Senior Director, Defence Advisory & Growth

AECOM; Glasgow; Hybrid; GBP 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

AECOM Advisory in the UK is seeking a Senior Director to drive business development, oversee delivery, and lead practice development for the defence sector. This seller-doer role requires leadership of multiple delivery teams and visibility with C-suite clients across engagements and campaigns.

You will shape strategy, manage client relationships, and guide analytic workstreams while mentoring staff and coordinating with senior stakeholders. Hybrid work options are available within the UK.

Qualifications

• Proven track record in a seller‑doer role in a management consulting firm.
• At least 10 years of management consulting and/or related industry experience.
• Bachelor’s degree.
• Deep understanding of the defence sector and an extensive network. Track record of work winning with either MOD or OEM clients.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills, client‑service mindset and ability to act as a trusted adviser to clients.
• Create a culture of a high‑tempo, high‑context client‑facing environment, with the ability to maintain poise, maturity and work well under pressure.
• Able to be self‑directed, anticipatory and a collegial team‑player who can work across a devolved‑leadership and highly‑matrixed consulting organization.
• Exceptional verbal communication and narrative development skills, with the ability to summarize and convey key insights to C‑suite and senior management audiences.
• Exceptional commercial acumen and willingness to have an informed point‑of‑view, grounded in an interest in enterprise challenges (people, process, technology) and expert understanding of client industries and their context.
• Domain expertise across multiple of the following areas: Corporate or enterprise strategy, market analysis and target operating model design.
• Organisational assessment, business transformation and performance improvement.
• Corporate finance, valuations, M&A, divestitures, divestments and privatisations.
• Capital projects advisory, including project finance and/or infrastructure investment appraisal, capital improvement planning, asset management, portfolio strategy.
• Economic development, industrial policy and market transformation.

Responsibilities

• Drive industry conversations and engage professional networks to identify and originate business development opportunities.
• Leverage industry expertise and commercial acumen to proactively target, define and shape business development campaigns.
• Oversee all aspects of business development, for both engagements and broader campaigns, including client outreach, proposal development, solutions architecture, commercial and pricing strategy, internal risk review, and compliance procedures.
• Oversee (lead, supervise, and provide quality control over) multiple parallel delivery teams, across various delivery models, tempos and engagement scopes.
• Provide leadership for client interactions on delivery progress and insight validation, and visibility for interactions including with C‑suite clients and senior management stakeholders.
• Upwardly and laterally manage the inputs from peers and technical experts to flag key delivery choices, considerations and risks as they relate to technical scope, client satisfaction, and commercial constraints.
• Architect analytical workstreams and strategically guide engagement teams.
• Provide timely quality assurance and control over scope, assumptions, analyses and insights.
• Oversee narrative formulation and highly‑polished deliverable production to meet client expectations and firm standards.
• Drive practice development with conducting performance appraisals, FP&A, operational performance improvement, thought leadership and IP generation.
• Proactively coach and mentor staff.

Skills

Seller-doer experience

Management consulting

Defence sector knowledge

Client relationship management

Executive communication

Business development

Leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Job description

AECOM Advisory in the UK is seeking a Senior Director to drive business development, oversee delivery, and lead practice development for the defence sector. This seller-doer role requires leadership of multiple delivery teams and visibility with C-suite clients across engagements and campaigns.

You will shape strategy, manage client relationships, and guide analytic workstreams while mentoring staff and coordinating with senior stakeholders. Hybrid work options are available within the UK.