Government Sales & Bids Specialist (United States)

Government Sales & Bids Specialist

Happy Chef | Remote, United States | Full-time

Happy Chef supplies chef coats, pants, aprons and related apparel to professional kitchens. We are hiring an experienced bid and contract specialist to manage and grow sales to government agencies and educational institutions, including preparing the bids and quotations and managing the purchasing contracts behind that business.

The role combines an existing customer and contract base with responsibility for new business across education, state, local and federal government. You will handle the submissions yourself, with internal input on products, approved pricing, inventory and delivery. The commercial goal is profitable customer orders and repeat business, not simply more bids submitted.

Responsibilities

- Find and qualify relevant bids, requests for quotations and contract opportunities. Review eligibility, specifications, evaluation criteria and commercial terms before recommending which opportunities to pursue.

- Prepare and submit bids and quotes, including product selections, line-item pricing, supporting documents, required acknowledgments and addenda. Resolve questions through the designated procurement process and retain submission confirmations.

- Build accurate pricing using product costs, discounts, decoration, freight and applicable fees. Check product availability and delivery commitments, and obtain approval before committing prices, exceptions or contract terms.

- Maintain vendor registrations, portal notifications, awarded contracts and cooperative purchasing arrangements. Keep approved price lists, renewal dates and required reporting current.

- Develop new and repeat business by following up on quotes, upcoming purchases and rebids, and pursuing relevant customers able to purchase through existing agreements. Track awarded items through to customer orders.

- Review bid results and account sales to identify lost items, declining repeat business and opportunities to improve pricing or product selection. Maintain a current company record of deadlines, decisions and next actions.

Required qualifications

- 3 or more years in public sector sales, bids or contract administration for a company selling physical products, with personal responsibility for bid submissions and pricing.

- Experience preparing complete responses to invitations for bid, requests for proposal or requests for quotation for U.S. government agencies or public educational institutions.

- Demonstrated success winning or growing public-sector business, with specific examples of your own contribution to awards, orders or repeat purchases.

- Ability to interpret product specifications and purchasing requirements, prepare multi-item price schedules, and identify proposed commitments or exceptions that need management review.

- Practical Excel skills, including formulas, lookups and reconciliation of product and pricing data; ability to calculate discounts, extended prices and gross margins accurately.

- Experience managing concurrent deadlines, coordinating written clarifications and maintaining accurate bid and customer records independently.

Preferred experience

Experience with cooperative purchasing contracts such as BuyBoard, Choice Partners or similar programs; school or institutional purchasing; and a manufacturer or distributor selling apparel, foodservice supplies, school supplies, safety products or comparable catalog-based products.

To apply

Please submit a resume identifying the products and public sector customers you have supported and your personal responsibility for bids, pricing and sales.