Technical Manager (Highways)

Sweco UK Ltd; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible and hybrid working (Flexworks

Competitive pension contribution

Life Assurance

Private Medical Insurance (including)

Job summary

Sweco UK Ltd in Manchester is recruiting for a Technical Manager to join the Highways team. You will lead highways and active travel projects within multidisciplinary design teams, driving client engagement and successful delivery.

The role emphasizes governance, bid leadership, and mentoring, with flexible hybrid working options and a strong portfolio of regional projects. The position requires Chartered membership of a relevant professional institution, strategic influence, and robust client

Qualifications

• Chartered membership of a relevant professional institution.
• Ability to work across multi-discipline environments within UK business areas and generate business from leads.
• Strong sales and presentation skills to understand client needs and win work.
• Ability to influence strategic decisions and manage project scope, time, cost and quality.
• Excellent consultancy, communication and relationship management skills.
• Experience delivering governance on infrastructure projects.
• Experience delivering projects for contractors, local authorities, and developers.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery of highways and active travel projects within multidisciplinary design teams.
• Identify opportunities, run tenders, and coordinate bids with legal and bid teams.
• Ensure design consistency and project outputs across portfolio.
• Mentor colleagues and support professional development.
• Develop and maintain client and partner relationships through excellent delivery.
• Manage work pipelines and coordinate across the business unit.
• Deliver tasks per the project programme and monitor financial performance.
• Identify risks and opportunities and engage stakeholders for outcomes.

Skills

Leadership

Client engagement

Tendering

Project governance

Stakeholder management

Commercial decision-making

Multi-discipline collaboration

Work packaging & planning

Education

Chartered membership of a relevant professional institution

Tools

NEC PSC knowledge

Job description

Let’s transform society together…

We’re Sweco.

We’re future planners, city shapers, urban innovators, digital transformers, net zero chasers, community connectors, social enterprisers and lifestyle improvers.

We’re difference makers.

We’re Europe’s leading design, engineering, environment and regulatory consultancy and we’re now recruiting for an Technical Manager to join our Highways team in Manchester.

These roles can be worked flexibly, with a minimum of 3 days in the office and the option of adjusted start and finish times.

Our highway and transportation engineering teams are recognised industry leaders and operate across several markets including strategic roads, urban city/town centre interventions and private developments. We have a strong portfolio of local and national clients, some of our recent projects across the North West and West Yorkshire include Northern Gateway Western Access, A62 Oldham Road, A662 Ashton New Road, Picadilly Bus Interchange, York Central, Bradford City Centre, Bradford Kings Road and Wakefield Road corridors, A641 in Brighouse and Connecting North East Calderdale.

We use the latest design software and techniques to produce innovative and efficient design solutions for our clients with safety and sustainability at the forefront of our minds.

What does the role involve?

You will play a leading role in the delivery of highways and active travel projects within multidisciplinary design teams by working closely with our clients to understand their needs and ensuring they are met. You will be responsible for:

• The delivery of multi disciplinary projects in accordance with our Project Management Framework.
• Identifying opportunities, running tenders, winning work - co-ordinating discussions with the bid executive, bid team and legal team to ensure that adequate provisions are included in all bids to manage and mitigate all risks.
• Ensuring consistency of design approach and deliverable outputs within the project portfolio.
• Supporting the technical and professional development of colleagues.
• Undertaking a leading role in developing and maintaining our relationships with key clients and partners through active client engagement and building strong relationships through excellent delivery and expert knowledge.
• Liaising and co-ordinating with colleagues to drive a consistent and thorough approach to managing work pipelines across the business unit and division and collaborating across the business.
• The delivery of tasks and projects in accordance with the project programme.
• The monitoring and reporting of the project’s financial performance.
• Identifying risks and opportunities.
• Liaising with clients, regulators and stakeholders to ensure the successful delivery of project deliverables.
• Managing and mentoring colleagues.

To be successful in this role you’ll possess

• Chartered membership of a relevant professional institution.
• The ability to work across multi-discipline environments within UK business areas and generate business from leads.
• Good client understanding of projects across the division with great sales and presentation skills.
• The ability to influence strategic decision-making within the business and make commercial decisions within defined parameters (delivers to agreed project scope, time, cost and quality).
• Excellent consultancy, communication and relationship management skills with experience of conducting workshops and giving presentations.
• The ability to engage with key stakeholders to gain commitment and to influence the acceptance of new ideas and concepts in respect of change plans.
• Experience of delivering across a multi-site organisation.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to adapt your style to suit different audiences.
• Strong leadership skills to enable you to be a pro-active part of the business unit management team working alongside and providing support to the wider team in the development of overall objectives.
• Extensive experience of relevant tender processes with the ability to understand the brief and demonstrate our professional capability.
• Previous experience of providing project governance on infrastructure projects.
• Experience in delivering projects for a range of clients (contractors, local authorities, combined authorities, private developers).
• Knowledge and understanding of NEC(3 & 4) Professional Services Contract (PSC).
• Excellent time management and problem-solving skills with the ability to develop solutions.
• The ability to gain insight beyond a customer’s immediate need to identify opportunities that benefit the customer through meaningful and productive relationships.

What’s in it for you?

This is an exciting time to join Sweco and if you want to be part of a company who is small in all the best ways but large enough to provide a diverse and exciting workload, this job is for you

You will continue to learn from experienced people who share a passion for working together with our clients to deliver technical excellence and as you develop be given opportunity to work more independently.

You will be given the freedom and autonomy to make decisions, to win work, to deliver projects and to contribute to improving our business.

If you believe you have the skill set required, are keen to join a business with genuine opportunities for career progression, then we’d love to hear from you.

Let’s work together to transform society at Sweco!

Employee Benefits

• Flexible and hybrid working (Flexworks Policy)
• Competitive pension contribution
• Life Assurance
• Private Medical Insurance (including family cover)
• Company car or car allowance
• Discretionary Annual Bonus Scheme
• Payment of two relevant professional subscriptions
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays (with the option to purchase up to 5 additional days per year)
• Cycle2Work Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme (wellbeing, mental health, financial and work advice)
• Employee discounts via Sweco Benefit Select (Faircare)
• Salary Sacrifice Electric Vehicle Scheme
• We plant a tree for all new starters!

About Us

Transforming society together, we're planning and designing sustainable communities and cities of the future.

Solving the great societal challenges of our time is more relevant, demanding and inspiring than ever before. At Sweco, we bring together experts with different perspectives and skills to develop solutions that address the challenges of urbanisation, harness the positive power of digitalisation and make societies more sustainable.

We offer our clients a combination of global expertise and local presence, adapted to their business and reality. Our ambition is to be our clients’ most relevant partner, working together to help them solve their challenges, today and into the future.

Sweco is committed to enabling all its colleagues to achieve a great balance between work and their other priorities, such as caring responsibilities, leisure activities, further learning or other interests. We offer flexible start and finish times, part time and hybrid working options so that you can flex your hours around your day to day needs.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

It’s important to us that that all our colleagues thrive at work - we strive to have a friendly and inclusive culture which respects the contribution individuals can bring to Sweco. We aim to promote equality, inclusivity and diversity for everyone.

Here at Sweco 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.

We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant to ensure those who serve or have served, and their families, are treated fairly. To find out more The Armed Forces Covenant - Our Commitments | Sweco UK.

We are an accredited Real Living Wage Employer which reflects our commitment to fair pay and support for all colleagues.

We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer, and will interview applicants covered by the Equality Act 2010 that opt into the guaranteed interview scheme on the application form and meet the minimum criteria for the role.

If I have a disability, can I get help (e.g. “reasonable adjustments”) with the application process?

If you’re an applicant with a disability that requires a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process or are limited in the ability or unable to use the online application system and need an alternative method for applying, please contact [e-mail] for assistance.

In order to address your request the following information is needed:

• Name
• The best method for contacting you (Phone or email)
• The position title
• Requisition/vacancy number

Upon receipt of this information, we’ll respond to you promptly to obtain more information about your request.

Please note: we reserve the right to close vacancies before the advertised closing date.

Sweco UK&I have an internal resourcing team who are responsible for all recruiting activity. We have a Preferred Supplier List of trusted agencies who we work with on those “hard to fill” roles.

We have defined processes for recruitment applications and it is company policy not to accept speculative CVs. Any speculative CVs received into the business (whether to a manager or member of the resourcing team) will become the property of Sweco and the agency will not be eligible for an introductory fee.

Our Preferred Supplier List was reviewed in November 2025 and we are not looking to add any additional agencies. We’ll be reviewing the PSL again at the end of 2026 and non-compliance with the above statements could be detrimental to you having the opportunity to be included.

Our Talent Community for experienced professionals is a great way to keep up to date with our latest news, insights, future vacancies, as well as gaining access to exclusive events hosted by our experts.

To learn more Join Our Talent Community - Sweco United Kingdom