Projects Director

Mandala Group Ltd; Greater London; On-site; GBP 105,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Car allowance

Discretionary annual bonus

Pension

25 days' annual leave

Private medical insurance

Healthcare cash plan

Life assurance

Job summary

Mandala Group Ltd, a fast-growing UK main contractor, seeks a senior operational lead to oversee its Education delivery portfolio. You will sit above project leads, coordinating multiple projects, teams, and performance across programme, commercial, design, production and on-site operations.

This national role offers exposure to DfE frameworks, a pathway to regional director and, ultimately, board-level responsibility as the portfolio expands.

Qualifications

• Must have delivered education projects for a main contractor
• Significant DfE delivery experience and familiarity with CF21/CF25 frameworks
• Ability to lead multiple projects through many teams and senior client relationships

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate project management and delivery teams across the Education sector
• Oversee programme, commercial, design and operational performance
• Manage risk, opportunities and client relationships across the portfolio
• Drive continuous improvement and lessons learned across projects
• Develop and mentor Project Leads and their teams
• Plan resources across the portfolio and ensure alignment with strategy

Skills

Portfolio leadership

Project delivery

DfE experience

Stakeholder management

Job description

There are plenty of senior construction roles where the next move means a bigger project - this one means a bigger remit and progression to board level! Mandala Group has been exclusively retained by a fast‑growing UK main contractor to appoint the senior operational lead for its Education delivery portfolio. The business already has a significant track record with the Department for Education, has delivered through CF21 and has secured its position for the next generation of DfE work through CF25. They are looking for somebody capable of sitting above the individual Project Leads and taking an overarching view of the Education portfolio: multiple projects, multiple teams and overall responsibility for how those projects perform. Programme. Commercial. Design. Construction. Client. People. The Project Leads own their projects. You lead the portfolio.

Why this is different

This is an opportunity to join a contractor at a particularly exciting point in its growth. The business is challenging the traditional construction model by bringing design, off‑site manufacturing and on‑site delivery much closer together. Rather than treating manufacturing as an add‑on to conventional construction, it forms part of how projects are designed, planned and delivered. For an experienced main contractor leader, that creates an interesting challenge: taking everything you know about delivering complex projects and applying it within a business continually looking for a better, faster and more integrated way of doing it. And this is not a newly created Education proposition looking for somebody to find it some work. There is an established DfE track record, live delivery, experienced teams beneath the role and a future pipeline. The appointment is about making sure that as the portfolio grows, the quality of operational leadership grows with it. The longer‑term opportunity matters too. The intention is for the person joining at this level to grow with the business, with a potential route towards Regional Director and ultimately Board‑level responsibility as the organisation continues to expand. This is a business that wants to develop future leaders rather than simply recruit against today’s vacancy. That philosophy is reflected in its wider approach to leadership development, succession and internal progression.

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Who should be reading this?

Someone who has spent their career actually delivering construction projects for a main contractor. You may be a Senior Contracts Manager, Operations Manager, Project Director, Construction Director or already operating at sector leadership level. What matters is that you can walk into a room with several Project Leads and quickly understand where every project really is.

What’s slipping?

• Where is the commercial exposure?
• What’s holding design up?
• Which programme needs challenging?
• Where does the client need senior engagement?
• Which team needs support and which simply needs holding to account?
• And importantly, you know when to intervene without becoming the Project Manager yourself.

Our search of the DfE contractor market has shown that this combination is relatively unusual. There are plenty of excellent individual Project Managers and plenty of people operating around frameworks, bids, pre‑construction and design. We are looking specifically for the operational leader who can sit above several live construction projects and lead through the people delivering them.

DfE experience matters

This isn’t a generic construction leadership appointment where Education happens to be one of the sectors. We want somebody who understands schools. Ideally, you will have significant experience delivering projects through the Department for Education and exposure to CF21, CF25 or previous DfE/ESFA frameworks. You should understand the particular demands of DfE delivery: the client environment, specifications, programme pressures, design requirements, handover expectations and the commercial and operational challenges that come with delivering multiple Education schemes.

What you’ll actually be responsible for

The role leads and coordinates the project management and delivery teams across the sector, bringing together Project Management, Commercial, Design, off‑site Production and on‑site Operations. Your remit will include:

• overall delivery performance across multiple Education projects
• leadership, challenge and development of Project Leads and their teams
• programme, commercial, design and operational performance
• project, technical and commercial risk and opportunity
• senior client relationships
• project performance reviews and accountability
• resource planning across the portfolio
• collaboration between project teams and off‑site manufacturing
• continuous improvement and lessons learned
• health, safety, quality and client satisfaction
• developing the people and leadership capability needed for future growth

Ultimately, you will carry overall responsibility for delivery across the portfolio while the Project Leads beneath you remain accountable for their individual projects. The formal remit includes programme, gross margin, quality, safety, client satisfaction and the performance of the sector project management team.

Package

£105,000 - £130,000 depending on experience.

The wider package includes a car allowance, discretionary annual bonus with potential profit share upside, pension, 25 days' annual leave, private medical insurance, healthcare cash plan and 4x basic salary life assurance.

For somebody who knows the DfE market, has proven they can deliver major Education projects and now wants responsibility beyond the boundary of a single site, this is an opportunity to take genuine ownership of a national portfolio and grow with a contractor whose ambitions extend considerably beyond where it is today.

All conversations will be treated in complete confidence.