Bid Analyst I at RECARO Aircraft Seating Americas LLC – Ft Worth, Texas

Position Summary: The Bid Analyst I is the end to end owner of the bid process for assigned sales campaigns. This role is responsible for planning, coordinating, and delivering high quality, compliant, and commercially sound proposals that are submitted on time, support profitable growth, and can be seamlessly transitioned into executable projects. Working closely with Sales, Engineering, Finance, Program Management, and Executive leadership, the Bid Analyst defines bid timelines and priorities, ensures the accuracy and consistency of all technical and commercial content, and helps shape a persuasive value proposition aligned with customer requirements and company strategy. This is a highly networked role requiring strong coordination, analytical, and communication skills, along with the ability to lead cross functional teams under pressure and to challenging deadlines in both office based and virtual environments. The Bid Analyst regularly interacts with internal and external stakeholders up to Executive / Director level and acts as a key interface between RECARO and the customer during the bid and award phases.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities to manage the end-to-end bid process include the following, other duties may be assigned:

Bid Planning and Governance (End to End Bid Ownership)

• Own and manage the end to end bid process for assigned opportunities, from RFP receipt through bid submission and award phase.
• Review incoming RFPs for completeness and plausibility, including initial layout and scope assessment; escalate major risks, gaps, or ambiguities to Sales and leadership.
• Define and maintain a detailed bid schedule and milestones (including internal reviews and approvals) that meet customer deadlines and internal resource constraints.
• Maintain and update bid-related data (e.g., stage, slot, categories, production & engineering location) in ENGAGE/JIRA and other relevant systems.
• Coordinate the bid/no bid assessment with Sales and other stakeholders, ensuring that key criteria (strategic fit, capacity, risk, margin) are considered.
• Coordinate, track, and prioritize Layout / LOPA investigations between Engineering and OEB teams to ensure timely and accurate inputs.
• Request applicable hedging rates (USD, RMB) from RECARO Holding when required and ensure they are correctly applied in the offer.
• Ensure alignment and consistency between technical descriptions, commercial terms, pricing inputs, and contractual assumptions throughout the proposal.
• Prepare ROMs (Rough Order of Magnitude estimates) on demand, defining applicable program baselines, timelines, and assumptions; determine whether existing product bases can be leveraged and set up coordination meetings with internal stakeholders as necessary.
• Lead and prepare Shopfloor Meetings via JIRA (once/twice weekly) to monitor OEB progress, resolve issues, and align priorities for the OEB & Layout teams in agreement with the VP Customer.
• Lead and prepare Slot Review Meetings and implement all agreed changes into ENGAGE and the HoV List (Global: RAU, RAC & RAG).
• Prepare and maintain a consolidated overview of all open projects and OEBs, and regularly review priorities with the VP Customer (all sites) and Sales Directors (e.g., International Sales Priority List, Customer Review Calls).
• Serve as the technical/proposal lead with assigned customers, answering clarifications, coordinating responses to questions, and ensuring that customer feedback is captured and reflected in the offer.
• Continuously follow up on offers in consultation with aircraft manufacturers and Sales (“Bid no Bid Call”) and provide timely, relevant updates to Sales Directors and internal leadership.
• Prepare and present offer details and bid status information in support of Executive level meetings (e.g., Key Account reviews, Advisory Board, Town Halls).

Handover to Project Execution (G1 Audit Preparation)

• Initiate preparation of the G1 audit once the offer has been accepted by the customer (e.g., binding LOI received).
• Collect required data, perform plausibility checks, and complete necessary forms (including “Order Approval” and related documentation); secure required signatures and distribute to stakeholders.
• Request the G1 calculation based on the approved Order Approval and support the Calculation department as needed (e.g., credits, chosen options, deviations).
• Gather necessary information from other departments relevant to executing G1 and ensure completeness and consistency.
• Create the project in Team Center (PLM) and upload all G1 relevant documents (Offer, LOI, NDA, Order Approval, G1 Calculation & PER, G1 presentations, and any other critical documentation).
• Prepare the presentation for the CCP meeting (project release) to PSC / IPSC in collaboration with Program Management and other stakeholders.
• Set up the G1 meeting in conjunction with the Program Management Office (PMO) and follow up on open action items with the project team as defined in G1 until a clear handover to the Project Manager is complete.

• Bachelor's Degree in Business or similar.
• A minimum of 1 year of related experience in Sales, Bid Management and/or training.
• Aerospace experience preferred.
• High proficiency in standard office and collaboration software (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation tools, email, internet, and database systems); ability to quickly adapt to internal systems such as ENGAGE, SDMS, JIRA, and Team Center.
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally as required; valid and current passport required.
• Able to independently gather and synthesize information from multiple departments.
• Strong analytical skills; ability to define problems, collect and interpret data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions
• Excellent written communication skills, including the ability to produce clear, structured, non-technical correspondence and persuasive proposal content.