Business Support Manager in London

Costain are recruiting for a Business Support Manager to provide effective administration support to the Senior Leadership Team across the joint venture, ensuring accurate and timely actions and outputs.

HS2 is Great Britain's new high-speed railway. Once operational, HS2 trains will facilitate journeys between Birmingham and London, with services extending to Manchester, the Northwest, and Scotland using conventional railways. The new route will comprise 140 miles of track, four stations, two depots, 32 miles of tunnel, and 130 bridges. The first HS2 services will run between Birmingham Curzon Street and Old Oak Common in London from 2029 to 2033.

HS2 has awarded several railway systems contracts, valued at over £4 billion, for the design, supply, construction, testing & commissioning, and maintenance of the route between London and Birmingham. HRS03 HV Power (traction and non-traction) Rail Systems Contract is being delivered by the Siemens Mobility Costain Joint Venture (SMCjv) on behalf of High Speed 2.

This role will lead digital delivery SMCjv. In summary, HRS03’s scope of works is to provide 25kV Traction and 33kV/11kV Non-traction HV power for HS2’s rail system Phases 1 and 3 between London Euston and Birmingham. The works will include various disciplines such as HV power, SCADA, Civils, Protection & Control, EMC, E&B and LV power.

Responsibilities

• Central point of contact for the Senior Leadership Team, Functional and Project Managers.
• Ensuring the continual development of key working relationships with client, stakeholder and partner leadership teams.
• Management of submissions required for reporting, by coordinating and helping senior management with collation for deadlines.
• Supporting EDI & Social Value activities and internal communications across the JV.
• Responsible for supporting and leading identified business improvement projects and management initiatives.
• Providing admin support in senior management meetings and strategic business development sessions.
• Management of multiple diaries, prioritising and delegating meetings and appointments.
• Organise internal and external meetings as required, including arranging refreshments, office space, projection / conference facilities.
• Arrange booking of Hot Desk Space in the relevant offices for the SLT.
• Organise travel and accommodation arrangements for the SLT.
• Coordinate JV Board Meetings and JVB Communications.
• Organise All Hands Calls and team meetings as appropriate.
• Ownership of the collation of resources, packs, submissions from all required respondents within the required timelines.
• Forward-looking ability to define and organise support activities for the SLT.
• Coordinate and meet and greet of visitors to the various offices.
• Arrange attendance at seminars, conferences and training courses.
• Team event organisation.
• Ability to undertake ad-hoc travel to suit meetings and events.
• Office management duties, consumables procurement coordination, branding, and desk organisation.
• Assistance and support to HR, Digital and HSE with the onboarding process.
• Timesheet set-up.
• Diary access.
• Project whereabouts management.
• Ability to persuade, influence and gain the confidence of colleagues at all levels of the organisation.
• Manage the tracking of timesheet completion for the programme.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships and open communication with internal and external stakeholders.
• Establishing and sustaining effective relationships with key partners across the wider business.
• To be the key liaison point for the Senior Leadership Team in managing their key stakeholders across the alliance.

Essential Qualifications

• Fully versed in MS Office (Word, Excel, OneNote, Teams, Powerpoint).
• Proven track record as a PA/Senior Secretary.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Strong stakeholder management skills.
• Strong written communication skills.
• Well organised with excellent planning and time-management skills.
• Proactive self-starter.
• Experience of operating with senior level managers.
• Experience of working autonomously and in a collaborative team-based environment.
• Ability to work flexibly when required.

Costain helps to improve people’s lives with integrated, leading edge, smart infrastructure solutions across the UK’s energy, water, transportation and defence markets. We help our clients improve their business performance by increasing capacity, improving customer service, safeguarding security, enhancing resilience, decarbonising and delivering increased efficiency. Our vision is to be the UK’s leading smart infrastructure solutions company.

Costain appreciate the time and effort taken when applying for one of our positions but, due to the high volume of responses, we are unable to provide individual feedback on candidates at application phase. We do share individual feedback following an interview.

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that discloses they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer.