Construction Project Manager — Luxury Retail Fit-Out

ML Projects is hiring a Project Manager with a background in leading the construction phase of luxury fashion retail projects across the UK and Europe. You will own the work from RIBA Stage 4 through to store opening, taking design information from our internal team, driving it through tender, procurement, site delivery, and handover. Project values range from £350,000 to £2M+. You will run several concurrent fit-outs, each with tight programmes, complex landlord and centre management interfaces, and clients who expect flagship-standard execution.

We need someone who has run sites, written valuations, chased subcontractors, and signed off snags and who now wants to do that work from the client side, with the design and consultant team working to your direction rather than against it. This role is pitched at people who understand fit-out from the inside: how a programme really goes wrong, where money is actually lost, and what it takes to hand a store over clean.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

• CONSTRUCTION DELIVERY
• Site leadership: Manage from possession through to handover. Chair progress meetings, issue instructions, drive the programme.
• Programme certainty: interrogate contractor programmes, identify critical path risk early, and hold trades accountable. Late stores are non-negotiable.
• Quality control: regular site inspections against drawings, specifications, and brand standards. Pick up defects early, not at snagging.
• Handover and commissioning: drive snagging close-out, O&M compilation, commissioning certificates, building control sign-off, and consent to trade.
• PROCUREMENT & COMMERCIAL CONTROL
• Tender management: prepare BOQs, run tenders, level returns, interrogate pricing, and recommend appointments.
• Cost control: track expenditure against CAPEX budgets, scrutinise variations, manage change control, maintain credible forecasts.
• Contract administration: administer JCT contracts — valuations, payment notices, extensions of time, final accounts. Hold the line where the contractor is wrong; pay fairly where they are right.
• STATUTORY & REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
• Building Control: manage submissions and Approved Inspector liaison through to completion certificate.
• CDM 2015: Coordinate F10s, Construction Phase Plans, and H&S File compilation. You will know what Principal Contractor and Principal Designer roles actually require on site.
• Building Regulations: working knowledge of Part B (Fire), Part L (Energy), and Part M (Access) applied to retail fit-outs.
• Landlord consents: Licence to Alter applications and ongoing landlord and centre management liaison.
• DESIGN COORDINATION
• Our internal design team prepares the package. Your job is to make it buildable, costed, and deliverable on programme, interrogating buildability before tender, leading information flow to the contractor, and closing out RFIs decisively.
• CLIENT & TEAM
• Primary client contact: manage brand project teams, property teams, and retail operations directly and without drama.
• Team coordination: lead a project team of 2-3 architects, designers, or junior PMs, plus appointed external consultants.

ESSENTIAL

• Construction-side delivery: minimum 5 years with a main contractor, fit-out contractor, or specialist retail contractor as PM or Senior Site Manager — or client-side construction PM with strong contractor exposure.
• Fit-out track record: demonstrable history delivering retail, hospitality, or high-specification commercial fit-outs in the £350K–£2M+ range. Luxury fashion preferred but not mandatory; high-spec finishes and demanding clients are.
• RIBA Stages 4-7: direct experience from Technical Design through Construction to Handover.
• CDM 2015: practical understanding of Principal Contractor and Principal Designer responsibilities.
• JCT contract administration: comfortable issuing instructions, certifying valuations, managing variations, closing out final accounts.
• Drawing literacy: able to read and coordinate architectural, structural, and M&E drawings — and spot what is missing.
• UK and European delivery experience.
• Background with luxury fashion, beauty, or premium lifestyle brands — or with the contractors who service them.
• Experience in shopping centre, department store, or estate-managed environments.
• MCIOB, MAPM, MRICS, or equivalent professional accreditation.

HOW YOU OPERATE

• Calm under site pressure.
• Commercial instinct.
• Direct communication, especially when the news is bad.
• Detail discipline alongside strategic awareness — running a snagging walk in the morning and presenting to a brand director in the afternoon.
• Willing to travel domestically and internationally for site visits, tender reviews, and handovers.

To apply, send your CV and a short note on the construction project you are most proud of, and why, to careers@ml-projects.uk.