I run retained executive search for UK construction, civil engineering and major infrastructure: senior appointments in construction from Commercial Director to Managing Director and the group board, mapped and researched properly, handled personally from brief to placement. Two decades in the sector, a Quantity Surveyor's grounding, and a small number of mandates at any one time.
Construction Executive Search
Senior appointments in construction, mapped properly and handled personally.
What construction executive search actually involves
Executive search is not advertising a role and filtering applicants. It is a mapped, targeted approach to the people who are not looking, and in construction those are almost always the people you want: the Commercial Director who has just landed a framework, the Project Director whose scheme handed over on programme, the Operations Director whose region has held its margin through a bad year.
Every search runs through the same five stages. The brief comes first: the business, the pipeline, the team and the profile that will succeed, agreed before anyone is approached. Then the market map, a complete picture of who holds the equivalent role across the target universe, with named individuals, current remit and likely motivation. Every approach is made personally and confidentially. Assessment produces a shortlist of four to six, each with a written appraisal. I then manage the offer, the counter-offer and the notice period through to a start date. Each stage, and what you receive at the end of it, is set out on the method page.
Why clients retain me rather than brief three agencies
One search, run properly
Contingency recruitment rewards speed over fit. Three agencies racing to submit the same four CVs is not a search. Retained means the market gets mapped once, completely, by someone accountable for the outcome.
A select number of mandates
I work on a small number of retained searches at any time, which is why the work is personal rather than delegated to a researcher.
Honest counsel
If the brief is wrong, the salary is wrong, or the internal leader is the right answer, I will tell you before you spend money.
What a search costs, and how long it takes
My fee is 22.5% of the appointed leader's first-year total package, invoiced in stages across the assignment. It is agreed in full at the outset and does not vary later. The staged basis is what pays for the work a contingency fee cannot: the mapping, the direct approaches, the written appraisals and the management of the offer. What the market charges, what the fee is charged on and what it buys are set out in full on the fees page; what a construction headhunter does that an agency does not has a page of its own.
A typical director-level search runs six to eight weeks from brief to accepted offer. Mapping and approach take the first three weeks, first interviews land around week four, and the shortlist and final stages follow. A Managing Director or board search runs longer, because the target list is shorter and every conversation on it has to be handled with care. Notice periods in construction are three to six months at this level, so a leader in seat by spring means a brief agreed by the autumn.
What the shortlist looks like
Four to six people, every one of them mapped, approached and interviewed by me. Each comes with a written appraisal covering capability, motivation and risk, and it names the reservations as well as the strengths. The appraisal states why the person is on the list, what they would need from the role to move, what they are paid now and what it would take, and the questions I would want your interview to settle. A shortlist that reads like a set of CVs has not been assessed. Mine reads like a briefing.
Sector credibility opens doors
Senior people take the call because the conversation is credible.
A Commercial Director will talk properly to someone who has done the job.
The senior roles I recruit
Where the appointments land
The roles above sit across every part of the sector I work in. Tier 1 and Tier 2 main contractors, specialist and civil engineering contractors, developers, the client side on the major programmes, and the consultancies delivering them. The programmes I recruit into most often are the New Hospital Programme, AMP8, Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, HS2 and the schemes around it, the National Highways frameworks, and the hyperscale data centre builds now running across the south east and the north west. Each has its own page under sectors, with the roles it asks for and what its leaders have to be good at. Each role has its own page too, under roles, with the brief I usually receive, the assessment I run and the salary band the market is paying.
I am based in Lancashire and work nationally. Recent searches have landed in Manchester, Lancaster and the north west, across London and in Glasgow.
Above the grid
Chief Operating Officer and group board appointments sit above the eight roles. They run the same way, more quietly, and are set out under board appointments.
Senior appointments in construction, as they happen
Who is moving where at the top of UK construction tells you where the next vacancy is before it is advertised. I keep a running record of senior appointments in construction, updated as the moves are made, alongside the community's weekly movers list.
The brief gets interrogated by someone who has run the packages
I am a qualified Quantity Surveyor who worked as a Commercial Manager at Sir Robert McAlpine before moving into search. I have sat in the commercial meetings and I know what the role actually requires, rather than reading a job spec back to you.
Sectors
Major construction, healthcare and education. Senior leadership for Tier 1 contractors, developers, and the organisations delivering the UK's largest building programmes, including the New Hospital Programme.
Civil engineering and infrastructure. Directors for rail, highways, water and the wider infrastructure pipeline, from the frameworks to the single major scheme. See civil engineering and infrastructure.
Nuclear, energy, marine and utilities. Cleared, sector-credible leaders for Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C, the AMP8 water programmes and the energy supply chain.
Housebuilding and building services. Regional and divisional leadership for the national housebuilders and the affordable housing frameworks, and commercial and delivery leadership for the M&E contractors working across data centres, healthcare and the major schemes. See housebuilding and building services.
International, defence and data centres. Leaders who have delivered at data centre pace, senior people returning from the Gulf, and the cleared leadership defence programmes require.
Common questions
What is construction executive search?
Construction executive search is a retained, research-led process for appointing senior leaders in construction and infrastructure businesses. Rather than advertising a vacancy, the search firm maps the market, identifies every credible individual holding an equivalent role, and approaches them directly and confidentially. It is used for director-level, board-level and business-critical appointments where the right person is almost never actively looking.
What counts as a senior appointment in construction?
Any role that carries a P&L, a programme or a function: Managing Director, Operations Director, Commercial Director, Project Director, Pre-Construction Director, Framework Director and the group board seats above them. The test is not the title. It is whether the wrong appointment would show up in the accounts within a year.
How is retained search different from contingency recruitment?
Contingency recruiters are paid only if the person they submit is hired, so they work at speed across many roles and put forward the people already known to them. Retained search is commissioned exclusively and paid in stages, which funds a complete mapping of the market and a properly assessed shortlist. Retained is appropriate where the appointment carries real commercial risk.
What does construction executive search cost?
Retained search is typically charged as a percentage of the appointed leader's first-year total package, invoiced in stages across the assignment. My fee is 22.5%, agreed in full at the outset with no variation later.
How long does a construction director search take?
Six to eight weeks from brief to accepted offer, then the notice period. Mapping and approach take the first three weeks, first interviews land around week four, and the shortlist and final stages follow. A Managing Director or group board search runs longer, because the target list is shorter and every conversation on it is confidential.
What do construction directors earn in the UK?
From the searches I have run in 2026: a Senior Commercial Manager on a major London scheme sits around £100,000 to £120,000 base; a Planning Lead or Design Director on a national programme £150,000 to £160,000; an Operations Director running a £300 million portfolio £150,000 to £175,000 plus package; and a Group Commercial Director around £185,000. Regional Managing Directors and group board seats run higher still. I benchmark every brief against the live market before the search starts.
Do you work outside the UK?
The UK is the core of the work. I also run searches for UK contractors and consultancies building abroad, and for international businesses setting up here, and I place senior people returning from the Gulf into UK roles. Two of my live searches this year were in Canada and the United States, for a Tier 1 contractor's healthcare division.
Start a conversation
Whether you are building a leadership team or considering your next move, I would welcome the chance to talk. No hard sell. No obligation. A direct conversation with someone who understands the sector.
If you want to see how a search runs stage by stage, and what you receive at each, read the method page. The five services I offer are set out under services.
