New Business Director

Willmott Dixon; Birmingham; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme

Private medical cover

Life assurance

Incentive bonus

Car scheme

MEA (motoring expenditure allowance)

Car-leasing scheme

Job summary

Willmott Dixon is seeking a consultative and technically credible New Business Director to lead our Midlands growth strategy, securing the right projects and volume of work.

You will build and lead a high-performing business development team, translate our five-year construction plan into clear market priorities, and manage opportunities from frameworks and negotiated contracts to deliver repeat business with clients.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver a business development strategy aligned with our construction strategy and growth targets.
• Build trusted, long-term customer relationships that generate repeat business and negotiated opportunities.
• Identify, qualify and secure opportunities that align with our capabilities, risk appetite and commercial expectations.
• Lead customer, market, bid and pursuit strategies, ensuring resources focus on the opportunities with the strongest potential.
• Listening to customer requirements, developing and offering solutions to address those requirements
• Embed customer insight and the Willmott Dixon approaches into high-quality proposals and presentations.
• Develop strategic relationships with consultants, framework providers, professional advisers, and other market influencers.
• Set the local marketing strategy in line with national priorities, positioning the business as a trusted and technically credible partner.
• Monitor pipeline quality, conversion, customer engagement, secured workload and revenue forecasts, taking timely action where required.
• Build, develop and inspire high-performing business development, frameworks, proposals and marketing teams.
• Identify skills and resources within the business to maximise opportunities

Job description

Willmott Dixon are seeking a consultative and technically credible New Business Director to lead our approach to customers and secure the right projects and volume of work to achieve strategic growth across our Midlands region. You will help translate our five-year construction strategy into clear market priorities, customer plans, and measurable outcomes for the local market.

You will be accountable for predictable and profitable growth through new customer relationships, repeat business, frameworks, and negotiated opportunities. Working closely with Preconstruction, Operations and Commercial colleagues, you will ensure opportunities are strategically aligned, commercially viable and operationally deliverable.

This is more than a relationship-management role. You will bring insight, challenge and leadership, build a high-performing team and create clear accountability for pipeline quality, conversion and solutions that drive repeat business with our customers.

This role will focus on our Midlands region so the successful candidate will travel regularly to meet customers and to our Birmingham and Nottingham offices. Willmott Dixon do support hybrid working so you will also be supported to work from home.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver a business development strategy aligned with our construction strategy and growth targets.
• Build trusted, long-term customer relationships that generate repeat business and negotiated opportunities.
• Identify, qualify and secure opportunities that align with our capabilities, risk appetite and commercial expectations.
• Lead customer, market, bid and pursuit strategies, ensuring resources focus on the opportunities with the strongest potential.
• Listening to customer requirements, developing and offering solutions to address those requirements
• Embed customer insight and the Willmott Dixon approaches into high-quality proposals and presentations.
• Develop strategic relationships with consultants, framework providers, professional advisers, and other market influencers.
• Set the local marketing strategy in line with national priorities, positioning the business as a trusted and technically credible partner.
• Monitor pipeline quality, conversion, customer engagement, secured workload and revenue forecasts, taking timely action where required.
• Build, develop and inspire high-performing business development, frameworks, proposals and marketing teams.
• Identify skills and resources within the business to maximise opportunities

Essential and Desirable Criteria

• Experience of leading multidisciplinary teams and delivering sustained growth.
• Experience of influencing multiple stakeholders at board level and beyond.
• A collaborative leadership style focused on collective success.
• A strong network of senior customer, consultants and construction industry contacts
• Previous experience in a Director-level or equivalent senior leadership role.

About You

You will be an experienced senior leader with a strong track record within contracting or a related sector. You will be able to demonstrate:

• Delivery of predictable and profitable growth through new and existing customer relationships.
• Success securing work through frameworks, competitive tenders and negotiated routes.
• The ability to translate business strategy into clear, practical, and measurable execution.
• A consultative, solution-led approach that identifies customer challenges and shapes valuable technical responses.
• Sound commercial judgement, including opportunity qualification, governance and risk management.
• Strong bid, proposal, and opportunity-management capability, with a clear understanding of what excellence looks like from a customer's perspective.
• Leadership of teams through clear accountability, high engagement, and effective performance management.
• Excellent communication, influencing and stakeholder-management skills, supported by a strong network of customer and industry contacts.

Additional Information

We reward our people with a competitive package and flexible benefits designed to suit different lifestyles and priorities. These include a pension scheme, private medical cover for you and a partner, life assurance, an incentive bonus, a car scheme, and a motoring expenditure allowance (MEA). Colleagues can also access low-carbon and electric vehicles through the Willmott Dixon car-leasing scheme.

We provide an inclusive and flexible working environment where people can thrive and support agile working wherever possible. We are a proud member of the Disability Confident Scheme.

Career progression: This role provides a clear pathway to a Board Director position within 12 months, subject to demonstrated performance and readiness. The successful candidate will have meaningful ownership, visibility, and support to demonstrate their impact across the business.

About Us

Willmott Dixon Construction is a £1.1bn privately owned contractor with more than 170 years of history. Guided by our purpose beyond profit, we deliver brilliant buildings that transform lives, strengthen communities and enhance the environment for future generations.

We operate across further and higher education, commercial, health, development-led, science and technology, blue-light, leisure and residential sectors. Our solutions-led approach combines competitive value with technical insight, helping us become a trusted partner to our customers.