Senior Capture Director - Defence

Overview

Join us as Senior Campaign and Capture Director in our Defence business. Reporting to the Defence Market Director, this is a senior leadership role with responsibility for shaping and leading our approach to winning critical high‑value captures. You will bring together multiple captures into a single, disciplined pursuit with clear direction, pace and focus. This is not a conventional capture role. It needs someone who can operate at campaign level, set the strategy across multiple linked pursuits, and lead teams through complexity to a coherent winning position. You will work across the business to align stakeholders, sharpen proposition, direct capture activity and make sure each bid strengthens the overall strategic outcome. The role will be central to how we position AtkinsRéalis for success in our most important defence opportunities.

Your role

• Lead the campaign: Lead the end‑to‑end capture of major strategic pursuits, with a particular focus on high‑value and business‑critical opportunities. Set the campaign strategy across linked pursuits, with clear capture plans, winning themes and a disciplined route to market. Use market insight, customer understanding and competitor awareness to shape a stronger position and improve our chances of winning. Make sure capture strategy is aligned with our wider Defence priorities, market position and growth ambitions. Bring multiple pursuits together where needed so they are managed as one coherent campaign rather than a series of separate bids. Lead the wider capture effort with pace and clarity, making sure people understand the plan, their role and what good looks like.
• Shape the solution: Work with technical, operational and commercial teams to shape solutions that meet client need, play to our strengths and stand out in the market. Ensure the solution is credible, deliverable and aligned with AtkinsRéalis capability, strategic intent and appetite for risk. Keep solution development disciplined and joined up, with the right balance of innovation, practicality and quality.
• Lead through relationships: Build strong working relationships with customers, partners and senior leaders, and use those relationships to strengthen our position. Keep stakeholders aligned through clear communication, timely decisions and regular challenge where needed. Secure commitment, backing and approval across the business so the campaign can move at the right pace and with the right level of support.
• Build the right team: Work with Supply Chain, Procurement and the wider business to identify and secure the partnerships we need to win. Bring together complementary capability, capacity and insight so our offer is stronger and more credible. Manage partner relationships in a way that is clear, commercially sound and aligned to the overall campaign strategy.
• Keep control of the campaign: Ensure capture activity is run properly, with the right governance, controls and decisions in place at the right time. Maintain the reporting, documentation and decision support needed to give leaders confidence and keep the campaign moving. Ensure the work is carried out in line with our legal, ethical and regulatory responsibilities, without losing momentum or focus.

About You

• Experience of operating in senior capture, campaign or business‑winning roles in complex and competitive environments.
• The judgement to read situations well, weigh options properly and make clear decisions in ambiguous or fast‑moving circumstances.
• The credibility to engage confidently with senior stakeholders, challenge constructively and provide clear direction when needed.
• Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to bring people with you across a matrixed and often demanding environment.
• A calm, resilient approach and the ability to maintain momentum and perspective when the pressure is high.
• Sound commercial judgement and a practical understanding of risk, value and what makes a pursuit both winnable and worth winning.
• A good understanding of governance, assurance and regulatory disciplines, and how to work within them without slowing the campaign down.
• The ability to think beyond the immediate bid and see how individual pursuits connect to wider business priorities and market position.
• The presence, pace and self‑direction to lead senior contributors and keep the campaign moving without close supervision.

Rewards