Bringing clarity to tender requirements, complex proposals and technical information.
Hi, I’m Diane, a Civil Engineer and Tender Manager with a background in business development. My work focuses on turning complex requirements, technical information and commercial inputs into clear, well-supported proposals.
From engineering to tender management
My professional experience spans approximately nine years across engineering and business development, including quantity surveying, engineering consultancy and geomatics firms.
I currently work as a Tender Manager in global mobility, supporting a UK-based business. My responsibilities include interpreting RFPs, managing tender responses, writing executive summaries and coordinating pricing and stakeholder input.
I’m particularly interested in the connection between technical work and how it is communicated: understanding the brief, selecting relevant evidence and making a complex response easier to assess.
Foundation
Civil engineering and experience in technical businesses
Current focus
Tender responses, proposal structure and commercial coordination
Professional interests
Engineering, the built environment and sustainability development
Selected proposal work.
My earlier work includes proposals for international development consultancy assignments and a railway surveying subcontract. These examples describe the bids I worked on and my responsibilities.
Planning the surveying subcontract
North–South Commuter Railway Extension
| Proposal element | What it needed to address |
|---|---|
| Survey coverage | 11 station areas along the railway corridor |
| Mobilisation plan | Deployment of multiple field teams within the study timeline |
| Survey methods | Land and geospatial survey methods mapped to the commissioning consultant’s requirements |
| Fee proposal | Fieldwork costs and team movement between the northern and southern sites |
Geospatial surveying · Railway infrastructure
Developing the technical and fee proposal for a railway surveying subcontract.
In a previous role at a surveying firm, I developed the technical and fee proposal for surveys around 11 station areas. This included the mobilisation plan and costs of deploying field teams across dispersed sites.
Read the case study.
The wider project
The survey subcontract supported station-area studies within the North–South Commuter Railway Extension project. The proposed scope covered land and geospatial surveys around 11 station areas to gather information on existing site conditions for the wider study.
The challenge
Our survey package required geospatial and land survey data on existing ground conditions, structures and easements around the proposed station sites. The sites were dispersed between Metro Manila and regional Luzon, so the proposal had to demonstrate the capacity to deploy multiple survey teams within the study timetable and meet the commissioning consultant’s data requirements.
My contribution
I authored the mobilisation and execution plan for covering the 11 station areas. I mapped the firm’s land survey methods to the commissioning consultant’s requirements and developed the fee proposal, accounting for the logistics of moving teams between the northern and southern sections of the railway corridor.
The result
The firm was awarded the sub-consultancy package. My contribution was developing the technical proposal, mobilisation plan and fee proposal supporting the bid.
Development consultancy · Proposal preparation
Preparing international development proposals.
In a development consultancy’s business development team, I prepared proposal documents and coordinated consultant and partner inputs for tenders valued at USD 1–16 million across APAC. Assignments covered transport, flood management, sanitation and health infrastructure.
Read the experience overview
The context
The firm worked across several development sectors, with services spanning project planning, design, technical assistance, management and evaluation. Its business development team drew on a roster of independent specialists to assemble proposed teams for individual assignments. Each bid required consultant availability and fee information, alongside substantial documentation such as capability statements, personnel CVs and supporting forms.
My contribution
I coordinated with global partners, consultants and local project teams to gather the information needed for bid submissions. For proposed specialists, I shared opportunity documents and collected availability responses and daily fee quotations. The BD manager led the bids and used these commercial inputs in the cost calculations.
I prepared written proposal material and assembled supporting documents, including capability statements and consultant CVs. CV preparation involved formatting personnel information for the submission, as part of the wider proposal package.
The outputs
Proposal documents combining consultant information, partner inputs and supporting evidence for the team’s government and development-funded tender submissions.
Bringing proposal inputs together
Government and development-funded tenders
| Input | My contribution |
|---|---|
| Proposal preparation | Prepare capability statements, personnel profiles and supporting bid documents |
| Consultant coordination | Gather availability and specialist information for proposed project teams |
| Partner inputs | Bring together information from global partners and local project teams |
| Commercial inputs | Collect consultant fee quotations for inclusion in the bid costing process |
How I work through a tender.
1
Break down the requirements
The RFP, evaluation criteria and submission instructions guide the response structure and plan: what needs answering, which documents are required, and where clarification is needed.
2
Bring the inputs together
Developing the proposal means bringing together information from technical contributors, partners and commercial teams, tracking missing inputs, and following up on questions that could hold up the response.
3
Review the complete submission
A final review checks how the written response, supporting documents and commercial inputs fit together. Unanswered requirements, unsupported claims and inconsistencies are flagged for the responsible contributors to resolve before submission.
Continue the conversation.
For a follow-up or professional introduction, you can reach me by email.