Project Manager - Higher Education

Arcadis; Manchester; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Arcadis is seeking an experienced Project Manager to lead construction and refurbishment projects across Higher Education, laboratories, and museums in the UK. You will oversee on-site delivery, coordinate trades, and manage budgets while ensuring safety and technical compliance.

You will work with estates teams, academics, curators, and contractors, bringing hands-on construction knowledge to occupied environments and complex access constraints.

Qualifications

• Proven hands-on experience managing construction or refurbishment projects within Higher Education, laboratories, or museums.
• Strong ability to engage with tradespeople, contractors, clients, and internal teams.
• Familiarity with construction health and safety requirements (CDM, risk management, permits).
• Construction qualifications (MAPM or equivalent) preferred; CIOB/RICS/HNC/HND welcomed.

Responsibilities

• Manage construction delivery on Higher Education, laboratory, and museum projects, coordinating multiple trades and subcontractors on live, occupied sites.
• Oversee scopes of work, contractor engagement, site supervision, and quality control to ensure compliance with technical specifications and safety standards.
• Lead site coordination meetings, manage programme schedules, and track budgets ensuring projects stay on time and within financial targets.
• Work closely with estates teams, academic staff, curators, and other stakeholders to handle challenges of operating in sensitive environments.
• Identify and manage risks or issues early, escalating where necessary to senior management to maintain project momentum.

Skills

Confident communicator

Stakeholder engagement

Time and cost management

Education

MAPM or equivalent

CIOB / RICS / HNC-HND

Job description

Arcadis is the world's leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets.

We are more than 34,000 people, in over 30 countries, dedicated to improving quality of life. Everyone has an important role to play. With the power of many curious minds, together we can solve the world’s most complex challenges and deliver more impact together.

Role Description

We’re looking for an experienced Project Manager with previous experience in delivering projects within Higher Education, laboratories, or museums across the UK.

You will oversee complex building and refurbishment projects, liaising with on‑site contractors and multidisciplinary teams. This role needs hands‑on construction understanding, specialist some technical knowledge (labs and museums), and the capability to handle the varied complexities of occupied educational and cultural environments.

Role Accountabilities

• Manage construction delivery on Higher Education, laboratory, and museum projects, coordinating multiple trades and subcontractors on live, occupied sites
• Oversee scopes of work, contractor engagement, site supervision, and quality control to ensure compliance with technical specifications and safety standards
• Lead site coordination meetings, manage programme schedules, and track budgets ensuring projects stay on time and within financial targets
• Work closely with estates teams, academic staff, curators, and other stakeholders to handle the challenges of operating in sensitive and complex environments
• Understand and resolve typical construction challenges including access restrictions, phasing, noise control, and protection of specialist equipment or collections
• Identify and manage risks or issues early, escalating where necessary to senior management to maintain project momentum and compliance
• Monitor and analyse site progress and resource allocation to anticipate delays or cost impacts and adjust plans accordingly
• Advise on construction best practices and continuous improvement opportunities based on experience with similar sectors and environments

Qualifications & Experience

• Proven hands‑on experience managing construction or refurbishment projects within Higher Education, laboratories, or museums
• Strong understanding of working with multiple trades and contractors on live sites with complex access and operational constraints
• Experience dealing with specialist environments such as labs (including fume cupboards, gas, containment) or museum spaces (environmental controls, collections protection) is highly desirable
• Familiarity with construction health and safety requirements (CDM regulations, risk management, permits)
• Confident communicator with ability to engage effectively with tradespeople, contractors, clients, and internal teams
• Commercially aware with strong time and cost management skills, able to handle the complexities of multi‑stakeholder projects
• Project management qualification (MAPM or equivalent) is preferred; construction‑related qualifications (CIOB, RICS, HNC/HND) also welcomed

If you have construction knowledge and experience successfully managing the complexities of Higher Education, laboratory, or museum projects, working closely with tradespeople to deliver high-quality outcomes, we want to hear from you.

Why Arcadis?

We can only achieve our goals when everyone is empowered to be their best. We believe everyone's contribution matters. It’s why we are pioneering a skills‑based approach, where you can harness your unique experience and expertise to carve your career path and maximize the impact we can make together.

You’ll do meaningful work, and no matter what role, you’ll be helping to deliver sustainable solutions for a more prosperous planet. Make your mark, on your career, your colleagues, your clients, your life and the world around you.

Together, we can create a lasting legacy.

Join Arcadis. Create a Legacy.

Our Commitment to Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging

We want you to be able to bring your best self to work every day which is why we take equality and inclusion seriously and hold ourselves to account for our actions. Our ambition is to be an employer of choice and provide a great place to work for all our people. We believe that by working together diverse people with different experiences develop the most innovative ideas. Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of how we improve quality of life and we work closely with our people across six ED&I Workstreams: Age, Disability, Faith, Gender, LGBT+ and Race. A diverse and skilled workforce is essential to our success.