Pre-Construction Manager
North West | Building Contractor | Refurbishment & Fit-Out
Healthcare | Education | Commercial | Projects up to £2.5m
I'm working with an established North West building contractor looking to appoint an experienced Pre-Construction Manager to join its growing team.
The business delivers fit-out and refurbishment projects from £5k to £2.5m, predominantly across Healthcare, Mental Healthcare, Education and Commercial environments, with many projects undertaken within live and occupied buildings.
This is a key role within the business, taking projects from initial tender or client enquiry through the pre-construction process and developing a clear, practical and deliverable construction strategy before handover to the operational team.
The Role
Working closely with estimating, commercial, design and operational colleagues, you will take responsibility for the operational planning and delivery strategy during pre-construction.
- Reviewing tender information and developing construction methodologies, programmes and logistics strategies
- Providing strong operational input into competitive tenders and quality submissions
- Working directly with clients on negotiated and direct-award opportunities
- Developing project briefs, scope, priorities and key delivery constraints
- Carrying out and coordinating detailed site surveys
- Producing comprehensive construction programmes covering design, procurement, mobilisation, delivery, commissioning and handover
- Developing site logistics plans covering access, deliveries, storage, welfare, waste and phased working
- Planning works within occupied and live environments, including phasing, shutdowns, segregation, safeguarding, noise and dust considerations
- Identifying project risks and opportunities and developing appropriate mitigation strategies
- Reviewing buildability and challenging sequencing or design proposals where appropriate
- Identifying temporary works and specialist requirements
- Working alongside estimating and commercial teams to ensure programme, methodology, resources, preliminaries and cost assumptions are aligned
- Identifying long-lead items, procurement requirements and critical information release dates
- Leading pre-construction meetings and discussions with clients
- Building strong client relationships and helping identify repeat and future project opportunities
- Providing a comprehensive pre-construction handover to the delivery team
- Supporting mobilisation and resolving pre-construction queries as projects move into the delivery phase
- Using feedback from operational teams to continually improve pre-construction processes
What We're Looking For
This role would suit somebody with a strong construction delivery background who has moved into pre-construction, planning or project development.
You will ideally have:
- Significant experience within construction, particularly refurbishment and fit-out
- Strong experience producing detailed construction programmes and logistics plans
- Excellent understanding of how projects are practically delivered on site
- Experience with competitive tenders and client-led/negotiated projects
- Strong knowledge of buildability, sequencing, resource planning and construction risk
- Experience working within live or occupied environments
- Working knowledge of JCT and NEC contracts
- Understanding of contractor design responsibilities and construction safety requirements
- Strong client-facing and communication skills
- Ability to coordinate effectively across estimating, commercial, design and operational teams
- Experience using MS Project and Microsoft Office
- Relevant construction qualification or equivalent industry experience
- Full eligibility to work in the UK
- Ability to travel across the North West
- Experience within Healthcare, Education, occupied commercial buildings or public-sector frameworks would be particularly advantageous.
The Person
We're looking for somebody who is practical, organised and commercially aware, but who also understands the realities of delivering construction projects on site.
You'll be comfortable challenging unrealistic assumptions, identifying problems before they reach site and working collaboratively with clients and internal teams to find the right solution.
This could particularly suit an experienced Contracts Manager, Project Manager, Construction Manager or Pre-Construction Manager who enjoys the planning and front-end stages of projects and wants to have a real influence over how schemes are delivered.
Package & Benefits
- Competitive salary
- 33 days' holiday including Bank Holidays
- Pension scheme
- Medicash scheme
- Supportive and collaborative working environment
- Genuine opportunity to influence projects from the earliest stages