Mace posts 45 senior roles in a week. 21 Sept 2026

There are 225 open director, head of and chief vacancies across the top of UK construction right now. Mace Construct Limited alone holds 89 of them, close to two in five of the total. Balfour Beatty is next on 33, then HS2 on 13, and NG Bailey and Wates Group on 12 each.

What changed this week

86 senior roles went live in the last seven days. Mace accounted for 45 of them, more than half of everything new. That is not the usual drip of one or two roles a week, it is a single firm posting a wave on the same day.

The shape of the wave matters as much as the size. 31 of the 45 are Associate Director grade, spread across cost consultancy, programme management, project controls, design management, planning, risk and digital consultancy, across London, Manchester, Peterborough, Preston, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Edinburgh. The other 8 are Operations Director roles, several tied to nuclear new build, defence and MEP work. This reads as a consultancy-side headcount build, not a reaction to a handful of resignations.

The stuck-roles signal

20 roles have now sat open for 45 days or more. Balfour Beatty carries four: Head of Quality and Business Performance, Chief Engineer (Substation HV Plant), Head of Design (Overhead Lines) and Project Commercial Director, all open 67 days. Mace has three of its own, including Operations Director - Project Management and Operations Director - Project Controls, alongside single stuck roles at Costain, HS2, NG Bailey and Wates.

A role open that long usually means the brief has drifted from what the market can supply, the package hasn't moved with it, or the process has too many stages for a candidate who is already employed. None of that is fixed by leaving the ad up longer. Roles like these are typically won through a direct, informed approach rather than an application, because the client is more receptive to a conversation than a fortieth CV.

What this means for your next move

If you sit in cost consultancy, programme management, project controls or design management, the breadth of Mace's associate director wave gives you more live options than usual, and they are not confined to London. Peterborough, Preston, Manchester and Leeds all have open posts this week.

If your background is commercial or engineering leadership in energy and infrastructure, look at the stuck list first. Balfour Beatty's overhead lines and substation roles have been open for over two months, which suggests a specialist gap the standard channel isn't filling, and that gap is easier to walk into with a direct introduction than a cold application.

Either way, the number worth carrying into next week isn't 225. It's that one firm just moved faster than the rest of the market combined, and speed like that tends to come with a shorter shortlist while it lasts.