Project Director - Controls Analytics in Manchester

Company Description

Work with Us. Change the World. At AECOM, we're 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.

There has never been a better time to be at AECOM. With accelerating infrastructure investment worldwide, our services are in great demand. We invite you to bring your bold ideas and big dreams and become part of a global team of over 50,000 planners, designers, engineers, scientists, digital innovators, program and construction managers and other professionals delivering projects that create a positive and tangible impact around the world.

We're one global team driven by our common purpose to deliver a better world. Join us.

Job Description

Start Here Grow Here. Our award-winning AECOM Controls team within the Infrastructure & PMO Operating Unit is a trusted partner to public and private sector clients across the UK and globally. We specialise in delivering Controls Analytics across Cost, Risk, Planning and Performance, supporting major infrastructure and capital investment programmes.

We combine best-in-class project controls with advanced analytics to enable clients to make timely, data-driven decisions that improve project outcomes, strengthen governance, and enhance performance across portfolios, programmes and projects.

The Opportunity: As part of our continued growth, we are seeking to recruit Project Directors to strengthen our leadership team. These roles will play a critical part in:

• Leading high-profile client engagements
• Shaping and delivering Controls Analytics solutions
• Driving work-winning and business growth
• Developing our team and capability

These are senior leadership roles with a balance of delivery oversight, strategic advisory, and market-facing responsibilities. You will operate as a trusted advisor to client executives while helping expand AECOM’s Controls Analytics proposition across key accounts and sectors.

Here's what you'll do: As a Project Director within Controls Analytics, you will lead the definition, mobilisation and oversight of analytics-enabled project controls services across complex infrastructure programmes and PMOs. You will translate client challenges into practical, scalable solutions, working through multi-disciplinary teams of data engineers, analysts, and project controls professionals. While not hands-on in build, you will provide solution direction, assurance, and executive-level interpretation of insights. You will also play a key role in work winning, including shaping bids, developing propositions, and identifying growth opportunities within existing and new client accounts.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted advisor to Programme Directors, Sponsors and senior client stakeholders.
• Provide strategic direction on controls analytics, PMO performance, and data-driven decision-making.
• Translate complex data and controls outputs into clear, actionable executive insights.

• Lead the set-up and oversight of Controls Analytics delivery across projects, programmes and portfolios.
• Define controls operating models, reporting frameworks, and governance structures.
• Provide direction and assurance to delivery teams (data engineers, analysts, controls specialists).
• Ensure solutions are fit-for-purpose, scalable, and aligned to client outcomes.

• Shape and implement integrated controls analytics approaches covering cost, schedule, risk, change, and performance.
• Oversee the development of executive reporting, dashboards, and KPI frameworks.
• Drive adoption of insight-driven performance management and proactive intervention practices.
• Support clients in improving controls maturity, data quality, and governance.

• Play a leading role in bids, proposals, and client pursuits.
• Develop and articulate compelling Controls Analytics propositions aligned to market needs.
• Identify and drive organic growth opportunities within existing client engagements.
• Build strong external relationships to enhance AECOM’s market presence.

• Lead, mentor, and develop high-performing, multidisciplinary teams.
• Foster a consultancy mindset, ensuring teams deliver value beyond core scope.
• Contribute to the development of methods, tools, and accelerators.
• Support recruitment, succession planning, and capability growth aligned to business strategy.

• Ensure integration of risk, contingency and scenario analytics into controls frameworks.
• Guide development of change analytics and forecasting models to support decision-making.
• Enable clients to move from retrospective reporting to predictive and forward-looking insights.

If you're passionate about innovation and turning bold ideas into reality, AECOM welcomes you. Join our team, where we don't just construct infrastructure but also uplift communities and enhance lives.

Qualifications

Here's What We're Looking For:

• Degree in Engineering, Project Management, Finance, Data/Analytics or related discipline.
• Professional certifications (APM, PMI, MSP, RICS, AACE or similar) desirable.
• Typically 15+ years’ experience across project/programme controls, PMO leadership, and/or consultancy.

• Leadership & Consulting: Proven experience operating at senior leadership level within complex programmes or consultancy environments. Strong track record in client engagement, influencing senior stakeholders, and leading delivery teams. Commercial awareness with experience contributing to work winning and account growth.
• Controls & Domain Expertise: Deep understanding of project controls disciplines: cost, planning, risk, change and performance. Experience across major infrastructure or capital programmes in sectors such as transport, energy, water or defence. Strong appreciation of PMO delivery models and governance structures.
• Analytics & Digital Understanding: Strong understanding of controls analytics solutions, dashboards and performance frameworks. Familiarity with tools such as Power BI, Primavera P6, PRISM, Aconex, and data architectures. Ability to guide teams on data integration, modelling and insight generation, without needing to build directly.

Additional Information

At AECOM, we are committed to maintaining a secure and trustworthy recruitment process and take any fraudulent hiring activity seriously. To support this commitment, all newly hired employees are required to attend an in-person Day 1 onboarding at an AECOM office location as a condition of employment.

About AECOM: AECOM is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering professional services throughout the project lifecycle – from advisory, planning, design and engineering to program and construction management. On projects spanning transportation, buildings, water, new energy and the environment, our public- and private-sector clients trust us to solve their most complex challenges. Our teams are driven by a common purpose to deliver a better world through our unrivaled technical and digital expertise, a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to environmental, social and governance priorities.

AECOM is a Fortune 500 firm and its Professional Services business had revenue of $16.1 billion in fiscal year 2025. See how we are delivering sustainable legacies for generations to come at aecom.com and @AECOM.

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.

You will help us 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’re the world’s trusted global infrastructure firm, and we’re in this together – your growth and success are ours too.

Join us, and you’ll get all the benefits of being a part of a global, publicly traded firm – access to industry-leading technology and thinking and transformational work with big impact and work flexibility. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person’s potential, and we’ll help you reach yours.

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. Please let us know using this email address [email protected] if you would like to apply through the Disability Confident Interview Scheme. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.