Institutional Bid Coordinator

As Aerospacelab scales its institutional business, the volume and complexity of the ESA and EU-funded programmes we pursue has grown faster than the team that sets them up. This role exists to strengthen the coordination layer between opportunity identification and contract signature, and to support project teams once a contract is won.

Working alongside our programme managers, solution engineers and the business development lead, you will be the operational backbone of our ESA bid activity: coordinating proposal preparation against agency templates and deadlines, supporting the interface with Belgian and other national delegations, and helping Project Managers set up newly awarded contracts. You will turn institutional and technical complexity into clean, compliant, on-time deliverables.

This is a role for an organised, proactive person who enjoys orchestrating many moving parts, chasing inputs across teams, and bringing rigour to a fast-moving bid environment. It is not primarily a technical engineering position, nor a pure sales position, but a coordination and proposal role at the meeting point of institutions, engineering, finance and legal.

• Coordinate the end-to-end preparation of ESA and EU-funded proposals (Invitation-to-Tender responses, outline and full proposals), keeping each bid aligned with agency templates, page budgets, volume structures and submission deadlines
• Support the relationship with national delegations and ESA programme contacts, including preparing letter-of-support requests, briefing notes and follow-ups
• Monitor ESA and EU programme activity (new ITTs, amendments, clarification rounds, programme board and Ministerial outcomes) and maintain an up-to-date opportunity pipeline and bid calendar
• Coordinate consortium set-up with partners and subcontractors: contact management, role definition, organisational and work breakdown structures, effort allocation and supporting agreements (teaming agreements, MoUs)
• Support Project Managers in setting up awarded contracts, including kick-off preparation, deliverable and schedule planning, risk registers and periodic progress reporting
• Manage clarification and negotiation logistics with ESA, consolidating technical, financial and legal inputs into coherent, on-time responses

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in engineering, science, business, or equivalent
• Fluent in English
• 1+ years of experience in a coordination, bid, proposal, project-support or institutional-affairs role, ideally within the space, defence, or publicly-funded research sector
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to run several parallel bids and deadlines with minimal oversight
• Collaborative, proactive and at ease chasing and consolidating inputs across engineering, finance and legal teams
• Familiarity with AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot…) and a track record of using them to accelerate proposal drafting, review and compliance-checking workflows

• Familiarity with ESA programmes and procurement frameworks (ARTES, GSTP, NAVISP…) and/or EU instruments (Horizon Europe, EDF)
• Understanding of ESA funding mechanisms, geographical return and the role of national delegations
• Hands-on experience with ESA proposal templates and PSS cost forms
• Exposure to satellite systems or the broader space sector