Associate Director - Highways Engineering

Aldwych Consulting Ltd; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working arrangements

Competitive benefits

Progression to senior leadership

Job summary

Aldwych Consulting Ltd is seeking an Associate Director to lead our Highway Design team, delivering major highway, active travel and public realm projects across the UK.

The role blends technical leadership with business development, client relationship management and team mentoring, with a focus on growth and quality outcomes.

Hybrid working, senior leadership progression, and a competitive benefits package are on offer.

Qualifications

• Significant UK highway and civil engineering project delivery experience.
• Experience leading traffic, highway, active travel and public realm schemes.
• Proficiency with AutoCAD, Civil 3D and other highway design software.
• Experience with BIM and Common Data Environment workflows.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to win work and manage clients.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery of highway engineering, traffic, active travel and public realm projects from concept to detailed design.
• Manage multidisciplinary design teams, ensuring on-time, on-budget delivery.
• Build and maintain relationships with new and existing clients.
• Identify new business opportunities, prepare fee proposals, bids and tenders.
• Own project delivery, commercial performance and technical quality.
• Mentor and develop engineers, providing technical leadership.
• Collaborate with other disciplines for integrated engineering solutions.
• Ensure designs comply with UK standards and local authority requirements.
• Support growth and development of the Highway Design business.

Skills

Leadership

Business development

Client relationship management

Mentoring engineers

Stakeholder management

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering

Chartered Engineer status (CEng) desirable

Tools

AutoCAD

Civil 3D

BIM

CDE workflows

Job description

Associate Director - Highway Design

Location: Flexible / Hybrid

Salary: Competitive + Excellent Benefits

Are you an experienced Highway Design professional looking to take the next step in your career? We're working with a highly respected engineering consultancy looking to appoint an Associate Director to lead the delivery and growth of its Highway Design team.

This is an excellent opportunity for an ambitious leader who enjoys combining technical excellence with business development, team leadership and client relationship management. You'll play a key role in delivering major highway, active travel, public realm and infrastructure projects while helping to shape the future direction of the team.

The Role

As an Associate Director, you'll lead the successful delivery of a wide variety of highway engineering projects from concept through to detailed design. You'll work closely with both public and private sector clients, oversee multidisciplinary teams and help drive business growth across the UK.

This role offers the opportunity to influence project delivery, mentor engineers, develop client relationships and secure new work while managing a portfolio of exciting infrastructure schemes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of highway engineering, traffic, active travel and public realm projects from concept through to detailed design.
• Manage multidisciplinary design teams, ensuring projects are delivered on time and within budget.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with new and existing clients.
• Identify new business opportunities and prepare fee proposals, bids and tenders.
• Take ownership of project delivery, commercial performance and technical quality.
• Mentor, support and develop engineers and technicians within the team.
• Provide technical leadership across complex highway and infrastructure projects.
• Work collaboratively with other disciplines to deliver integrated engineering solutions.
• Ensure designs comply with relevant UK standards and local authority requirements.
• Contribute to the continued development and growth of the Highway Design business.

About You

We're looking for someone with a strong technical background in highway engineering alongside proven leadership and business development experience.

You will ideally have:

• Significant experience delivering highway and civil engineering design projects within the UK.
• Experience leading traffic, highway, active travel and public realm schemes.
• Strong knowledge of Section 278 and Section 38 highway approvals.
• Experience working with UK highway design standards and local authority requirements.
• Proficiency with AutoCAD, Civil 3D and other relevant highway design software.
• Experience working within BIM and Common Data Environment (CDE) workflows.
• A track record of leading multidisciplinary teams and mentoring engineers.
• Strong commercial awareness with experience winning work and developing client relationships.
• Excellent communication, presentation and stakeholder management skills.
• Degree qualified in Civil Engineering or a related discipline.
• Chartered Engineer status (or working towards) would be advantageous.

What's on Offer?

• Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package.
• Hybrid and flexible working arrangements.
• Opportunity to lead high-profile infrastructure and regeneration projects.
• Clear progression to senior leadership.
• Support for continued professional development and chartership.
• Collaborative and supportive working environment.
• Opportunity to play a key role in the continued growth of an established Highway Design team.

If you're an experienced Highway Design professional ready to take on a leadership role where you can influence project delivery, mentor talented engineers and help grow a successful business, we'd love to hear from you.

Aldwych Consulting values diversity and promotes equality. No terminology in this advert is intended to discriminate against any of the protected characteristics that fall under the Equality Act 2010. We encourage and welcome applications from all sections of society and are happy to discuss reasonable adjustments and/or additional arrangements as required to support your application.

Candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK.

For the purposes of the Conduct Regulations 2003, when advertising permanent vacancies we are acting as an Employment Agency, and when advertising temporary/contract vacancies we are acting as an Employment Business.