Engagement Manager - Akordi

Laing O'Rourke; Birmingham; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Laing O'Rourke seeks a Project Manager – AI Optimisation in Civil Infrastructure Projects to lead end-to-end delivery of complex UK infrastructure programs, applying AI-enabled planning, scheduling and analytics. You will chair steering committees, run workshops, and present executive-ready insights to clients, while coordinating cross-functional teams and managing risk and governance.

The role spans multiple UK locations (London, Manchester, Ipswich, Dartford) with flexible base and travel to

Qualifications

• End-to-end delivery ownership across multiple engagements.
• Delivery background on major UK civil/infrastructure projects.
• Client-facing lead who runs steering committees and workshops.
• Excellent presentation skills for executive deliverables.
• Strong analytical rigour to validate outputs against questions.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery with scope, budget and governance.
• Lead presentations and insights to clients (written and oral).
• Lead client and stakeholder interactions across engagements.
• Share knowledge on delivery and transformation within the team.
• Contribute to proposals, RFIs, RFQs and pitches.
• Travel to client sites as required.

Skills

End-to-end delivery

Client leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Presentation skills

Analytical thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Engineering degree or equivalent

Tools

PowerPoint

Excel

Job description

Project Manager – AI Optimisation in Civil Infrastructure Projects

Known as an Engagement Manager / Lead

Common job titles: Project Delivery Manager, Project Manager, Senior Project Manager

Location: Dartford, Manchester, London – Others considered

The future is AI in Construction to optimise programmes. The future is here with Akordi, a Laing O'Rourke company.

Akrodi isn't just a platform it is the team of professionals driving the platform. When you take a the most advanced optimisation, analytical, scenario planning and visualisation tool and add industry experts from Planning, Civil Engineering and Digital backgrounds you create an unparallelled capability. You create Akordi.

How does this fit an engineering and project management professional? These are the expertise that we utilise.

• End-to-end ownership of civil engineering delivery: scope, timeline, budget, quality and governance, ideally across 2–3 concurrent engagements.
• Delivery background on major construction or infrastructure projects in the UK (nuclear, water, energy or complex civil works), with an engineering or closely related technical degree.
• Client facing lead who runs steering committees, discovery workshops and stakeholder interviews, and is trusted by senior executives.
• Excellent presentation skills, both written and oral: turns data insights into meaningful actions for clients, with executive-ready PowerPoint and Excel deliverables.
• Communicates with construction delivery professionals (project directors, delivery leads, planners) and frames content so it is highly relevant to them.
• Analytical rigour: understands the data, spots anomalies in technical outputs, and checks that the output answers the client's original question before it is shared.
• Structured problem-solving: breaks ambiguous problems into work plans, coordinates cross-functional specialist teams and reports clearly on progress, risks and issues.
• Commercial awareness: contributes to proposals, RFIs, RFQs and pitches, and builds relationships that generate repeat business.
• Passion for construction transformation and for adopting AI-enabled tools and new methodologies.

How might you split your time?

End-to-end delivery ownership (Scope, Budget and Governance) – 25%

Presentation & Insight Communication (Written and Oral) – 20%

Client & Stakeholder Leadership – 20%

Construction and Infrastructure Delivery knowledge sharing – 15%

Commercial & Growth Contribution – 5 %

Data understanding and anomaly spotting – 5 %

Travel to clients – 10%

These opportunities do not come around often. A specialist team who are scaling a market leading offering with limitless potential. Future-proof your career by being the person driving the tool, not left behind by it.

Along the way you will bring together risk management, schedule optimisation and advanced analytics to support our project teams with executing certainty.

The role can't be confused with a PMO reporting position. Being able to advise on delivery is key to success in this role, drawing on real experience of delivering projects.

How do your current skills transfer?

Translating delivery experience to client outcomes. Building relationships with multiskilled teams in construction / infrastructure. Technical skills are important but working in a project / programme environment is more important. Using your ability to present to clients and keep them informed along with influencing and supporting decisions to be made. As an expert in construction sequencing, you will be able to advise and support clients on their programmes.

With variations locations being considered our main base of operations are London, Manchester, Ipswich and Dartford.

About Laing O'Rourke

Laing O'Rourke is an international engineering and construction business known for pushing boundaries in digital engineering, modern methods of construction and sustainable delivery. With more than 150 years of heritage, we are committed to creating environments in which diverse teams can excel and thrive.

Accessibility & Inclusion

We are proud to be part of the Disability Confident scheme. If you meet the essential criteria and would like to be considered through our Offer an Interview scheme, please let us know. We're also happy to provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

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