AtkinsRéalis
Associate Director - Employer’s Agent and Cost Management
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Job Description
Overview
Shape the places that matter. Lead clients, contracts, and teams that define the future.
At AtkinsRéalis, we are redefining how projects are delivered across the built environment by bringing together technical excellence, digital innovation, and a collaborative mindset. Our London & South-East Cost Management team within Buildings & Places delivers some of the UK's most high-profile and impactful developments.
We are looking for an experienced Associate Director with strong Employer's Agent and cost management capability. You will lead complex development commissions, administer building contracts with confidence, provide strategic commercial advice, and build trusted relationships with clients, consultants, and contractors. You will also contribute to team leadership, technical quality, and sustainable business growth. We work hybrid and flexibly across our offices in London (Nova North), Tunbridge Wells, Epsom, Oxford, and Cambridge, prioritising where our clients and teams need us to be.
The Opportunity
You will take a leading role within a high-performing team delivering a diverse portfolio across residential, mixed-use, commercial real estate, healthcare, education, public sector, heritage, and life sciences. You will predominantly be a Quantity Surveyor but with the flexibility to deliver a strong Employer's Agent role under design and build arrangements where needed, applying your wider cost management expertise to support projects from feasibility and procurement through construction, handover, and close-out.
This role is suited to an established consultancy professional who can direct major or complex commissions, protect client interests through effective contract administration, lead and develop teams, and convert strong client relationships into repeat and new work. You will operate with significant autonomy while working closely with Directors, sector leads, and multidisciplinary colleagues.
Your role
- Act as Associate Director level Quantity Surveyor and/or Employer's Agent on major, complex or strategically important development commissions, administering the building contract impartially, diligently, and in accordance with its terms.
- Lead commissions from feasibility and pre-contract planning through procurement, construction, handover, defects management, and final close-out, taking accountability for service quality, programme, commercial performance, and client outcomes.
- Advise clients on development strategy, procurement, risk allocation, contract selection, and the preparation of robust Employer's Requirements, tender, and contract documentation. Issue and manage instructions, notices, certificates, and other contractual communications, maintaining complete and auditable records.
- Lead progress, design, commercial, and risk meetings, coordinating actions across the client, consultant, contractor, and stakeholder teams. Monitor contractor performance against programme, quality, statutory, planning, and contractual requirements, escalating risks and agreeing recovery actions where required.
- Oversee change control, payment assessment, extensions of time, loss and expense, practical completion, defects rectification, and final account processes, drawing on specialist advice where appropriate.
- Provide strategic cost management advice, including feasibility, cost planning, benchmarking, value management, procurement, tender analysis, forecasting, and commercial reporting. Build, deepen, and sustain strategic client relationships, identify opportunities to increase our share of spend, and connect clients with the wider AtkinsRéalis offer.
- Lead and assure multidisciplinary project teams, setting clear expectations and maintaining effective governance, risk management, reporting, and decision-making. Own the commercial management of commissions, including fee management, forecasting, resource planning, change control, cash collection, and delivery against agreed margins.
- Lead and contribute to bids, proposals, presentations, account plans, thought leadership, and market engagement, helping to secure new and repeat work. Take ownership, alongside the Head of Cost Management and leadership team, for pipeline growth, sector leadership, work winning, and account development. Represent AtkinsRéalis and the profession with credibility, integrity, and a strong external profile.
- Lead, coach, and mentor colleagues, developing Employer's Agent, contract administration, and cost management capability across the team. Champion quality, safety, sustainability, digital delivery, data-led insight, and continuous improvement in the way our services are delivered.
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About you
- Significant experience acting as Employer's Agent and delivering quantity surveying/cost management services within the UK property or built environment sector, preferably within a consultancy.
- A proven track record of leading major or complex development projects and commissions, including responsibility for client outcomes, contract administration, team performance, and project commercial results.
- Strong working knowledge of JCT Design and Build contracts and associated amendments, with wider knowledge of relevant JCT and NEC forms advantageous.
- Experience preparing and reviewing Employer's Requirements, tender, and contract documentation, and managing the transition from pre-contract strategy into effective post-contract administration.
- Confident experience managing contractual instructions, payment processes, change, delay, completion, defects, and close-out, with the judgement to identify when specialist legal or technical advice is required.
- Strong strategic cost planning, procurement, and commercial management capability, supported by a sound understanding of current construction markets and key cost drivers.
- Excellent client and stakeholder leadership skills, with the confidence to influence senior decision-makers, chair complex meetings, and resolve sensitive contractual or commercial issues.
- Evidence of developing client accounts, supporting work-winning, and converting opportunities into sustainable revenue.
- Experience leading, managing, and developing teams, including delegation, technical review, coaching, and performance support.
- Commercial acumen, including commission financial management, forecasting, resource planning, risk management, and recovery of fees.
- The ability to work autonomously, exercise sound judgement, and provide clear direction in a fast-moving, deadline-driven environment.
- A degree in Quantity Surveying, Construction Management, or a related discipline, together with MRICS or an equivalent recognised professional qualification.
- Competence in Microsoft Office, Excel, and relevant industry tools, with an active interest in digital contract administration, cost management, data, and emerging technology.
What success looks like
- Clients regard you as a trusted development and commercial adviser and provide strong feedback, repeat commissions, and referrals.
- Contracts are administered consistently, transparently, and in accordance with their terms, with clear records and timely decisions.
- Commissions are well governed, commercially successful, and delivered to the agreed programme, cost, quality, and scope.
- Risks, change, and emerging issues are identified early, communicated clearly, and managed to support informed client decisions.
- Your teams have clear direction, produce consistently high-quality work, and develop stronger Employer's Agent and cost management capability.
- You make a measurable contribution to pipeline, work-winning, cross-selling, and growth in priority clients and sectors. You actively support an inclusive, collaborative, and accountable culture across London & South-East.
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Development and benefits
We will support your continued development through professional, technical, and leadership learning, mentoring, and opportunities to broaden your career across our clients, sectors, and global business. AtkinsRéalis offers a flexible range of benefits that can be tailored to support health, wellbeing, financial, and lifestyle choices.
Our commitment
AtkinsRéalis is committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and realise their potential. We value different perspectives and believe diverse teams make better decisions and deliver better outcomes for our clients and communities.
Rewards & benefits
Explore the rewards and benefits that help you thrive – at every stage of your life and your career. Enjoy competitive salaries, employee rewards, and a brilliant range of benefits you can tailor to suit your own health, wellbeing, financial, and lifestyle choices. Make the most of a myriad of opportunities for training and professional development to grow your skills and expertise. And combine our hybrid working culture and flexible holiday allowances to balance a great job and fulfilling personal life.
Be rewarded. Find out more.
About AtkinsRéalis
We're AtkinsRéalis, a world-class engineering services and nuclear organization. We connect people, data, and technology to transform the world's infrastructure and energy systems. Together, with our industry partners and clients, and our global team of consultants, designers, engineers, and project managers, we can change the world. We're committed to leading our clients across our various end markets to engineer a better future for our planet and its people.
Find out more.
Additional information
Security clearance
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. The vetting process is delivered by United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) and may require candidates to provide proof of residency in the UK of 5 years or longer. 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.
We are committed to creating a culture where everyone feels that they belong - a place where we can all be ourselves, thrive, and develop to be the best we can be. So, we offer a range of family-friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, and employee resource groups to support all employees. As an Equal Opportunities Employer, we value applications from all backgrounds, cultures, and ability. As a Disability Confident Leader, we are committed to offering an interview to all applicants who have a disability and meet the essential criteria. If you would like to be considered under this commitment, please let us know at the application stage.
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At AtkinsRéalis, we seek to hire individuals with diverse characteristics, backgrounds, and perspectives. We strongly believe that world-class talent makes no distinctions based on gender, ethnic or national origin, sexual identity and orientation, age, religion, or disability, but enriches itself through these differences.
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