Head of Infrastructure in Milton Keynes

Location: London and Milton Keynes

Salary: £68,890 – £79,386 per year (depending on office location and proven ability)

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Hours: Full time (9‑day fortnight companywide)

Band: 4.1

Reports To: Director of Built Environment

The Head of Infrastructure will lead our emerging Infrastructure team within the Built Environment Directorate at an exciting time for infrastructure in the UK. You will deliver impact across UK infrastructure sectors by shaping and driving strategic innovation, enabling adoption at scale, and improving carbon, productivity and safety outcomes across infrastructure systems.

CPC is well established in the transport sector. Building on our reputation and partnerships with I3P (the Infrastructure Industry Innovation Partnership), this role will develop our position across infrastructure sectors including utilities, energy, water, and transport advancing integrated approaches to sector wide challenges. We are collaborative by nature and believe that the most effective way to deliver impact is through collaborative innovation.

Working across sectors with government, major infrastructure clients, regulators, investors, and the wider innovation ecosystem reduces duplication, shares risk and accelerates adoption of solutions to common challenges. You will set the direction, secure and deliver high‑value work. You will build CPC’s reputation as a trusted partner to infrastructure owners, operators, government and regulators. You will lead, coach, and grow a high‑performing team, foster a collaborative and inclusive culture, and drive continuous improvement in service delivery and professional standards.

You will oversee complex multi‑partner programmes, provide senior responsible oversight, and ensure CPC is positioned to win, deliver, and grow. You will need a deep understanding of the systemic and organisational barriers limiting innovation adoption in infrastructure, including commercial, regulatory, and assurance challenges. You will also need a clear understanding of the constraints and opportunities of cross‑sector collaboration. You will bring insight into state‑of‑the‑art technologies, tools, and approaches, and work with the market to demonstrate, de‑risk, and enable adoption in practice. Accelerating innovation adoption and scaling supports CPC’s mission to transform infrastructure challenges into opportunities for innovative businesses.

The role demands extensive sector expertise across the infrastructure value chain, with particular emphasis on utilities, energy, water, and transport sectors. You will build and sustain strategic partnerships with infrastructure clients, regulators, investors, and government, and be recognised as a thought leader in national forums. Experience working with or for major public infrastructure clients, hands‑on delivery of major capital programmes are highly valued. Demonstrated experience in establishing strategic partnerships, leading business development, and successfully securing new business is essential.

Key Responsibilities:

• Meet revenue targets.
• Drive the development and presentation of client proposals collaborating with teams across CPC.
• Lead the development of collateral to support ‘go to market’ propositions and service offerings.
• Farm accounts – working with account leads and teams to support opportunity identification, qualification and contracting.
• Oversee and ensure compliant use of CRM process and system.
• Ownership of pipeline management for accounts and business development.
• Manage the contracting with Legal and Commercial team.
• Shape, lead and deliver value through guiding innovative delivery projects/engagements.
• Assure the quality of client delivery.
• Act as SRO on delivery programmes and projects.
• Oversee programme budgets.
• Ensure dissemination and feedback on CPC standard internal communications.
• Lead stakeholder management and relationship building at senior levels to ensure buy in to innovation delivery.
• Recognised thought leader.
• Support the development of professions member’s skills to ensure consistency of service delivery and expertise.
• Coach and mentor junior colleagues.
• Drive high attendance at Heads of Profession activities and events.
• Maintain own professional development.
• Ensure an ethos of equity, inclusivity and diversity underpin your work activity, contribute to inclusive innovation across all Catapult activities.
• You may be required to undertake any other reasonable duties to support the Catapult in achieving its strategic outcomes and ensure effective business operations.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise:

• Provide coaching and feedback that drives development, innovation, creativity, and delivery in team using key metrics and data points, offers challenge and support as required to maintain high performance.
• Use emotional intelligence to create an environment where team members feel safe to experiment, challenge and try new things.
• Seek, encourage and create the conditions for continuous improvements in processes, systems, behaviours and ways of working.
• Build motivation and engagement in the team through understanding of the person, their aspirations and development needs.
• Manage performance through effective goal setting based on business and role objectives and development needs or desires.
• Complete regular one‑on‑one discussions and performance reviews that ensure clarity over performance levels and development areas.
• Provide clarity of expectations and takes ownership of wider team performance.
• Managing change, navigating the team through the ’transition fog’, mitigating resistance, and ensuring everyone’s on board with the new direction.
• Organise the work and team around multiple simultaneous initiatives, with reference to key policies, practices, and procedures, effectively prioritises tasks and delegates effectively.
• Use management information to understand trends, gaps, challenges and opportunities and make commercial decisions.
• Actively build an inclusive and sustainability focused team culture that celebrates the value of diverse experiences and perspectives, ensures team compliance with policies, and apply equalities impact assessments on all aspects of work at CPC.
• Public‑sector infrastructure experience, credibility and professional recognition.
• Experience working with or for infrastructure owners, operators or their supply chain partners applying innovation.
• Expertise in at least one of the following areas within the infrastructure value chain: design, construction, operation and maintenance, productivity, carbon reduction, safety, digital construction, Infratech, ConTech, or whole‑life asset management.
• Hands‑on experience of construction delivery on major capital programmes is highly valuable.

Benefits:

• 9 day fortnight for everyone, we have a full company shutdown every other Friday.
• 23.5 holiday entitlement for everyone, with pro‑rated calculations for part‑time employees, along with a Christmas shutdown period for additional days off.
• Competitive pension, up to 10% company contribution to help you save for your future.
• Two paid days of volunteering leave per year (pro‑rated for part‑time employees) to support charitable activities.
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) providing 24/7 confidential work/life support services to you and your immediate family members.
• Cycle to Work Scheme encouraging a healthy and sustainable commute.
• Cash Health Plan, offering reimbursement for a wide range of essential and everyday healthcare expenses, promoting your well‑being.
• Payroll Giving scheme, allowing regular charitable contributions from pre‑tax income, maximizing the impact of your donations.
• Discounts and offers from a wide variety of retailers, enhancing your purchasing power and providing savings opportunities.
• Mortgage Advice benefit, delivered in partnership with Charles Cameron & Associates – provides employees with free, expert mortgage advice and end‑to‑end mortgage support from the application process through to completion.