Balfour Beatty plc
Area Director
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About The Role
Balfour Beatty is one of the UK's leading infrastructure groups, delivering complex and essential projects across transportation, utilities, defence, energy and civil engineering. Within UK Construction Services, the Regional Civils business delivers major infrastructure schemes for both public and private sector clients, supporting communities and critical national infrastructure across the UK.
We are seeking an Area Director to lead our Southern geography, covering a significant portfolio of civil engineering and infrastructure projects across Oxfordshire, South Wales and the wider M4/M5 corridor.
This is a senior leadership role with responsibility for the operational, commercial and financial performance of the area. Leading the Area Leadership Team, you will be accountable for the safe, efficient and profitable delivery of multiple projects, while driving strong customer relationships and developing a high-performing organisation.
Alongside responsibility for live project delivery, you will play a key role in shaping the future direction of the business. Working closely with senior leaders across the organisation, you will support work-winning and pre-construction activities, helping to secure future opportunities, strengthen our market position and drive sustainable long-term growth across the region.
This position offers the opportunity to lead a significant operational area, influence business strategy and play a key role in the continued growth of one of the UK's leading infrastructure businesses.
What you'll be doing
- Providing overall leadership to the Area Leadership Team, setting and implementing the strategy for the area.
- Leading Portfolio Directors and Project Managers to deliver projects safely and successfully against time, cost, quality and sustainability targets.
- Taking accountability for the area’s financial performance, including budgeting, forecasting and the effective management of risk and opportunity.
- Identifying and targeting opportunities to grow the area into a stable £100 million-plus business.
- Planning and managing regional resources to support efficient delivery across every stage of operations.
- Maintaining a relentless focus on Zero Harm and the health and safety performance of all live projects.
- Developing strong customer relationships throughout the project lifecycle, securing customer advocacy and supporting repeat business.
- Playing an active role in work winning and pre-construction, ensuring tender submissions reflect operational, safety and logistical requirements.
- Working collaboratively with commercial, design, engineering, finance, HR, work-winning and technical teams.
- Leading, coaching and developing high-performing teams while building a strong pipeline of future talent.
- Supporting the delivery of sustainability commitments across UK Construction Services.
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Who we're looking for
- Proven senior leader within civil engineering, infrastructure or a related sector, with experience leading regional businesses, major project portfolios, frameworks or operational units.
- Strong track record of delivering operational, commercial and financial performance, with full P&L accountability.
- Strategic thinker with the ability to drive performance across complex and diverse project portfolios whilst remaining close to the operational challenges of the business.
- Experienced in identifying growth opportunities, managing risk and governance, and delivering sustainable business growth.
- Demonstrated success leading and developing high-performing multidisciplinary teams within large, complex organisations.
- Strong commercial acumen, with the credibility to influence stakeholders and make sound business decisions.
- Skilled in building and maintaining customer relationships that generate repeat business and long-term value.
- Experience supporting work-winning activities, shaping business strategy and driving organisational performance.
- A collaborative and influential leader, capable of operating effectively across customers, partners, suppliers and senior stakeholder groups.
- Committed to safety, operational excellence, teamwork and continuous improvement.
Why work for us
Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK’s most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities.
Benefits
- Smart working, giving you more flexibility such as staggered start and finish times, with up to 40% remote working, where roles allow.
- 25 days paid annual leave (pro rata)
- Family friendly policies which include 28 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave and four weeks full pay for paternity/partners leave
- Pension, share incentive plan, volunteering leave, recognition schemes and much more…
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About Us
With a strong track record of delivery, our civils teams connect communities through infrastructure projects in the highways, public realm, rail, flood and coastal defence, and industrial sectors across England and Wales.
Diversity and inclusion
At Balfour Beatty we believe that diversity and inclusion are essential components of any successful, happy workplace. Through our Value Everyone Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan, we are growing our diverse workforce and developing our inclusive culture where everyone is able to thrive and reach their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. To find out how we are making this a reality, visit www.balfourbeatty.com/diversityandinclusion
To help and support us with our desired commitment to create an inclusive culture we are members of WISE, enei, Business Disability Forum and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE). In 2020, we signed the Audeliss and Involve Open Letter to demonstrate our commitment to taking key long term and sustainable actions on Black Inclusion. Balfour Beatty is also a Gold Award holder in the Ministry of Defence 'Employer Recognition Scheme' and actively encourage applications from Armed Forces personnel, veterans and reservists.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to working with people who have disabilities and long-term health conditions to remove barriers for them in obtaining employment. We are also committed to offering applicants with a disability an interview if they meet the minimum requirements for the role. For more info, visit: https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/
We are looking to continually improve our resourcing process and ensure that it is fair and inclusive for all. If you have any feedback on the process, please share this with us at: candidaterecruitmentqueries@balfourbeatty.com
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