Lechley does: Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C are among the programmes I recruit into most often, through retained search for the leadership seats at Sizewell C Ltd, the Civil Works Alliance and the supply chain around them.
Who recruits senior roles for Sizewell C?
The client, the alliance and the supply chain behind it.
Last updated 1 November 2026. By Scott Lechley, founder of Lechley Associates. Quantity Surveyor from 1990 to 2002, construction executive search since 2002.
The numbers
- The project: two EPR reactors on the Suffolk coast with a combined capacity of 3.2 GW, a copy of the Hinkley Point C design.
- The cost: around £38bn in 2024 prices at the final investment decision on 22 July 2025. The Public Accounts Committee said on 28 October 2026 that it could reach up to £48bn on a higher estimate.
- The timetable: electricity expected from 2038, with an eight-year civils programme.
- The alliance: Balfour Beatty, Laing O'Rourke and Bouygues Travaux Publics, signed on 30 June 2025.
- The people: around 7,900 on site at peak, and around 10,000 direct jobs at peak.
- The pay: £115,000 to £240,000 base for the senior seats on programmes above £500 million, and nuclear pays above every band in the salary guide for the experience it needs.
In more detail
Sizewell C copies the design of Hinkley Point C, which is the point: the lessons, the supply chain and a good share of the people move across. If you have delivered on Hinkley Point C, you are the person every one of these businesses wants. The civils seats are being filled now; the later packages will need their leaders a year or two before they start on site.
The pool is small and much of it is already committed, so most of the people a hiring business wants are not looking, and an advert will mostly reach the ones who are. The programme's scrutiny changes the brief as well: a leader who has delivered under public reporting, with a cost examined in Parliament, is worth more here than an equally able one who has not.
Read more
- Sizewell C: the programme, the people building it and the live hiring around it.
- Nuclear: the wider nuclear sector page.
- Construction director salary guide 2026: the programme-level bands.
Common questions
Who are the main contractors on Sizewell C?
The Civil Works Alliance of Balfour Beatty, Laing O'Rourke and Bouygues Travaux Publics, which signed its programme alliance agreement on 30 June 2025. McLaren Construction is the construction management partner for the campus, college and support buildings.
What leadership roles does Sizewell C create?
On the client side, programme, commercial, assurance, safety and supply chain leadership inside Sizewell C Ltd. In the alliance, project and construction directors for each major work area, commercial leaders who can work inside an alliance, and planning and engineering heads.
Can I move onto Sizewell C without nuclear experience?
The door is narrower but open. The alliance needs people who can run large, regulated civils programmes, and the client side needs commercial and assurance leaders from other regulated sectors. Expect the clearance and the safety culture to be tested honestly.
Start a conversation
If you are hiring for Sizewell C, or weighing a seat on it, I would welcome the chance to talk. No hard sell, no obligation.
