Women in Tech Spotlight – Avril Vera

No one chooses the dark arts of bid management – if you ask anyone, they’ll say bid management chooses you! In my case, I used to work for a large energy company, writing and managing bids to Ofgem for fuel poverty initiatives. Wanting a change of topic, I transferred to the company’s research and development team, where I worked almost exclusively on bids to secure funding for innovative low-carbon energy network projects, such as the NINES (Northern Isles New Energy Solutions) project and lean automated distribution networks. I then worked in the water industry, securing some of the largest contracts in the UK for customers such as Marks and Spencer (M&S), Morrisons, Ministry of Defence (MoD), Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Diageo.

I was contacted by a member of the Version 1 team about my current post, and while I had a few(!) anxieties given my complete lack of technical knowledge, here I am. My tech knowledge has increased steadily in the last year, thanks to all of the learning tools, lunch and learns, and the sweet, infinite patience of my colleagues. I’ve just achieved my first AWS certification and I’m studying for Microsoft Azure Fundamentals at the moment too.

I usually wake up at about 5 am and meditate and journal every single day before logging on – the quiet period before colleagues log on is the best time for me to set myself up for the day and get any deep-focus work done.

I can manage a number of bids at various stages. The activities range from setting up and leading scrums, storyboarding (to review the customers’ requirements and plan out our bid) and writing (bid writing is a niche skill and can be tricky depending on the customer’s requirements and questions), to setting up reviews of our content and developing virtual or in-person customer presentations.

Bids can be really demanding – all deadlines are immovable and set by the customer, which means that the bid team I’m managing for any customer deal works under considerable pressure to deliver quality content at pace, while also ensuring our commercial offer is both competitive and profitable. Late nights are a frequent element of bidding, and I have tremendous respect for the people who frequently work on bids and are also in delivery or tech roles with customers.

I’m also asked to help with non-bid projects such as managing this year’s Microsoft Partner of the Year Award submissions – projects like these make every week varied and keep me on my toes!

I’m really introverted, which colleagues are usually surprised to learn! So after ‘peopling’ all day, I like a quiet walk on the coastal path next to my house. I also love to do pointed pen calligraphy and I read a lot – rock and roll times at the Vera house!

• Tea or Coffee? Tea! Yorkshire or teapigs chamomile.
• Do you keep chocolate in the fridge or in the cupboard? Bold of you to assume any chocolate in my possession ever lasts long enough to need storage. 😊
• Best famous Scot? Greyfriars Bobby of course.
• Dream job when you were a child. Writer – I perhaps didn’t think at that time I’d be writing about energy networks or tech, right enough.
• Do you have an inspirational person you look up to? Honestly, too many to count but quite a few of them work at Version 1 – Jude McVitty, our Social Value Manager, for her complete passion and vocation, James Mayo, Business Development Manager, for his kindness, Ross Hunter, Bid Manager, for his commitment to excellence, and everyone on our fantastic team, who embody the best of our Core Values every day.
• Number one thing on your bucket list? Write a bucket list.