I run retained construction executive search for Leeds and Yorkshire from a base ninety minutes west in Lancashire. The region's work is long: a seven-year renewal of the city's inner ring road, a water company planning a decade of frameworks, a £2 billion regeneration beside York station, and the regional offices of every national contractor. Senior appointments in construction, from Commercial Director to Managing Director, mapped properly and handled personally.
Construction Executive Search in Leeds
Seven years of ring road, a decade of water, and York Central, and the leaders they need.
What is being built
Leeds City Council has made Balfour Beatty sole contractor on a seven-year, £120 million renewal of the inner ring road, 135 structures including bridges and tunnels, the kind of long-running framework that staffs a regional business for a decade. Yorkshire Water has awarded an £80 million AMP8 technical services framework to fifteen engineering and consultancy firms, Arup, AECOM and Jacobs among them, and has opened early engagement on a ten-year infrastructure framework for AMP9 and AMP10, worth around £330 million a year from 2028. City of York Council has approved the first phase of McLaren's £2 billion York Central regeneration, more than a thousand homes and a commercial district starting on site next year. Robertson, Caddick and Esh have taken a four-year, £208 million Karbon Homes extra care framework across the North East and Yorkshire.
The region has also lost a contractor. Torsion Construction, the Leeds housing and build-to-rent contractor, went into administration in July with most of its 115 staff made redundant and £15 million owed to suppliers, and its care homes arm followed in September. The people who ran its sites, its commercial function and its bids are in the market now, and the businesses above have the work to absorb them.
The senior adverts show the region leading the country. The North of England had the most leadership seats open and added of any region in the four weeks to mid-October, and in Leeds itself a Tier 1 advertised an Operations Director, another a head of commissioning for England and Wales, and a building services group an Operations Director for one of its divisions. The running count, by function and region, is on the Senior Hiring Index.
Long frameworks make long careers, and long vacancies
A seven-year highways contract and a ten-year water framework are appointments measured in careers, not projects.
The businesses that win them hire their leaders once, and they hire them early.
Where the roles sit
Leeds searches arrive from the civil engineering and highways contractors on the city's frameworks, from the water supply chain around Yorkshire Water's AMP8 programme, from the regional divisions of the national contractors, from the building services groups headquartered in the city, from the housebuilders' Yorkshire regions and from the client side at the councils, the universities and the NHS trusts. The roles are the ones on every page of this site: Commercial Director, Managing Director, Project Director and Pre-Construction Director, with Operations Director and Framework Director alongside them.
Ninety minutes over the M62, and in the office when it matters
I am based in Lancashire, ninety minutes from Leeds, and Yorkshire briefs are taken in person: on site, in the regional office or in the city. The search then runs the same five stages it runs everywhere, brief, market map, direct approach, assessment and a managed offer, with a map built from the contractors, consultancies and client bodies on the region's water, highways and regeneration programmes.
The wider region
Leeds is the centre of the Yorkshire market, with Sheffield, Bradford, Wakefield and York around it and the North East's Newcastle and Teesside contractors beyond. For searches elsewhere, see Manchester, the North West, Birmingham and London.
01Do you have an office in Leeds?
No. I am based in Lancashire, ninety minutes from the city over the M62, and I take every Yorkshire brief in person. What matters is the network, and the contractors, consultancies and client bodies on the region's water, highways and regeneration programmes are where it runs.
02Which Leeds and Yorkshire businesses do you recruit for?
The regional divisions of the Tier 1 contractors with Leeds offices, the civils and highways contractors on the city's and the county's long-term frameworks, the Yorkshire Water supply chain, the M&E and building services contractors headquartered in the city, the housebuilders' Yorkshire regions, and the client-side teams at the councils, the universities and the NHS trusts.
03Which roles are being hired in Leeds now?
In the four weeks to mid-October 2026 the North of England had 35 director, head-of and chief seats open and 18 added, the busiest region in the country, and in Leeds itself a Tier 1 advertised an Operations Director, another a head of commissioning, and a building services group an Operations Director for one of its divisions. The running count is on the Senior Hiring Index.
04Which roles do you place in Leeds?
Commercial Director, Managing Director, Project Director, Pre-Construction Director and Operations Director for the regional businesses; Framework Director, Project Director and Senior Commercial Manager on the long-term 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 Leeds or Yorkshire, I am close enough to come and take the brief this week. No hard sell, no obligation.
