The Lechley Brief
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07 Aug 2026
Mace and Balfour Beatty hold 72 of 130 open senior roles. Week of 11 August 2026
The headline picture
130 senior roles are open right now across the major UK contractors and clients on this list, from associate director level up to C-suite. That is the full live picture as of this week.
Two names dominate it. Mace and Balfour Beatty between them carry 72 open roles, more than half the total. No other business on the list comes close.
Top hiring companies (open senior roles)
| Company | Open roles |
|---|---|
| Mace Construct | 41 |
| Balfour Beatty | 31 |
| Wates Group | 10 |
| HS2 | 8 |
| NG Bailey | 7 |
| Kier Group | 5 |
| Costain Group | 5 |
| Taylor Wimpey | 4 |
| Galliford Try | 4 |
What changed this week
Twelve new senior roles landed on the list. Mace posted four Associate Director vacancies in one go: Programme Management and Defence Commercial in Manchester, Cost Consultancy (Corporate Real Estate) and HR Business Partner in London. That is a broad, cross-functional lift rather than one team backfilling, which usually points to a restructure or a genuine growth phase rather than a single departure.
Balfour Beatty added three Head of roles: Construction (Peterborough), Procurement for Regional Buildings (London), and Health, Safety and Wellbeing (Elgin). HS2 opened a Head of Planning role in London. Elsewhere, Taylor Wimpey (Technical Director, Manchester), Wates (Divisional Director, London), Kier (Head of Design) and Vistry (Finance Director, Leeds) each added a single senior vacancy.
The stuck-roles signal
Nothing on the list has been open 45 days or more. Every senior vacancy here is recent. That is worth flagging in itself: when a whole list is fresh, it usually means postings are being refreshed or replaced quickly rather than left to age, so this is not the week to expect an easy, overlooked brief sitting unloved. Worth watching next week to see whether any of this week's new roles are still open a month from now.
What it means for your next move
If you are a commercial, planning or design lead thinking about a move, Mace and Balfour Beatty are both hiring at volume and across functions, not just replacing like for like, so multiple entry points exist at once rather than a single vacancy to compete for. The Mace Associate Director cluster spans commercial, HR and programme management, useful if you are open to moving function as well as employer. London and Manchester are carrying most of this week's new roles; Peterborough and Elgin (both Balfour Beatty) are the two outliers worth a look if you are open to relocating away from the usual hubs. With nothing yet aged past 45 days, speed matters more than usual: these are live conversations, not backlog.
Lechley Associates places senior leaders in housebuilding. Read how a retained construction executive search runs. For searches in London, see construction executive search in London.
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