I run retained construction executive search for Bristol and the South West from Lancashire, a morning's drive away. The region holds the UK's largest live construction site in Hinkley Point C, the factory that will feed Sizewell C, a £4 billion battery plant in Somerset, a growing defence build programme and the regional offices of the national contractors. Senior appointments in construction, from Commercial Director to Managing Director, mapped properly and handled personally.
Construction Executive Search in Bristol
Hinkley, Sizewell's factory, defence and a £4 billion battery plant, and the leaders they need.
What is being built
Hinkley Point C has finished tunnelling its £150 million fish return system, a 620 metre bore under the Bristol Channel, and the programme is moving from civils into mechanical, electrical and commissioning. Sizewell C has planning permission for a tunnel segment factory at Avonmouth that will employ 400 people making 38,000 segments from 2028, which keeps the Hinkley workforce in the region for the next programme. Balfour Beatty has put a new leader on its UK Major Projects business with Hinkley, Net Zero Teesside and the small modular reactors in his brief.
Beyond nuclear, McLaughlin & Harvey has won a £100 million contract to build a combat air facility for Rolls-Royce in Bristol, the clearest sign yet that defence manufacturing is becoming a construction sector of its own. TSL has replaced Sir Robert McAlpine on Agratas's £4 billion battery plant in Somerset, the largest industrial build in the region. Wring Group has begun demolition at Bristol's £160 million Ashton Gate sports quarter after eight years of planning. Against that, the West Country housebuilder Devonshire Homes has gone into administration owing £35 million, and the region's groundworks subcontractors are under pressure from the volume housebuilders' margins.
The senior adverts are few and specific. Since mid-September a Tier 1 has advertised a Pre-Construction Director in Bristol, a main contractor a Project Director for the city, and a building services group a Commissioning Director for its nuclear business. The running count, by function and region, is on the Senior Hiring Index.
The nuclear skills bridge runs through Bristol
The people who delivered Hinkley Point C are the people Sizewell C, the small modular reactors and the defence programmes want next.
Most of them live within an hour of the city, and most of them are not looking.
Where the roles sit
Bristol searches arrive from the nuclear contractors and joint ventures on Hinkley and the Sizewell supply chain, from the defence and advanced manufacturing builds around Filton and Somerset, from the infrastructure and civil engineering contractors with South West offices, from the building services contractors on the nuclear and defence sites, from the housebuilders' South West regions and from the client side. The roles are the ones on every page of this site: Commercial Director, Managing Director, Project Director and Pre-Construction Director, with Head of Commissioning and Senior Commercial Manager alongside them on the programmes.
A longer journey, and taken in person all the same
I am based in Lancashire, and Bristol is a morning's drive, so a South West brief is taken in person and the search is run from the map rather than from the office: brief, market map, direct approach, assessment and a managed offer, with a map built from the nuclear, defence and infrastructure contractors around the city and the people who moved to the region for Hinkley.
The wider region
Bristol is the centre of the South West market, with Bath, Gloucester and Swindon around it, Somerset's nuclear and industrial sites to the south, and Exeter and Plymouth beyond. For searches elsewhere, see London, Birmingham, Manchester and Scotland.
01Do you have an office in Bristol?
No. I am based in Lancashire and Bristol is a morning's drive, so a South West brief is taken in person and the search is run from the map. What matters is the network, and the contractors and client bodies on Hinkley Point C, the defence programmes and the city's schemes are where it runs.
02Which Bristol and South West businesses do you recruit for?
The contractors and joint ventures on Hinkley Point C and the nuclear supply chain behind Sizewell C and the small modular reactors, the defence and advanced manufacturing contractors around Filton and the Somerset gigafactory, the regional divisions of the Tier 1 contractors with Bristol offices, the M&E and building services contractors on the nuclear and defence sites, the housebuilders' South West regions and the client-side teams at the councils, the universities and the NHS trusts.
03Which roles are being hired in Bristol now?
In the four weeks to mid-October 2026 a Tier 1 advertised a Pre-Construction Director in Bristol, a main contractor a Project Director for the city, and a building services group a Commissioning Director for its nuclear business. The South West's count is small beside the North and London, and each seat in it is a programme decision. The running count is on the Senior Hiring Index.
04Which roles do you place in Bristol?
Commercial Director, Managing Director, Project Director, Pre-Construction Director and Operations Director for the regional businesses; Project Director, Senior Commercial Manager and Head of Commissioning on the nuclear and defence programmes; and the Estimator, Planner and Managing Quantity Surveyor appointments beneath them when a client retains me for those too.
Start a conversation
If you are appointing senior leadership in Bristol or the South West, I will come and take the brief in person. No hard sell, no obligation.
