Associate Director - Highways

Start here. Grow here. Our Highways team, within our Transportation business line, has a vacancy for an Associate Director with experience in managing the delivery of transportation engineering schemes across our regional based offices of Manchester, Newcastle, Chesterfield and St Albans. You will be joining our Highways team, of over 100 staff, who are recognised as market leaders in the areas of significant and major highways and continue to deliver high profile and impactful projects across the UK and globally.

You will be part of established teams with a positive team structure with strong engineering staff across the grades from apprentice to principal engineer, and supported by a locally based senior management team. The successful candidate will be joining a growing team that works with a range of both local and national clients. You will be someone interested in leading the delivery teams of our diverse range of projects. You will have a proven experience in civil engineering, infrastructure, or transportation projects, and be a self‑motivated individual looking to advance their career in a dynamic team.

In addition to delivering work within the local office the role will involve working with other AECOM teams in the UK and Ireland. We are therefore seeking candidates who are able to work flexibly across other AECOM offices as projects dictate to support the wider business. Further, the role offers opportunities to work in AECOM’s wider UK European, Middle East, and India regions.

Current & Upcoming Projects:

• A229 Blue Bell Hill
• M54-M6 Link Road
• M62 Link Roads
• A19 North of Newcastle
• AlUla- Middle East
• National Grid – The Great Grid Upgrade, Wanless Beck
• Supporting work for Heathrow, Gatwick Airports, East West Rail and Northern Powerhouse
• Site opportunities- Lune Gorge, M60 J18

Here’s what you’ll do:

• Anticipate: You will understand our project delivery requirements and operational requirements and anticipate and solve routine and usual problems for both our teams and our clients.
• Deliver: The Highways team is responsible for the full lifecycle delivery of projects aimed at improving our transport network for clients. We provide feasibility, concept, preliminary and detailed design, community engagement, project delivery and construction management services on a wide range of multi‑discipline transportation and urban realm projects.
• Oversee: You will be responsible for the appointment of competent discipline lead engineers for technical delivery. Plan and develop engineering tasks concerned with unique problems.
• Provide Expertise: Offer technical knowledge and expertise to the design team on all aspects of multi‑disciplinary projects, from conceptual phases to implementation.
• Ensure Quality: Working through the complexities of our Transportation projects, you will hold our clients’ hands and overcome problems in unison when they inevitably arise.
• Collaborate: Leading a team of multi‑disciplinary engineers to deliver integrated designs and building effective relationships with our technical teams and Clients.

Key Responsibilities:

• Promote our strong health and safety culture through management of safety on projects and completing reviews of safety practices on projects to drive continuous improvement.
• Following successful accreditation on the AECOM project management system act as a Project Manager including monitoring financial performance.
• Ensure Technical content and quality of output produced is in line with the project brief and our client deliverables.
• Support and monitor team skills and ensure they are up to date with current best practice, techniques, and innovation.
• Support our Sustainable Legacies policies and principles by embedding sustainability in our design processes for our clients and delivering social value for our communities.
• Manage career progression of line reports, particularly toward Chartered Engineer (or similar) status.
• Proactively support the management of staff resources across our Highways team as a member of the senior management team.
• Develop sound client relationships, being alert to commercial opportunities, identifying emerging opportunities and developing strategies to fully exploit them.
• Prepare detailed proposals, client briefs and fee proposals and contribute to or lead bids.
• Establishing strong working relationships with other internal teams across AECOM’s business lines including Planning, Streets, Structures, Infrastructure, Water, Power, Landscape.
• Working with colleagues to deliver marketing and business development objectives in both the local region and nationally.

Why Join AECOM? You'll enjoy a range of core and personalised benefits designed to support your future and well‑being, customized to fit your lifestyle. Take advantage of career development opportunities, our flexible hybrid working model to ensure a work‑life balance that suits your lifestyle, technical practice networks, AECOM University, and volunteering days.

Qualifications: Ready to push the limits of what’s possible? Here’s what we’re looking for:

• Candidates who are looking to take a step forward in their career and move from strong individual delivery environments to leading significant packages on major projects or independently leaving individual projects and coordinating their delivery with the support of a strong team.
• Successful track record of involvement in the preliminary, detailed design, or construction phases of civil engineering, infrastructure, or transportation projects.
• Demonstrable experience and understanding of high quality technical delivery within an infrastructure or civil engineering sector.
• Demonstrable ability to communicate and collaborate.

Preferred Qualification: Relevant degree and will have Chartered status, or be expecting to gain Chartered status very shortly, along with membership of a professional institution.

We celebrate diversity, including neurodiversity, and believe it enriches our team. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and abilities. If you are an applicant with a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to complete the application process, please contact us at . At AECOM, we value everyone's unique contributions and perspectives. If you meet some of the requirements above or have transferable skills you believe would benefit us, we would be delighted to hear from you! We are a Disability Confident Employer and will offer an interview to applicants who have a disability or long‑term condition, who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.