Senior Project Manager - Ports and Maritime

WSP in the UK & Ireland; Basingstoke; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading infrastructure consultancy is seeking a Senior Project Manager to join their Maritime team in Basingstoke, UK. This role involves leading complex capital infrastructure projects for diverse clients, ensuring effective team collaboration and delivering projects on time and within budget. Candidates should have chartership status and experience with large-scale projects over GBP 50 million. The position offers opportunities for international travel and working within a dynamic team environment.

Qualifications

• Chartership status with a professional association or advanced project management qualification.
• Experience managing FIDIC/NEC contracts.
• Strong analytical capability with project performance information.

Responsibilities

• Lead high-performing project teams across engineering disciplines.
• Deliver projects focusing on KPIs including budget, scope, and quality.
• Coordinate and collaborate between disciplines and project stakeholders.

Skills

Chartership status or advanced qualification

Experience managing FIDIC / NEC contracts

Strong analytical skills

Familiarity with lean performance concepts

Experience with project management tools

Continuous opportunity identification

Experience delivering large-scale projects

Education

Chartership with professional association

Advanced project management qualification

Tools

Project management plan (PMP)

Project scheduling software (Projects/P6)

Job description

A Little More About Your Role…

WSP is hiring a Senior Project Manager to join the Maritime team based in the UK. We have a full and exciting pipeline of major projects to deliver, and are looking to increase the bandwidth of our project delivery team with a safe and trusted pair of hands. As part of the team, you will complement the wide experience of a highly knowledgeable and dynamic team of Ports & Maritime experts based in the UK and across the globe.

You will play a pivotal role in delivering medium to large‑scale and complex capital infrastructure projects in the UK and internationally for a variety of clients, ranging from local authorities to private clients and international port operators across all cargo sectors, including containers, bulk and facilities supporting the energy transition. This is a UK‑based role with regular presence across one of WSP Maritime’s four locations – Edinburgh, London, Basingstoke or Newcastle. There is an opportunity to travel internationally as projects require.

Day‑to‑day, This Means You Will

• Lead high‑performing project teams across multiple workstreams and engineering disciplines. Your expertise will be crucial from project inception to project completion, overseeing design, procurement, construction, commissioning, integration, and handover in line with WSP governance.
• Deliver your projects to the agreed success criteria, reporting on KPIs on a monthly basis, focussing on time, budget, scope, resources, risk, safety, and quality.
• Promote WSP culture, build and maintain high engagement, be a role‑model of the Ports & Maritime team and support personal and professional development of the team.
• Administer, implement, and maintain relevant contract and commercial administration systems and procedures, together with project controls functions.
• Provide direction and leadership to the team to successfully deliver their project responsibilities.
• Coordinate and collaborate between disciplines and project stakeholders. Key to this is leveraging the business’ expertise, minimising silos and safeguarding the delivery of an integrated project.
• Work in a highly inclusive and dynamic environment where collaboration, enthusiasm, and empathy are highly valued. With support and guidance of our team members, you will have an opportunity to broaden your existing skills and knowledge which will support you on your career path with WSP.
• Understand Maritime Client needs by driving technical delivery to align with Client priorities and overall project constraints.

What We Will Be Looking For You To Demonstrate…

• Hold chartership status with a professional association or an advanced project, programme or portfolio management qualification, for example, ChPP (Association for Project Management (APM)), PMP (Project Management Institute (PMI)) or equivalent.
• Experience in managing FIDIC / NEC contracts or equivalent as Junior Project Manager.
• Experience of capital projects within infrastructure or engineering‑led environments.
• Strong analytical capability, with confidence working with schedule, risk, cost, and performance information to extract decision‑relevant insights.
• Familiarity with lean performance concepts, such as leading indicators, visual management and continuous improvement.
• First‑hand experience in the use and critical review of project management tools across a range of areas including (but not limited to) project management plan (PMP), risk, change, contracts, schedule (Projects/P6), requirements, assumptions, performance.
• Continuous opportunity identification and optimisation of project scope, timeline, and budget to re‑align (if necessary) with changing client drivers or to deliver improved performance against the current project success criteria.
• Responsible for delivering at least two large‑scale and complex capital infrastructure projects (over GBP 50 million in construction costs) and can demonstrate experience in leading or heavy involvement in the creation of construction contracts for a large‑scale and complex project.

Here at WSP we positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy or maternity/paternity. As a Disability Confident leader, we will interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria; please let us know if you require any workplace adjustments in support of your application.