)

We’re looking for a Technical Sales Manager to lead our major industrial refrigeration bids across the South West, from the first client conversation and concept design through to a fully compliant, well-priced tender.

This is a technical sales role, not account management. You’ll own the bid. You’ll interpret the client’s brief, shape a practical and cost-efficient solution, and present a submission that wins work at a margin we can deliver. Schemes are worth £500k to £6m and cover food manufacturing, cold storage and logistics, and process and beverage. You’ll work across our existing client base and into new accounts in our key growth sectors.

This is a small number of substantial bids, typically 3 to 8 secured schemes a year, rather than high volume. We value disciplined bid selection as much as winning.

• →Build and qualify the pipeline. Develop senior relationships with end users, consultants, main contractors and framework holders. Position us early in clients’ capital planning, and apply a rigorous bid/no-bid assessment to every enquiry.
• →Turn briefs into solutions. Interrogate specifications, survey sites and develop concept schemes with our Industrial Design Manager. These cover system architecture, refrigerant strategy, plant configuration and resilience. You’ll challenge over-specification as firmly as under-specification, and make the whole-life cost, energy and carbon case where it strengthens the offer.
• →Own the tender. Run the bid programme, build a fully traceable cost model, secure firm supplier pricing and write precise scopes, exclusions and clarifications. You’ll also present and defend the tender at client review and adjudication stages.
• →Get compliance right at bid stage. Make sure every offer prices in BS EN 378, PED, Pressure Systems Safety Regulations, CDM 2015, DSEAR, GB F-Gas and COMAH screening, so nothing is discovered after award.
• →Lead across the business. Coordinate design, estimating, procurement, delivery, finance and legal to a single programme, and escalate early when something threatens a deadline.
• →Lead your bid support. Direct, coach and develop a Bid / Estimating Support colleague, taking ownership of the quality of their output, while still carrying lead bid responsibility yourself.
• →Hand over cleanly. On award, give the Contracts / Project Management team a full handover, and stay accountable for the accuracy of what was sold.

Bids at this value carry real technical, commercial and contractual risk. Every tender goes through formal design review and technical sign-off by our Industrial Design Manager and through internal commercial approval at the correct level of authority. You’ll be expected to build your bid programme around those gates and to work constructively within them, including under client or deadline pressure.

• Substantial experience in UK industrial refrigeration, with previous employment in the UK industrial refrigeration contractor market
• A proven record of leading bids and winning orders in the £500k–£6m range, and of meeting an annual order intake target of comparable scale
• Experience of leading the sales phase from concept design through to tender submission and award, and of handing awarded projects over to delivery
• Experience of working within formal design review gates, internal contract review and levels of authority
• Commercial negotiation experience at senior client level, covering price, scope, programme and terms
• Strong working knowledge of BS EN 378 and the Pressure Equipment (Safety) Regulations, plus an understanding of the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations, CDM 2015, DSEAR and GB F-Gas
• Ammonia plant knowledge, including two-stage systems and pumped circulation
• Ability to develop concept designs, to perform or direct heat load and duty calculations, and to read and develop P&IDs, schematics and layouts
• Knowledge of food manufacturing, cold storage and logistics operations
• Ability to build and defend a detailed cost model, write protective scopes and exclusions, and understand contract risk (liability, LDs, retention, bonds, cash profile)
• Experience of managing or directing at least one direct report or dedicated bid resource
• Strong written and presentation skills, and competence in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and CRM/estimating systems
• HNC/HND in Refrigeration, Building Services or Mechanical Engineering (or equivalent demonstrable competence), and Level 3 Maths and English
• Full UK driving licence and willingness to travel nationally, including overnight stays

• Experience developing new accounts in growth sectors
• Experience of framework, two-stage or negotiated procurement, and of bidding to main contractors as well as end users
• Experience of refrigerant transition, decarbonisation or major energy-reduction schemes
• Knowledge of CO₂ transcritical/subcritical and ammonia/CO₂ cascade systems, low-charge ammonia, controls and heat recovery
• Exposure to HAZOP/HAZID studies
• Degree in Mechanical or Building Services Engineering, Institute of Refrigeration membership, EN 378, pressure equipment or ammonia safety training, IOSH Managing Safely, F-Gas Category 1, or formal leadership/bid management training

You’re highly organised, can run several bids at different stages without dropping anything, and have little tolerance for undefined scope or unstated assumptions. You influence colleagues you don’t line-manage, communicate equally well with client engineers and procurement directors, escalate problems early, and stay composed when a deadline is close.