Associate Director - Structural Engineering in Basingstoke

Company Description

At AECOM, we are delivering a better world. Whether improving your commute, keeping the lights on, providing access to clean water, or transforming skylines, our work helps people and communities thrive. We are the world's trusted infrastructure consulting firm, partnering with clients to solve the world’s most complex challenges and build legacies for future generations.

Job Description

AECOM is currently recruiting for an Associate Director to join our UK & Ireland Building Engineering team. This technical practice comprises over 1,000 engineering professionals across 28 locations drawn from a variety of disciplines in the built environment. Within the structural engineering practice there are over 170 engineers across the UK. This particular opportunity has arisen in our South West & Wales (SW&W) business unit which has teams in Basingstoke, Bristol and Plymouth and a focus on projects within Defence, Aviation and Education. The team undertakes a range of structural engineering projects requiring innovative and practical solutions to complex problems.

The right candidate will need to demonstrate a desire to be challenged, take on a leadership role and undertake technical delivery of projects. In return we can offer a challenging and rewarding role, career development, a positive working environment and a competitive reward package. This opportunity would suit an individual who has broad experience, but who has knowledge of the aviation sector and is looking to move into a management role within a team.

As an Associate Director you will have the opportunity to contribute to leading and shaping the team. The role will have significant elements of representing the technical team in a client-facing environment. You will therefore need to be adept at engaging with clients and other professions and using your engineering expertise to make a significant contribution to emerging designs. We would expect you to have experience in the delivery of projects throughout the project lifecycle and an ability to run projects, manage resources and commercial aspects of projects. We would look to you to hold existing client knowledge and have emerging as well as selected established relationships with key clients with the hope of exploiting and growing these relationships to secure opportunities for AECOM.

Some of our current and recent projects include:

• Heathrow T2 Baggage Programme: A £635M scheme to replace the time‑expired outgoing T2 baggage system.
• HMNB Devonport: Supporting the development of infrastructure at HMNB Devonport, including design of seismically qualified upgrade works to existing dry docks required to support deep maintenance of nuclear‑powered submarines.
• Livingstone Academy, Bournemouth: Civil, structural and fire engineering services for the design of a £27M academy school in Bournemouth, including refurbishment and conversion of existing Grade II listed buildings and construction of a new 5-storey teaching block.

Location

This opportunity is to join the SW&W structural engineering team which comprises teams located in Basingstoke, Bristol and Plymouth. You would be based in our Basingstoke office and line management would be provided from within the Basingstoke team. AECOM has an established flexible working policy, ‘Freedom to Grow’. This supports flexible and remote working which works for the business, the client and the individual. The successful candidate could be located in any part of the UK, but a willingness to regularly travel to Basingstoke and Heathrow (or other UK offices) to support the team and project meetings is expected.

Job Responsibilities

• Take on responsibility for leading technical delivery and managing commercial and resourcing aspects of technically demanding projects whilst working without supervision.
• Develop leadership skills and contribute to the management of the structural engineering team through business development, client relationship management, technical leadership or team development.
• Take a leading role in seeking out and winning new projects.
• Prepare technical reports which clearly convey complex structural engineering concepts to clients and other stakeholders.
• Lead independent technical reviews of work prepared by others.
• Perform quality control reviews of work developed by others.
• Mentor and coach others in their professional development.
• Participate in development of technical proposals.
• Provide estimates for the engineering budget and schedule to meet requirements on large projects.
• Have a desire to learn new skills and give due consideration to the wider engineering issues related to the projects being delivered.

Minimum Requirements

• Excellent knowledge of standard engineering practices, techniques and quality procedures.
• Excellent knowledge of structural design procedures in steel and reinforced concrete.
• Proven ability to undertake structural design using current British Standards and Eurocodes.
• An understanding of project management principles and practices to support coordination of technical delivery of projects with internal and external clients.
• Excellent communication skills with a demonstrable ability to write compelling proposals and technical reports which adequately convey complex technical concepts to clients.
• Prepare and deliver engaging presentations to existing and prospective clients.
• Sound knowledge of construction contracts, professional agreements and experience in client engagement during the preparation of fee proposals and agreeing scopes of service.
• Experience in the use of commercially available design software packages.
• Experience in the use of a commercially available finite element software package advantageous.
• Able to decide on the level of reliance and accuracy to attach to a variety of results obtained from design software and finite element analysis and to interpret results into practical engineering solutions.
• Ability to work on a number of projects simultaneously.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or equivalent in an appropriate Civil or Structural Engineering discipline.
• Bachelor’s degree (min. 2:1) in an appropriate Civil or Structural Engineering discipline.
• ICE or IStructE Chartered Engineer with >5 years post‑chartership experience.
• Able to obtain BPSS Security Clearance.
• UK driving licence.

Additional Information

Freedom to Grow in a World of Opportunity: You will have the flexibility you need to do your best work with hybrid work options. Whether you’re working from an AECOM office, remote location or at a client site, you will be working in a dynamic environment where your integrity, entrepreneurial spirit and pioneering mindset are championed. We will help you foster a safe and respectful workplace, where we invite everyone to bring their whole selves to work using their unique talents, backgrounds and expertise to create transformational outcomes for our clients. AECOM provides a wide array of compensation, benefits and well-being programs to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families. 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.