Project Controls Manager

Do you want to work on one of the most significant infrastructure projects in the UK? Can you build relations with many and various stakeholders? Are you experienced in project controls for major road projects? Then, this is the place to apply your knowledge and curiosity to enable a better tomorrow.

To deliver integrated costs, schedule, risk, change and reporting for a major roads project, we are looking for a Project Control Manager to join us. Working on a major infrastructure joint venture, you’ll assist in developing a multidisciplinary projects control team. As one of three PCMs across the project and a member of the Integrated Delivery Team (Integrated Client Team plus Delivery Partners), you’ll promote transparency, governance compliance and continuous improvement, enable informed decision-making through accurate data and effective collaboration, and coordinate with fellow PCMs to ensure alignment across the wider joint venture.

Your key responsibilities will be:

• Provide objective oversight by critically reviewing and challenging Delivery Partner project controls outputs and systems, ensuring contract compliance and alignment with the Integrated Project Controls Plan.
• Function as the primary client interface within the second line of defense, resolving issues, aligning processes, and ensuring timely delivery of controls deliverables.
• Coordinate the integration of time-phased cost forecasts with the Integrated Master Schedule, ensuring alignment and accuracy throughout monthly forecasting cycles.
• Conduct comprehensive trend analysis and schedule risk assessments to support informed baseline management and forecast adjustments.
• Embed risk register insights into cost and schedule forecasts, quantitatively analyse risk to proactively identify and mitigate potential impacts.
• Facilitate regular risk workshops, ensuring robust tracking, clear accountability, and transparent reporting of mitigation actions.
• Own integrated project reporting in line with the project governance, delivering actionable insights through performance metrics and early-warning analysis.
• Manage project-level change control by assessing impacts, coordinating approval panels, and ensuring timely implementation within project control systems.
• Coordinate baseline maintenance through regular Bottom-Up Forecasts with Delivery Partners, ensuring audit-ready documentation and alignment.
• Ensure compliance with best-practice governance and the National Highways Project Controls Framework, including Stage Gate reviews and quality audits.
• Prepare and present comprehensive project controls evidence to assurance forums and senior stakeholders.
• Uphold adherence to ISO standards and recognised industry frameworks such as the APM Maturity Model or P3M3.

Your skills. Our team. Together we design the future. The first step to success in this role is that you are eager to collaborate with the people around you, whether they are colleagues, partners, or customers. Developing ties with others is something you do by acting respectfully and delivering on your promises. And you never get set in your ways but keep exploring new insights and ways to improve. On top of that, you’ll have:

• Demonstrated experience of project controls on major (£2bn+) infrastructure or complex programmes.
• End-to-end delivery experience across project lifecycles, including planning, execution, and closeout.
• History of working in multidisciplinary teams and interfacing with senior client, contractor, and supply chain stakeholders.
• Demonstrated success in delivering projects on time and within budget under robust governance frameworks.
• Practical experience with industry-standard controls systems (e.g., Primavera P6, Contruent, RiskHive).
• Experience in regulated sectors (e.g., highways, transport, utilities, energy, aviation, oil & gas) including projects transitioning from public to private funding models.
• Familiarity with ISO 21500/21508, IPA frameworks, and APM best practices.
• Experience within integrated delivery models or joint ventures.
• Deep knowledge of project controls fundamentals—cost, schedule, risk, change, reporting, and baseline management.
• Advanced analytical and critical thinking skills; ability to interpret complex data and make effective decisions.
• Skilled at building stakeholder relationships and conveying information clearly.
• Proficiency in project controls software and reporting tools.
• Chartered status or recognised professional membership (e.g., APM, PMI).

A place to work and so much more. At COWI, we work together with our customers to shape a sustainable and liveable world. We do it by applying our knowledge and curiosity – and sometimes even our courage – to create the solutions the world needs today to enable a better tomorrow. We support our customers’ transition towards increased sustainability. We strive to lead by example by embedding environmental management, social responsibility and good governance into our business practices and the options we provide to our customers. We value differences and development and cultivate an environment of belonging and having fun. Because that is what brings out the best in you, at work and at home.

What we also offer:

• 28 days' holiday plus all UK bank and public holidays.
• Formalised development plans and yearly promotion opportunities.
• Private health care, for you and your immediate dependents.
• Flexible and hybrid working conditions.
• Annual subscription fees paid for your membership of two Professional Institutions.
• Group personal pension scheme—salary exchange.
• Life assurance.

Equal opportunity employer. COWI provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to ethnicity, colour, religion, gender, national origin, age or disability. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.