The Role

As a Technical Tender Specialist Defence, you play a key role in shaping high‑quality bids and project preparations for complex, high‑risk environments. You act as the connecting link between engineering, commercial teams and corporate disciplines, ensuring that tenders and project strategies are robust, compliant and well‑founded.

You standardise and improve tender methodologies, tools and templates, and actively support strategic decision‑making in a governance‑driven context.

Your Responsibilities

In this role, you will:

Lead the preparation of defence‑related bids and project strategies, including project structuring, pricing logic and detailed cost estimates.
Ensure consistent calculation methods, transparent assumptions and strict compliance with internal sales processes, governance frameworks and defence‑specific requirements.
Coordinate closely with engineering, design, estimation and commercial teams, as well as corporate functions such as Legal, Finance, Compliance, Tax and Insurance.
Review tender documentation, technical submissions and contractual conditions to assess risks, obligations and completeness.
Integrate multidisciplinary input into coherent proposals, decision documents and risk assessments suitable for senior management and external stakeholders.
Identify, analyse and manage project risks and opportunities, ensuring mitigation measures are clearly documented and actively monitored.
Support project teams during execution by reviewing major changes, claims, contractual clarifications and commercial impacts.
Capture lessons learned and continuously improve tender templates, workflows and best practices in a controlled environment.
Maintain accurate sales forecasts, monitor stage‑gate progress and provide reliable pipeline insights to support informed decision‑making.

Your Profile

You bring:

A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, Project Management or a related technical field.
Additional certification in project management, commercial management or contract management is an advantage.
Proven experience in commercial, tendering or project preparation roles within defence, offshore, construction, mining or capital equipment environments.
Hands‑on experience in the execution of complex capital equipment or system‑based projects.
Strong cross‑functional collaboration skills, particularly with engineering, legal, finance and risk stakeholders.
Solid understanding of project structuring, estimation, and contractual and commercial principles.
The ability to align stakeholders, challenge assumptions and perform under tender pressure and strict deadlines.
A strong affinity with technical tendering in regulated, high‑complexity environments.
A structured, analytical and detail‑oriented working style, with a high standard for documentation and process discipline.

For this position, candidates must be eligible to obtain a security clearance (Certificate of No Objection). This security screening is part of the selection process.

Royal IHC offers you:

Salary depending on experience, placed within either our medior range €4374–€5700 or senior range €5700–€8565 + 8% holiday allowance.
Plenty of time off: 40 vacation days for a full-time position, with the option to buy or sell additional leave.
A profit-sharing scheme that lets you share in Royal IHC’s success.
Flexible working: A home office allowance of €2.45 per day + a one-time payment of €750 to set up your workspace.
Travel allowance of €0.21 per kilometer for the days you commute to the office.
A solid pension plan through PME.
Room to grow: Numerous internal career opportunities and a training budget + access to our IHC Academy to support your development.
Health and energy: Unlimited access to our in-house gym (in exchange for the sustainable employability day).
Royal IHC takes care of things you’d rather not worry about, but that are still important—such as disability insurance, partner pension, and the option to have additional healthcare costs reimbursed through our Social Fund.

Royal IHC

Creating the maritime future

Anchored in a rich Dutch maritime history, Royal IHC is a leading supplier of maritime technology and expert craftsmanship.

With the right people and skills on board, and driven by innovation, we provide a competitive edge to our worldwide customers in the dredging, offshore, mining and defence industries. However, Royal IHC is much more than equipment, vessels and services. We deliver reliable, integrated solutions that improve operational efficiency and allow for a more sustainable performance.

All over the world, our people are deeply committed to technological innovation, supported by our long-standing experience in our core markets. Our experts work in close collaboration with multiple stakeholders to meet the specific needs of each customer.

With our continuous commitment to technological innovation, we seek to always meet the specific requirements of each individual client. IHC annually spends approximately 3% of its revenue on innovation, which places us in the top 15 Dutch companies in terms of R&D. We have branches in many different countries, giving us a truly international perspective.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Our business culture has a strong character and is based on collaboration, openness and respect. Perseverance is also a quality that runs through the veins of our organisation. At IHC we have a total commitment to improvement and innovation. Coming to work for us does not mean you have reached your destination. At IHC you will continue to grow and learn, and your expertise will continue onwards and upwards. That is not just a promise from us, but also a commitment we ask of you. Those who demonstrate independence and a strong feeling of responsibility are given a great deal of freedom, but that doesn’t mean you will be left to fend for yourself. Where needed, you can count on us for coaching and personal supervision.

MAXIMUM USE OF TALENT

IHC has a wealth of in-house talent. And we want to make the maximum use of it. That is why we have created development programmes. There are programmes for every level. If you have completed your preparatory secondary vocational education (VMBO) you can start at our in-house Technical Training Centre. We also have plenty of development opportunities for employees with senior secondary vocational education (MBO), higher vocational education (HBO) or a degree from a university (WO).

They can choose from the wide range of programmes, courses and other training opportunities. In addition to the development programmes, there is Young IHC. This programme of activities is especially for our young graduates to help them find their feet in our company. It makes it easy for them to get to know their colleagues in the various business units and creates a strong personal network.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS

Are you currently a student or have you just graduated? There are several ways for you to start a new career at IHC. We recognise the value of a strong link between industry and education, which is why ambitious students are always welcome at IHC for a traineeship or to do their graduation research. There are various options available, the choice is up to you!

“Let us build a career for you!”