Tender & Commercial Manager – Healthcare
- Sri Lanka
Job Purpose
The Tender & Commercial Manager – Healthcare will be responsible for managing the end-to-end tender and commercial process across government and institutional healthcare sectors. The role will lead tender identification, bid strategy, requirement analysis, costing, pricing, proposal preparation, submission, and post-tender follow-up while ensuring profitability, compliance, and timely execution.The role will also be responsible for monitoring tender-related financial performance, supporting collections from government and institutional clients, maintaining strong relationships with procurement and regulatory stakeholders, and providing management with accurate tender pipeline, profitability, and market insights.
Key Responsibilities
- Identify and evaluate relevant tender opportunities across government, hospitals, healthcare institutions, and other institutional sectors.
- Lead the end-to-end tender process from opportunity identification through final submission and post-bid follow-up.
- Review tender documents, specifications, eligibility requirements, terms and conditions, and evaluation criteria.
- Analyse tender requirements and coordinate with relevant internal teams to ensure complete and accurate responses.
- Lead costing, pricing, proposal preparation, documentation, and final tender submissions.
- Develop competitive pricing strategies while maintaining required profit margins and commercial objectives.
- Review market conditions, competitor activity, historical tender outcomes, and customer requirements when developing bid strategies.
- Ensure all tender submissions are accurate, complete, commercially viable, and submitted within the required deadlines.
- Maintain and manage a comprehensive tender calendar covering upcoming opportunities, submission deadlines, clarifications, evaluations, and outcomes.
- Coordinate responses to tender clarifications and additional information requested by procurement authorities or evaluation committees.
- Maintain proper records of submitted tenders, bid documents, pricing, outcomes, and related communications.
- Evaluate the commercial viability of tender opportunities and make recommendations on bid participation.
- Prepare and review tender costing and pricing to ensure alignment with profitability targets.
- Monitor profit margins across tender projects and identify opportunities for pricing or commercial adjustments.
- Recommend pricing revisions based on market conditions, competitor activity, customer requirements, and profitability considerations.
- Support management in making informed decisions regarding pricing, commercial terms, and tender participation.
- Monitor tender-related sales forecasts, expected revenues, margins, and commercial performance.
- Work closely with Finance and other relevant teams to resolve commercial and financial issues arising from tender contracts.
3. Government & Institutional Receivables
- Monitor outstanding payments from government, hospital, and institutional clients.
- Maintain visibility of tender-related receivables and payment timelines.
- Coordinate with Finance and relevant internal teams to follow up on overdue payments.
- Engage with relevant customer and institutional stakeholders to resolve payment-related issues.
- Implement proactive follow-up and debt recovery actions to support healthy cash flow.
- Escalate significant payment delays and commercial issues to management when required.
- Build and maintain professional relationships with government procurement authorities, hospitals, healthcare institutions, procurement committees, technical committees, and relevant regulatory bodies.
- Maintain a strong understanding of customer procurement processes, tender requirements, and institutional buying practices.
- Coordinate with internal Sales, Finance, Supply Chain, Technical, Regulatory, Legal, and Management teams to ensure successful tender execution.
- Provide internal teams with insights from tender evaluations, customer feedback, bid outcomes, and competitor movements.
- Support the business in identifying opportunities to strengthen relationships with key government and institutional customers.
- Monitor healthcare market developments, government procurement trends, institutional purchasing requirements, and competitor activities.
- Analyse previous tender results and identify trends that can improve future bid strategies.
- Track competitor pricing, product positioning, commercial approaches, and tender participation where information is available.
- Provide management with relevant market intelligence to support commercial and tender decision-making.
- Identify potential opportunities within the healthcare and institutional market that align with the company's business objectives.
- Prepare regular tender pipeline reports, tender performance dashboards, bid summaries, and profitability reports.
- Provide accurate sales forecasts and updates on the tender pipeline to management.
- Track tender participation, submission status, bid outcomes, awarded values, expected revenue, and profitability.
- Ensure all tender documentation, approvals, pricing records, correspondence, and submission records are systematically maintained.
- Ensure tender submissions comply with applicable regulatory requirements, company SOPs, procurement guidelines, and tender conditions.
- Maintain proper documentation and audit trails for all tender-related activities.
- Identify and escalate potential compliance, commercial, or contractual risks associated with tender opportunities.
Required Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Business Management, Marketing, Finance, Healthcare Management, or a related field.
- Strong experience in the healthcare industry is essential.
- Proven experience in tender management, bid management, commercial management, or a closely related function, preferably within healthcare, medical, pharmaceutical, laboratory, hospital, medical equipment, or healthcare solutions businesses.
- Experience handling government and/or institutional tenders will be highly advantageous.
- Demonstrable experience managing the full tender lifecycle, including tender identification, requirement analysis, costing, pricing, proposal preparation, submission, and follow-up.
- Strong understanding of commercial pricing, margins, profitability, and financial considerations within tender businesses.
- Experience dealing with government institutions, hospitals, procurement authorities, or institutional customers.
- Experience coordinating with Finance on receivables, outstanding payments, and commercial issues.
- Strong negotiation, analytical, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Excellent attention to detail with the ability to manage multiple tenders and deadlines simultaneously.
- Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
Preferred Industry Background
Candidates with experience in one or more of the following healthcare sectors will be considered:
- Medical Devices & Medical Equipment
- Pharmaceuticals
- Hospital & Healthcare Services
- Laboratory & Diagnostic Solutions
- Surgical & Clinical Products
- Healthcare Technology / Solutions
- Medical Supplies & Consumables
- Healthcare Distribution
- Other Healthcare Products or Institutional Solutions
Key Competencies
- Tender & Bid Management
- Commercial Acumen
- Healthcare Industry Knowledge
- Pricing & Costing
- Profitability Management
- Government & Institutional Procurement
- Negotiation & Stakeholder Management
- Market & Competitor Analysis
- Financial & Receivables Management
- Reporting & Documentation
- Regulatory & Tender Compliance
- Planning & Deadline Management
- Analytical & Problem-Solving Skills
Key Performance Areas
The successful candidate will be measured on:
- Tender pipeline development and conversion
- Timely and compliant tender submissions
- Tender win/conversion performance
- Revenue generated through tenders
- Gross margin and profitability
- Accuracy of tender costing and pricing
- Government and institutional receivables management
- Timeliness of payment collections
- Quality of tender documentation and compliance
- Accuracy of sales forecasts and management reporting
- Development of government and institutional stakeholder relationships