Project Director Energy Sector in Derby

This role could be located anywhere between Bristol, London, Derby or Manchester.

Who we are: ALTEN is an engineering and technology consultancy services company. We are a leading Engineering and IT consultancy operating across 30 countries, making waves in all sectors: Aeronautics, Space, Defence, Security and naval, Automotive, Rail and mobility, Energy and environment, Life Sciences and health, Industrial Equipment and electronics, Telecoms, Banking, Finance & Insurance, Retail, Services & Medias, Public Services & Government. With a team of passionate, diligent, and agile engineers, we are united by a common purpose: building tomorrow’s world today. Day by day, we support our customers' development strategies as well as their technological and sustainability transformation.

Role Purpose: The Project Director is accountable for the delivery and sustainable growth of a portfolio of complex, fixed-price engineering projects, typically involving 80–120 engineers. The role owns safety, quality, cost, schedule, scope, risk, customer satisfaction and margin. The role also leads Technical Direction for ALTEN UK’s Energy sector, ensuring leadership continuity, robust governance and the capability required to scale safely and profitably.

Key Accountabilities:

• Customer and Commercial Leadership: Own senior customer relationships and act as the escalation point for technical, delivery and contractual matters. Validate bid, mobilisation and change solutions so commitments are deliverable, costed and risk-assessed. Lead governance forums, secure acceptance of deliverables and drive account growth through trusted delivery.
• People, Capability and Organisation: Establish a clear delivery organisation with effective decision rights, delegation and escalation. Lead and hold Project Leaders and senior technical leaders accountable for outcomes. Own workforce, capability and succession planning, addressing critical gaps with Business Management. Build a high-performance culture based on ownership, transparency and continuous improvement.
• Portfolio Delivery and Governance: Own mobilisation, baselining, delivery, change, recovery and closure across the portfolio. Approve plans, estimates, resource profiles and delivery strategies. Control milestones, quality, risks, opportunities, dependencies and forecast-to-complete. Chair delivery reviews, drive corrective action and ensure compliance with ALTEN, customer and regulatory requirements.
• Financial and Business Performance: Share accountability for revenue, margin, cash, productivity and forecast accuracy. Validate performance reporting, estimate at completion, accruals and recovery plans. Support bids, strategic accounts and the transition to outcome-based work packages.
• Energy Sector Technical Direction Mandate: This appointment provides leadership continuity for the Energy sector. The successful candidate must take ownership quickly, stabilise delivery and strengthen the operating model for growth.

Priorities and Expectations:

• Complete a structured handover of projects, bids, risks, customer commitments, relationships and team responsibilities.
• Own Energy technical governance, delivery performance, capability and senior customer escalation.
• Stabilise leadership coverage and succession across critical delivery and technical roles.
• Review the portfolio baseline and implement prioritised recovery plans for delivery, commercial, resourcing or compliance risks.
• Develop the Energy technical strategy, competence framework and growth roadmap across relevant regulated-energy markets.
• Translate market needs into scalable capability, credible bids and profitable work packages.
• Build a resilient operating model that enables sustainable growth without dependence on one individual.

Experience and Qualifications:

• Engineering, science or comparable technical degree.
• Senior leadership of complex engineering programmes or portfolios in a regulated environment; Energy experience is strongly preferred.
• Proven accountability for fixed-price delivery, commercial performance, risk, change, quality and recovery.
• 10-15 yrs Experience leading multidisciplinary organisations at scale and developing senior leaders.
• Strong commercial judgement, bid-shaping capability and credibility with customers and technical authorities.
• Evidence of building resilient capability, succession and improved portfolio performance.

Leadership Profile:

• Accountable, decisive and delivery-focused.
• Commercially aware, calm under pressure and effective in managing risk.
• Collaborative but appropriately challenging, with a strong commitment to people development and succession.
• Entrepreneurial and able to convert opportunity into executable, profitable delivery.

What We Offer:

• Competitive salary and performance-related bonus.
• Private medical cover, life assurance and travel insurance.
• Company pension contributions up to 6% and hybrid working.
• A high-impact opportunity to shape ALTEN UK’s Energy sector.

Any doubts? Studies have shown that some groups of people are less likely to apply to a role unless they meet 100% of the job requirements. Whoever you are, if you like one of our jobs, we encourage you to apply as you might just be the candidate we are looking for. As an equal-opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute. Our commitment is to provide equal opportunities, an inclusive work environment, and fairness for everyone.