Practice Manager – Construction – Rail Signalling
Are you ready to take up a vital role in shaping some of our exciting projects? How about joining our talented team, where everyone has a voice, and together we face our clients' problems head-on. It's a diverse and inclusive work environment where world-class talent knows no distinctions.
We know that different people have different priorities, which is why we're here to support you. Flexible and remote working is a central part of our culture. So, talk to us about what's ideal for you – from reduced weeks to buying more leave over school holidays. And if you're returning from a career break, ask us how we can help you transition back into work with us.
Read more about how you can thrive with us.
SNC-Lavalin’s Atkins business is one of the largest transportation consultancies in the UK, and a leading supplier of engineering services to government, regulatory and local authorities, infrastructure owners and operators. Major clients include Highways England, Local Authorities, TfL, HS2, Network Rail and London Underground, design and build contractors and other niche clients.
To deliver the exciting project opportunities within Transportation and our goal to grow we have a Practice Manager opportunity within our Rail Signalling Construction practice. The successful candidate will report to the Practice Director and be responsible for leading and managing our staff located across our offices in the UK and work closely alongside other Practice Managers to enable the business to develop & grow.
The Construction Practice within the Transportation Division is home to around 70 Construction Managers, Engineers and Site Operatives in the UK and in our GDC, working across our markets to apply a full range of multi-disciplinary construction services including Civils, E&P, ETE, Signalling & Telecoms to solve our clients’ problems. As we look ahead over the coming years, the Practice will seek to work in a very different way through embracing automated delivery, working in partnership with our clients with a truly flexible workforce, environment and culture to shape the future of transportation.
We work through national discipline-based teams to provide technical powerhouses that collaborate to share best practice and bring innovation to our projects. The Practice is responding to the changing world in which we work to ensure it remains at the forefront of our Rail Signalling business. It is truly a dynamic place to work.
The Role
Objectives for the Practice Manager:
- Enthuse and motivate our people through effective performance and development plans that align to their career opportunities.
- Work with the Design Transformation programme to develop innovative ideas to improve efficiencies in our delivery processes, embracing automation and standardisation.
- Contribute to the successful delivery of budget requirements, including productivity, management of overheads and headcount through effective management of resources.
- Maximise the flow of work to the Global Design Centre (GDC) based in India.
- Liaise with the Practice Director to ensure we have sufficient resources with the right skills to deliver our current and future market strategies.
- Support the technical development of staff within their practice team and encourage knowledge sharing.
- Work with the market and business development teams to engage with clients and actively sell our technical capabilities.
Responsibilities
- Lead the practice teams within Construction in a manner that it is recognised for technical excellence embracing digital innovations and ability to flexibly respond to business needs.
- Provide line manager supervision, overseeing career & talent development for the practice.
- Manage practice team performance with focus on meeting or exceeding productivity and break-even targets and controlling overheads to budget.
- Work with the Practice Director to ensure skills and capacity meet the needs of the target markets through recruitment and focused staff development. Act as Hiring Manager for the team and ensure a flexible workforce is employed either through permanent staff or supply chain.
- Maximise the workload of the Practice delivered from the GDC (to achieve target).
- Identify work opportunities and foster great client relationships.
- Win work through maximising additional/repeat/follow-on work from clients.
- Involved with bidding activities through coordination with the market and Win Work teams and provide technical input to support strategic bids
- Ensure compliance with our Business Management processes & procedures and manage business risk.
What you can bring
Requirements
- Chartered / Incorporated status with a recognised UK professional institution
- Demonstrable leadership experience of a team, ideally one delivering civil and structural engineering services
- Ability to provide strong safety leadership within dynamic working environments
- Demonstrable evidence of directing and managing multi-disciplinary tenders
- Experience in managing organisational change.
- Experience of successfully managing team and individual performance.
- Strong collaborative behaviours to interface with Practice Director, other Practice Managers, Market teams, and other stakeholders.
- Strong interpersonal and conflict resolution skills.
- Strong communication skills to interface with clients and internal stakeholders.
The Individual
- Able to lead the Construction team so that they have a reputation for technical excellence and quality of delivery.
- A hard working and flexible individual, who is reliable, proactive and innovative, whilst able to manage pressured environments and when working to often demanding deadlines.
- A high expectation of performance for themselves and other members of the team, coupled with a drive for continuous improvement.
- Customer focused, including maintaining and driving client feedback programme.
- Excellent interpersonal, organisational and communication skills both verbally and in writing.
- Able to build and motivate teams and demonstrate good people management skills.
- Self-motivated and able to work both independently as well as within a larger multi-disciplinary team.
- Be available to travel across the UK if required and encourage mobility in the practice team.
- Strong business acumen with a demonstrable knowledge of identifying potential value creation
Flexible Working
- We support flexible working and equal opportunities as we believe that diverse teams provide the best mix of interpersonal and technical skills needed to exceed our customers’ expectations.
Why work for Atkins?
Our Transportation teams are reinventing transport for a challenging yet exciting future. We're creating new ideas and smart solutions for cities, people and the environment. You'll be working alongside some of the top people in our industry, solving challenges that bring together traditional engineering and new technologies. As part of our organisation, you'll be in a privileged position, delivering what's right for governments and communities. You'll be helping us to improve our leading environmental performance while enabling others to do the same.
Meeting your needs
To help you get the most out of life in and outside of work, we offer employees "Total Reward." It's a package that can be tailored to your changing lifestyle, career and personal needs. You'll enjoy benefits such as partner discounts, leadership training, professional, accreditations, and career planning for any stage of your career.
Making sure you're supported is important to us. So, if you identify as having a disability, tell us ahead of your interview. And let's talk through any adjustments you might need.
Read more about 'Total Reward'.
More about us
Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, is a leading global consultancy with over 80 years of design and engineering expertise. With us, you'll be surrounded by the skills, knowledge and support to help you succeed. Together, we can deliver projects which have a positive, sustainable impact on the world.
Atkins, ranked as one of LinkedIn’s Top 25 Companies, where UK professionals want to work and stay once, they join.
Check out some of our recent, most exciting projects.
Atkins recognise that there are many well qualified people who are looking to further their career, but who cannot commit to full time employment. We support flexible working arrangements and are interested to discuss how we can accommodate individual requirements.
ATKINS, part of the SNC Lavalin Group, is committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce. As an Equal Opportunities Employer, we value applications from all backgrounds, cultures and ability.
This role may require security clearance and offers of employment will be dependent on obtaining the relevant level of clearance. If this is necessary, it will be discussed with you at interview.
If applying to this role please do not make reference to (in conversation) or include in your application or CV, details of any current or previously held security clearance.
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