Arup
UK Social Value Delivery Lead
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Join Arup: UK Social Value Delivery Leader
Arup’s Purpose and Approach
Arup has guided the shaping of a better world for 80 years through its independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants, and technical specialists. Offering a broad range of professional services, we foster collaboration and shared values to achieve impact.
With social value becoming central to public procurement and client decisions, our commitment is not only to make strong commitments but to deliver them credibly, measure them consistently, and demonstrate real impact. In this role, you will help ensure our approach is commercially robust, operationally strong, and aligned with evolving UK procurement expectations, including the Social Value Act.
The Opportunity
We are seeking an experienced UK Social Value Delivery Leader to shape and lead our social value strategy across the UK. This senior leadership role demands someone who can turn ambition into executable delivery:
- Build and execute a clear regional strategy that improves bid quality, consistency, and evidence-based impact.
- Strengthen work-winning capabilities and foster scalable programmes and partnerships.
- Enhance how we measure evidence and assign real-world impact.
- Partner across a distributed network, collaborating with senior leaders, bid teams, project teams, and external stakeholders.
Success hinges on your ability to: ✔ Influence at senior levels to align social value with client outcomes, community benefits, and business performance. ✔ Design practical delivery models that connect social value commitments to meaningful, scalable projects. ✔ Ensure coherence across diverse Arup capabilities and eco-projects.
This is a rare opportunity to develop a high-impact social value capability in a major built environment and professional services firm—one that strengthens bids, improves operational delivery, and constructs a credible evidence base for impact at project, regional, and national levels.
You’ll have the environment, authority, and insights to:
- Work with senior leaders to support major projects.
- Create commercially effective, socially impactful approaches.
- Contribute to influence-shaping in the built environment sector.
If you’re passionate about building capability, driving senior influence, and translating social value commitments into tangible impact, this role is for you.
Why Choose Arup?
At Arup, you’re part of an extraordinary community where individuality and perspective are celebrated. Our collective respect for diverse experiences fuels innovation, inspired by Arup’s purpose and our values.
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You’ll undertake meaningful work that enhances lives: ✔ For you—through professional growth and fulfilment. ✔ For Arup—as a core contributor to our mission. ✔ For our clients and communities—by delivering measurable, lasting outcomes.
About the Role
Key Responsibilities
✅ Lead the creation of a regional social value strategy tailored to the UK’s procurement environment. ✅ Improve bidding effectiveness by embedding strong social value standards and evidence-backed claims. ✅ Develop practical frameworks for measurement, reporting, and impact assessment aligned with clients’ commitments. ✅ Work across a distributed network of leaders in planning, project management, and community engagement teams. ✅ Foster partnerships with external stakeholders, including local communities and policy stakeholders. ✅ Advocate for social value and environmental sustainability within Arup’s broader sustainability initiatives.
Immediate Focus Areas
- Impact Analysis: Strengthen processes to measure and report social value.
- Operational Delivery: Ensure teams understand and leverage social value across ongoing projects.
- Knowledge Sharing: Build scalable mechanisms for applying social value learnings.
- Engagement: Strengthen give-and-take with policy actors, community stakeholders, and internal teams.
Requirements & Qualifications
Educational Background
- University degree, ideally a master’s or equivalent in:
- Sustainable development
- Economics
- Social sciences
- Planning (Due diligence experience can substitute for formal qualifications.)
Experience & Expertise
🔹 Proven leadership in leading social value, social impact, ESG, or related programmes in a complex, commercial environment. 🔹 Deep understanding of UK public procurement cycles, including how social value influences bids, evaluation, and client engagement. 🔹 Experience shaping bids and collaborating with stakeholders at a senior level (P/E, Bid Director/Manager level). 🔹 Practical experience designing social value frameworks, measurement methods, and reporting systems. 🔹 Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence across a loosely structured team. 🔹 (Desirable) Experience in the built environment, infrastructure, or professional services sector.
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Benefits
A Rewarding Career at Arup
Our total reward package respects your success while encouraging growth and belonging:
💰 Competitive, fair, and equitable pay, aligned with market benchmarks. 📈 Pathways for advancement; investment in learning and upskilling. 🌍 Purpose-driven work: collaborate on high-impact projects that advance UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Supporting Your Wellbeing
- Flexible benefits covering student loans, shopping discounts, healthcare, and personal needs.
- Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), professional training, and personal wellbeing initiatives.
- Leave policies: ample annual leave + flexible adjustments for diverse needs.
- Health Insurance: complete private medical insurance, life assurance, accident, and income protection coverage.
- Trust Ownership: profit-share scheme allows you to share in Arup’s collective success.
Embedded Collaboration
You’ll work within an ownership model, where collective decisions align with Arup’s purpose.
Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
Arup is an equality employer and actively promotes a culture where everyone can thrive. We values differences:
- Age: Within legally permitted limits.
- Gender identity/expression, marital status, disability or neurodiversity, mental health.
- Race, ethnic background, faith or belief, sexual orientation.
- Socioeconomic background, pregnancy/childcare arrangements.
💡 Our internal networks support underrepresented groups, fostering inclusion for race, gender equity, LGBTQ+, disability.
Arup cultivates a collaborative environment where diverse experiences spark innovation, drive results, and shape adaptations for the future.
For questions or access requirements during the process, contact Karin Spies. Arup remains GDPR-compliant—please do not submit your CV via email.
About the Application Process
For an overview of what to expect: 🔗 Arup Recruitment Process
⚠️ Security Reminder: We never request bank details during reclutainment. Unsolicited CVs/rers from unlisted agencies will not be acknowledged.
Closing Date
**Friday, 10 July 2026 (may close earlier if demand is high).
➡️ Apply early to secure consideration!**
To read more about life at Arup:
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