Associate Director - Highways

Company Description

Work with Us. Change the World.

At AECOM, we're delivering a better world. Whether improving your commute, keeping the lights on, providing access to clean water, or transforming skylines, our work helps people and communities thrive. We are the world's trusted infrastructure consulting firm, partnering with clients to solve the world’s most complex challenges and build legacies for future generations.

There has never been a better time to be at AECOM. With accelerating infrastructure investment worldwide, our services are in great demand. We invite you to bring your bold ideas and big dreams and become part of a global team of over 50,000 planners, designers, engineers, scientists, digital innovators, program and construction managers and other professionals delivering projects that create a positive and tangible impact around the world.

We're one global team driven by our common purpose to deliver a better world. Join us.

Job Description

Start here. Grow here.

Our Highways team, within our Transportation business line, has a vacancy for an Associate Director with experience in managing the delivery of transportation engineering schemes across our regional based offices of Manchester, Newcastle, Chesterfield and St Albans .

You will be joining our Highways team, of over 100 staff, who are recognised as market leaders in the areas of significant and major highways and continue to deliver high profile and impactful projects across the UK and globally. You will be part of established teams with a positive team structure with strong engineering staff across the grades from apprentice to principal engineer, and supported by a locally based senior management team.

The successful candidate will be joining a growing team that works with a range of both local and national clients. You will be someone interested in leading the delivery teams of our diverse range of projects.

You will have proven experience in civil engineering, infrastructure, or transportation projects, and be a self‑motivated individual looking to advance their career in a dynamic team. In addition to delivering work within the local office the role will involve working with other AECOM teams in the UK and Ireland. We are therefore seeking candidates who are able to work flexibly across other AECOM offices as projects dictate to support the wider business.

Further, the role offers opportunities to work in AECOM’s wider UK, European, Middle East, and India regions.

Current & Upcoming Projects

• A229 Blue Bell Hill
• M54-M6 Link Road
• M62 Link Roads
• A19 North of Newcastle
• AlUla- Middle East
• National Grid – The Great Grid Upgrade, Wanless Beck
• Supporting work for Heathrow, Gatwick Airports, East West Rail and Northern Powerhouse
• Site opportunities – Lune Gorge, M60 J18

Here’s what you’ll do

Anticipate: Understand our project delivery requirements and operational requirements and anticipate and solve routine and usual problems for both our teams and our clients.

Deliver: The Highways team are responsible for the full lifecycle delivery of projects aimed at improving our transport network for clients. We provide feasibility, concept, preliminary and detailed design, community engagement, project delivery and construction management services on a wide range of multi‑discipline transportation and urban realm projects. In addition, we support other AECOM business lines where their projects have a specialised transportation interface.

Oversee: Responsible for the appointment of competent discipline lead engineers for technical delivery. Plan and develop engineering tasks concerning unique problems. This involves exploration of subject area, definition of scope and selection of problems for investigation and development of novel concepts and approaches.

Provide Expertise: Offer technical knowledge and expertise to the design team on all aspects of multi‑disciplinary projects, from conceptual phases to implementation.

Ensure Quality: Work through the complexities of our Transportation projects, hold our clients’ hands and overcome problems in unison when they inevitably arise. Provide Health, Safety and Wellness leadership to the district team consistent with AECOM’s safety policies and procedures to deliver a safe and healthy working environment for the project team members. Oversee the preparation of feasibility, preliminary and detailed designs for all types of transportation projects. Oversee the preparation of detailed technical reports providing specialist technical contributions as required.

Collaborate: Lead a team of multi‑disciplinary engineers to deliver integrated designs and build effective relationships with our technical teams and Clients.

Key Responsibilities

• Promote our strong health and safety culture through management of safety on projects and completing reviews of safety practices on projects to drive continuous improvement.
• Following successful accreditation on the AECOM project management system act as a Project Manager including monitoring financial performance. Comprehensive training on AECOM’s project management system will be provided.
• Ensure Technical content and quality of output produced is in line with the project brief and our client deliverables.
• Support and monitor team skills and ensure they are up to date with current best practice, techniques, and innovation.
• Support our Sustainable Legacies policies and principles by embedding sustainability in our design processes for our clients and delivering social value for our communities.
• Manage career progression of line reports, particularly toward Chartered Engineer (or similar) status.
• Proactively support the management of staff resources across our Highways team as a member of the senior management team. Support and monitor team skills and ensure they are up to date with current best practice, techniques, and innovation.
• Develop sound client relationships, being alert to commercial opportunities, identifying emerging opportunities and developing strategies to fully exploit them.
• Prepare detailed proposals, client briefs and fee proposals and contribute to or lead bids.
• Establishing strong working relationships with other internal teams across AECOM’s business lines including Planning, Streets, Structures, Infrastructure, Water, Power, Landscape.
• Working with colleagues to deliver marketing and business development objectives in both the local region and nationally.

Why Join AECOM?

And let's not forget about the perks at AECOM. You'll enjoy a range of core and personalised benefits designed to support your future and well‑being, customized to fit your lifestyle. Take advantage of career development opportunities, our flexible hybrid working model to ensure a work‑life balance that suits your lifestyle, technical practice networks, AECOM University, and volunteering days.

Qualifications

Here’s what we’re looking for

• Candidates who are looking to take a step forward in their career and move from strong individual delivery environments to leading significant packages on major projects or independently leaving individual projects and co‑ordinating their delivery with the support of a strong team.
• Successful track record of involvement in the preliminary, detailed design, or construction phases of civil engineering, infrastructure, or transportation projects. We note that we will consider candidates that are looking to transition from one infrastructure sector into the transportation area and understand that some candidates will have stronger experience in early or later phases of project lifecycles.
• Demonstrable experience and understanding of high quality technical delivery within an infrastructure or civil engineering sector.
• Demonstrable ability to communicate and collaborate. This can include clients, team members, and industry peers, and we are looking for candidates who have a genuine interest in mentoring and developing a team and the team around you.

Preferred Qualification

• Relevant degree and will have Chartered status, or be expecting to gain Chartered status very shortly, along with membership of a professional institution.

We celebrate diversity, including neurodiversity, and believe it enriches our team. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and abilities. If you are an applicant with a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to complete the application process, please contact us at

At AECOM, we value everyone's unique contributions and perspectives. If you meet some of the requirements above or have transferable skills you believe would benefit us, we would be delighted to hear from you!

Additional Information

Interested in the role or curious about life at AECOM? Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to explore our AECOM voices, employee stories, latest projects, and much more! #STAP.

For further information about the role, reach out to the recruiter on LinkedIn Siobhan Osborne.

About AECOM

AECOM is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering professional services throughout the project lifecycle – from advisory, planning, design and engineering to program and construction management. On projects spanning transportation, buildings, water, new energy and the environment, our public‑ and private‑sector clients trust us to solve their most complex challenges. Our teams are driven by a common purpose to deliver a better world through our unrivaled technical and digital expertise, a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to environmental, social and governance priorities. AECOM is a Fortune 500 firm and its Professional Services business had revenue of $16.1 billion in fiscal year 2025. See how we are delivering sustainable legacies for generations to come at aecom.com and @AECOM.

Freedom to Grow in a World of Opportunity

You will have the flexibility you need to do your best work with hybrid work options. Whether you’re working from an AECOM office, remote location or at a client site, you will be working in a dynamic environment where your integrity, entrepreneurial spirit and pioneering mindset are championed.

You will help us foster a safe and respectful workplace, where we invite everyone to bring their whole selves to work using their unique talents, backgrounds and expertise to create transformational outcomes for our clients.

AECOM provides a wide array of compensation, benefits and well‑being programs to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families. We’re the world’s trusted global infrastructure firm, and we’re in this together – your growth and success are ours too.

Join us, and you’ll get all the benefits of being a part of a global, publicly traded firm – access to industry‑leading technology and thinking and transformational work with big impact and work flexibility. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person’s potential, and we’ll help you reach yours.

We are a Disability Confident Employer and will offer an interview to applicants who have a disability or long‑term condition, who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role. Please let us know using this email address if you would like to apply through the Disability Confident Interview Scheme.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Required Information

ReqID: J
Business Line: Transportation
Business Group: DCS
Strategic Business Unit: Europe & India
Career Area: Engineering
Work Location Model: Hybrid

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