Associate Director Habitats Management / Contract Manager

Thomson Ecology; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 900 000 - 1 200 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading environmental consultancy is seeking an Associate Director of Habitats in Cape Town to lead ecological project management and drive team performance. The ideal candidate will possess strong leadership and business development skills, overseeing contracts while ensuring high-quality service delivery. The role supports hybrid working arrangements and offers competitive benefits including annual leave, pension scheme, and professional development.

Benefits

25 days annual leave

Healthcare cash plan

Enhanced pension scheme

Life insurance

Discounted gym membership

Paid professional memberships

Clothing allowance

Outstanding performance rewards

Long service awards

Free parking

Regular social events

Qualifications

• Experience leading a motivated team with effective task distribution.
• Experience in pricing, managing, and negotiating contracts.
• Strong client relationship building and business opportunity progression.
• Expertise in leading complex projects and providing technical advice.
• Familiarity with Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Habitats Management department for ecological projects.
• Oversee pricing, tenders, and contract negotiations.
• Build relationships with new and existing clients to win work.
• Ensure excellence in project delivery and team financial performance.

Skills

Leadership

Contract management

Business development

Project management

Job description

Company Description

Thomson Environmental Consultants United Kingdom Habitats Hybrid

Our core purpose is to enable nature and business to thrive together.

With offices across the UK, our experts are committed to delivering exceptional outcomes to our clients across a range of environmental services and ecological contracting.

Our brand mission is to be chosen by clients as their preferred specialists and regarded by people in our industry as the company to work for.

We aim to be the most innovative, pragmatic and fast-growing environmental consultancy in the UK.

Our services include but are not limited to : habitat management, ecology, hydrology, marine laboratory, arboricultural services, geographic information systems (GIS) and mapping, environmental impact assessments.

Position

We have an exciting opportunity to lead our Habitats Management department who deliver on the ground habitat creation, restoration & management works (such as tree planting, creation of ponds or grassland management); and protected species mitigation & enhancements (such as badger sett closure, reptile mitigations and bat & bird box installations).

In this pivotal role you will be accountable for the department's direction, delivery and financial success, overseeing multiple projects from multi-million pound multi-year contracts as well as smaller scale ecological contracting work.

As Associate Director of Habitats, you will provide strategic leadership to guide the team to deliver high quality services to our clients and achieve our exciting plans for growth.

You will oversee pricing, tenders and contract negotiation, confidently representing Thomson externally, building relationships with prospective and existing clients, to win future work and build the Thomson reputation.

You'll work with your team of project managers, site based teams and a network of sub-contractors to ensure excellence in project delivery, client satisfaction, and team capability, whilst managing the team's financial performance.

At Thomson we support hybrid working arrangements; employees can work a mix of remote and office working. For this position, we encourage applications from candidates based near our Guildford or Birmingham (Kenilworth) locations.

Requirements

This role requires a dynamic combination of technical expertise, business acumen, business development skills, and leadership ability.

The ideal candidate will have strong experience in a relevant sector (potentially working in or with tier one contractors), contract management, business development, project management and a good understanding of HSQE requirements.

Requirements for this role include :

Experience in leading a team, ensuring they are motivated, work is distributed effectively and delivered safely.

Experience in pricing, negotiating and managing contracts from cradle to grave.

Experience in building and maintaining client relationships and creating and progressing new business opportunities to grow market presence.

Demonstrable network across the sector.

Experience leading complex projects and providing expert technical advice.

Experience working on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects is desirable.

Ability to set a strategic vision and drive the direction of the department.

Experience of setting a departmental plan and budget, then leading the team to achieve this.

Working at Thomson

At Thomson, we strive to be the very best at what we do, both in the eyes of our customers and our colleagues.

We believe in One Thomson; we draw on and value every individual's unique skills and experience to come together and support each other in delivering an exceptional service.

Our people are our greatest asset.

We want Thomson to be a great place to work, where everyone feels supported to be the best they can be.

We are proud of our friendly, supportive, 'nothing is too much trouble' culture.

We live and breathe our RISE (Respect, Integrity, Support, Excellence) values.

Your opinions matter to us; we are constantly evolving.

We promote a healthy work-life balance to ensure we have an engaged, productive and happy team.

We are flexible and committed and welcome new challenges.

We recognise the importance in training and developing our team as well as offering a competitive pay and reward package.

Involving ourselves in our local communities is important to us and we are proud of our continued achievements in fund raising for charity.

We work hard but have fun too.

We are passionate about career development so we make sure we nurture talent.

Our people benefit from access to a diverse range of industry-accredited external training, as well as in-house training opportunities led by our specialists.

The variety of projects we deliver across the breadth of environmental services encourages cross-team working and collaboration.

We can offer you the opportunity to contribute to and lead on high-profile, once in a lifetime projects.

You’ll enjoy all the benefits we have to offer which include : 25 days annual leave, healthcare cash plan, enhanced stakeholder pension scheme, life insurance, discounted gym membership, paid professional memberships, clothing allowance, outstanding performance rewards, long service awards, free parking and regular local and company social events.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As an equal opportunities employer, Thomson is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and does not condone discrimination on the basis of age, gender reassignment, being married or in a civil partnership, being pregnant or on maternity leave, disability, race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation.

We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply to and join Thomson.