Senior Project Manager - Marine Infrastructure

Associated British Ports; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Associated British Ports in the UK seeks a Senior Project Manager to lead the development and delivery of major port infrastructure in South Wales. You will oversee feasibility through handover for projects valued over £500m, coordinating safety, schedule, cost and quality targets while engaging stakeholders and statutory bodies.

The role requires management of multidisciplinary delivery teams and travel across the UK to project locations, with a focus on optimizing delivery and return on

Qualifications

• Track record of delivering complex capital infrastructure projects.
• Experience with infrastructure consenting routes and planning processes.
• Ability to lead high-performing cross-functional teams.
• Excellent engagement with Executive level stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead a complex major infrastructure project from feasibility through handover.
• Coordinate governance with internal boards and external stakeholders.
• Oversee planning applications, environmental assessments and consultations.
• Interface with statutory bodies, local authorities and communities.
• Develop packaging strategies and contract models aligned to requirements.
• Manage project risk, change control and performance reporting.
• Ensure safety, delivery confidence, and knowledge sharing within the team.

Skills

Stakeholder engagement

Team leadership

Project governance

Risk and change control

Education

Degree in PM or engineering

Professional body membership

Job description

At Associated British Ports (ABP), we proudly serve our customers and our communities in pursuit of our ambitious missions which are ‘Keeping Britain Trading’ and ‘Enabling the Energy Transition’. These are underpinned by a strong commitment to safety, sustainability and our people.

To support our ambitious growth, it is key for ABP to have a strong delivery engine for transforming new opportunities into reality. We have a vacancy within the Major Projects team for a Senior Project Manager to lead development and delivery of key port infrastructure in South Wales that will further support our twin missions of Keeping Britain Trading and Enabling the Energy Transition.

Associated British Ports | Future Port Talbot.

Role: Senior Project Manager

As a Senior Project Manager, you’ll provide leadership to the client-side delivery team working on a nationally significant port infrastructure project, with a capital value in excess of £500m. You will support design development, consenting, delivery and the operational handover, achieving time, cost and quality targets throughout.

The aim of the role is to bring major commercial opportunities to life, unlock efficiency in delivery and optimise the return on investment. The nature of infrastructure development means flexibility to travel across the UK to project locations is required.

What You’ll Be Doing

Lead a complex major infrastructure project from feasibility through to operational handover, ensuring integration across commercial, technical, environmental, legal, and operational workstreams by:

• Establishing and maintaining proportionate project governance, working with internal boards and external stakeholders to ensure transparent decision-making and rigorous assurance.
• Overseeing development of DCO (or equivalent planning) applications, including environmental impact assessment, statutory and non-statutory consultations, stakeholder engagement, and legal drafting.
• Leading interface with statutory bodies, local authorities, and community stakeholders to secure project support and resolve objections.
• Working with procurement and commercial teams to develop packaging strategies and contract models aligned to customer requirements, risk profile, consenting constraints, and market engagement outcomes.
• Establishing and actively managing project-level risk registers and change control processes, including interface risks with external parties and internal functions.
• Leading baseline development and actively manage change tracking across scope, time, cost, and benefits; ensure accurate performance reporting to internal governance and external stakeholders.
• Working with asset team, engineering teams, customers and operators to ensure operational requirements are embedded in design and that safe, effective handover is achieved.
• Leading multi-disciplinary delivery teams (internal and consultant) with a focus on safety, accountability, delivery confidence, and capability development.
• Contributing to the development of ABP’s project delivery capability, knowledge sharing across projects, and supporting more junior members of the team.

Skills and Experiences

• Demonstrable track record of the successful development of complex capital infrastructure projects with a value in excess of GBP 50 million.
• Knowledge of infrastructure consenting routes, including experience in managing a project through the planning process (e.g. pre-application, examination, discharge of conditions).
• Demonstrable experience of leading high-performing teams across organisational functions and boundaries.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills with the ability to understand functional drivers and effectively communicate with Executive level stakeholders.

Ideal

• Degree (or equivalent) in Project Management or a relevant engineering discipline.
• Membership of appropriate professional body, with corresponding professional qualification, (e.g. Chartered Engineer MICE, Chartered Project Professional MAPM, etc).
• Experience of developing or delivering major projects in a marine or port environment
• Experience leading the development and consenting for nationally significant infrastructure projects
• Knowledge of relevant environmental regulations, ideally including across devolved governments.

The job holder must be flexible to travel and work at any location in the UK as per the needs of the role and project requirements. The expectation is that the job holder role will plan their time to be at project location(s) for face-to-face meetings, site visits, and stakeholder engagement. Travel costs will be covered in line with company policies and procedures..