Graduate Project Manager

Costain Group PLC; Plymouth; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job description

Job Description

About the project: Costain are in a joint venture with Mott MacDonald (‘CosMott’) supporting their Client, Babcock, deliver major nuclear infrastructure capital projects at their Devonport Royal Dockyard facility in Plymouth. The dockyard is co-located with His Majesty’s Naval Base Devonport to form the largest naval support site in Western Europe.

The dockyard provides through-life support for submarines, surface ships and associated systems and equipment as part of the UK’s continuing commitment to support the nation’s naval capability, whilst the Naval Base is a busy operational, training and support base for both submarines and surface ships. It is the home port for all ships in the Royal Navy’s (RN) amphibious fleet, half of the RN frigate fleet, several RN submarines and survey vessels, and Royal Marine Commandos and their craft.

Babcock’s facilities at Devonport are the UK’s sole licensed site for the refitting and refuel/defuel of nuclear-powered submarines, where currently Trafalgar and Vanguard-Class submarines undergo major refits and upgrades. They are a critical enabler to submarine availability and maintaining the UK’s Continuous At Sea Deterrent (CASD).

‘CosMott’ have been appointed as the Delivery Partner for the 10 Dock Programme, converting a large ship dock into a modern nuclear submarine facility to support the upkeep and deep maintenance of future classes of nuclear submarine, namely the Astute and Dreadnought classes.

This includes new production facilities, office spaces and amenities, new water retaining boundaries and subways, roadways and walkways, submarine cradle and dock bottom heat management services and facilities, mechanical handling systems/ cranage, mechanical and electrical services, security boundaries/systems and new dock entrance gate (caisson).

As a Graduate Project Manager you will be gaining firsthand experience in a diverse and dynamic environment, on safe and sustainable projects and programmes that are of huge importance and significance to the defence of our nation.

What does the Graduate Project Manager role provide?

The role, embedded within a major nuclear infrastructure programme will help you to grow your personal and leadership skills, alongside business and of course, the technical skills you will learn day-to-day on the job.

It will allow you to establish a network of contacts that will help and support you through your initial period of your career and beyond. You will also be able to fully understand the depth and breadth of the services offered by the company, and the wider opportunities across the various sectors of the business.

Our line managers are fully supportive of the Graduate Development programme and will be involved in helping you along the way. And we offer mentoring and support in every area of work, as well as a structured training programme to enable graduates to work towards achieving Chartership.

Responsibilities

Main Responsibilities:

As a Graduate Project Manager, you'll work closely with experienced Project Managers as part of an integrated project team client-side, in one of the most complex and dynamic working environments in the UK.

A career in Project Management offers a unique blend of strategic planning, leadership, and hands-on problem-solving. As a Graduate Project Manager, you will work closely with the team to oversee the lifecycle of the project, from completion of the detailed design phase through construction to completion and handover to the end user.

This role requires a keen eye for detail, the ability to support the coordination of various teams and resources, and the resilience to support the team with achieving tight deadlines and unexpected challenges. It's a profession that demands excellent communication skills as well as a proactive approach to risk management and troubleshooting.

At Costain, Project Management is not just about delivering projects on time and within budget—it's about driving innovation, delivering safely and sustainably, protecting the environment and creating lasting impacts on society.

What Will You Be Doing?

During This Comprehensive Programme, With The Support Of Our Industry Experts, You Will Learn And Gain Expertise In Areas Such As

1. Project Management: Learn to oversee and drive projects from start to finish.
2. Project Controls: Gain experience in managing project budgets, schedules, and resources.
3. Scope Management: control of requirements within tight time and cost constraints
4. Risk Management: developing strategies to prevent and prepare for potential risks and exploit opportunities
5. Resource Planning: determine the people, equipment, material, skills and knowledge required to deliver the project
6. Quality: Be involved with checking, measuring, and evaluating the quality of your project work against the quality criteria and standards, and taking corrective actions if needed
7. Commercial: Ensure that all commercial aspects of the projects under their remit are properly managed and controlled, and that commercial strategy is developed and delivered in accordance with the requirements of the business.
8. Construction management: Get hands-on experience in the execution and operational phases of projects.
9. Stakeholder management – management of and engagement with key stakeholders that can influence the project
10. Sustainability management: gain experience of initiatives to reduce carbon emissions over the life cycle of the project and protect the environment
11. Safety and well-being: critical understanding of how projects manage safety and well-being effectively and ensure that everyone goes home safe at the end of the day

Qualifications

About You:

• A Project Management, Engineering or related degree with at least 2:2 or above
• IT proficient (Experience with Microsoft Office Suite, AutoCAD and other software)
• A knowledge of project management concepts and methods
• Effective decision making
• Strong verbal and written communication
• Excellent organisation and time management skills; ability to manage multiple tasks and willingness to ask for help when needed
• A willingness to learn and take on new challenges.
• Have passion for Costain's Carbon Net Zero targets.
• Excel at building and maintaining positive relationships
• The ability to thrive in time sensitive situations
• Proactive and driven approach to work and creating success
• Mobility to work at Devonport and throughout the UK if required, ability to travel to site

Additional Requirements

• Please note that you will be required to obtain and maintain security clearance of at least Security Check level. For this you will need to have been a legal U.K. resident for a minimum of 5 years and be able to successfully complete the vetting process.
• Candidates will be required to achieve appropriate medical clearances; these will be instigated on receiving a conditional offer of employment.
• If you are invited to interview, we will require you to produce your passport and/or right to work documentation.

About Us

Costain helps to improve people’s lives with integrated, leading edge, smart infrastructure solutions across the UK’s energy, water, transportation and defence markets. We help our clients improve their business performance by increasing capacity, improving customer service, safeguarding security, enhancing resilience, decarbonising and delivering increased efficiency. Our vision is to be the UK’s leading smart infrastructure solutions company. We will achieve this by focusing on blue chip clients whose major spending plans are underpinned by strategic national needs, regulatory commitments, legislation or essential performance requirements. We offer our clients leading edge solutions that are digitally optimised through the following five services which cover the whole lifecycle of their assets: future-shaping strategic consultancy; consultancy and advisory; digital technology solutions; asset optimisation and complex programme delivery. Our culture and values underpin everything we do.

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that disclose they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer.

It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.

For more details please go to the Disability Confident website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign

About The Team

The Devonport project based in Plymouth is a capital portfolio at the heart of ensuring the security of the country through future proofing the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent. Costain were awarded the role as delivery partner together with Mott MacDonald to support Babcock in delivering the major infrastructure upgrade.

Potential candidates must be able to obtain and retain Security Clearance to be able to be considered.