I run retained construction executive search from Lancashire, and the North West is where the network is deepest: the Manchester and Liverpool main contractors, the civil engineering and utilities businesses across Lancashire, Cumbria and Merseyside, the housebuilders' northern regions and the client bodies delivering the region's hospitals, prisons, water programme and regeneration. Senior appointments in construction, from Commercial Director to Managing Director, mapped properly and handled personally.
Construction Executive Search in the North West
Based in Lancashire. Working nationally. At home in the North West.
What is being built
The region's pipeline is real. Graham's £286 million Cambridge Halls tower in Manchester has cleared Gateway 2 and site hiring has started. The Ministry of Justice has awarded enabling works for a new prison at Ulnes Walton near Leyland to Kier, Laing O'Rourke and Wates. United Utilities' AMP8 programme is the largest in its history. Salford, Bootle and Sefton have all placed significant contracts this year, and the Manchester Town Hall restoration continues. Each of those creates senior vacancies, and most of them will be filled by someone in post at a competitor today.
The North West is building again
Graham's £286 million Manchester tower has cleared Gateway 2, a new prison is starting at Ulnes Walton, and the region's contractors are hiring for it.
The senior people to lead that work are in post across the region now.
Where the roles sit
North West searches arrive from the regional divisions of the national contractors, from the privately owned civils and groundworks contractors that have grown into main contracting, from the utilities supply chain around water and highways, from housebuilders 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, and the Estimator, Planner and Managing Quantity Surveyor appointments beneath them when a client retains me for those too.
How the search runs
Brief, market map, direct approach, assessment and a managed offer, the same five stages wherever the role is. In the North West I know the businesses and most of the people personally, which shortens the map and lengthens the conversations. The stages are set out on the method page.
Common questions
Where are you based?
Catterall, near Preston in Lancashire, and I work across the whole of the UK. The North West is where the business started and where I have the deepest network, from the Manchester main contractors to the civils and utilities businesses across Lancashire, Cumbria and Merseyside.
Which North West businesses do you recruit for?
Tier 1 and regional main contractors with Manchester and Liverpool offices, civil engineering and utilities contractors on the United Utilities AMP8 programme and the highways frameworks, housebuilders' northern regions, and the client-side teams on the region's hospitals, prisons and regeneration schemes.
Which recent searches were in the North West?
In 2026, a Planning Lead in Manchester for a national programme and an Estimator for a family-run civils contractor in Lancaster, alongside searches for contractors with regional offices across Lancashire and Greater Manchester.
Do you meet in person?
Yes, and in the North West it is usually the first thing I do. A brief taken on site or in the office is a better brief than one taken over a call.
Start a conversation
If you are appointing senior leadership in the North West, I am close enough to come and take the brief in person. No hard sell, no obligation.
