Overview

Associate Director role at HDR. HDR employee-owners are fully engaged in creating a welcoming environment where each of us is valued and respected, and empowered to bring our authentic selves and novel ideas to work every day. HDR fosters a culture of inclusion across our company and communities, focused on making a positive impact in the world.

Primary Objective

As an Associate Director at HDR, you will oversee complex engineering and construction-related projects, particularly in Commissioning (Cx) Services. This includes:

• Leading commissioning and handover processes for buildings, infrastructure, and technical systems.


• Managing quality, safety, and risk aspects of engineering and construction projects.


• Coordinating multi-disciplinary design and engineering teams across HDR’s global network.


• Driving project delivery from contract execution to final acceptance, ensuring scope, schedule, and budget compliance.


• Developing and maintaining safety protocols, ISO systems, and technical best practices.


• Supporting business development by managing key clients, preparing bids, and identifying new opportunities.


• Delivering projects in sectors such as Commercial, Finance, Hotel & Leisure, Healthcare, Education, and others.

In the role of Associate Director, we\'ll count on you to:

• Responsible for new business leads, owning the process through to contract execution and project delivery.


• Drive consistent and effective communication across Cx and the HDR Enterprise.


• Support development and delivery of financial budgets and forecasts.


• Serve as a Senior / Escalation point for selected key clients.


• Leverage company-wide project delivery tools and systems to ensure successful project delivery, workload forecasting, staff recruitment and development, and staff performance management.


• Conduct selected key client contract negotiations and management.


• In close collaboration with accounting leadership, monitor and manage financial aspects of business operations for which you are accountable.


• Work closely with our safety team in developing guidance and safe work systems that relate to commissioning, including development and refinement of company-wide safety protocols and management KPIs.


• Participate in local, regional, and global leadership meetings as required.


• Assist and review risk management plans for projects.


• Assist in the identification and prioritisation of new hires and in the recruiting of new candidates including graduates and apprentices.


• Support the annual budgeting process with respect to commissioning planning.


• Demonstrate a commitment to quality, ongoing improvement and HDR’s values.


• Drive the identification and development of organic and new business opportunities.


• Collaborate with other leaders in defining opportunities and engagement strategies for selected key clients.

Other Duties

• Structure training and succession of the teams to enhance performance and ensure future engineering expertise in the company.


• Lead as required to support the bid process through delivering high quality, commercially viable bid documents.


• Support the Managing Principal in running the Cx Business class assisting with all aspects of quality management.


• Ensure no claims are made on PI, ensure all contract documents are diligently checked.


• Subject to approval, interview and recruit new personnel / leadership.


• Support, own, develop and be accountable for best practice in-house technical documents and guides.


• Sign off timesheets and expenses of direct reports.


• Authorize holiday requests of direct reports.


• Complete health and safety and quality audits during site attendance.


• Maintain all quality & ISO systems.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field such as Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Building Services Engineering, Construction Management, or Industrial Engineering


• 10 years related experience


• A minimum of 5 years of project management experience


• Familiar with Microsoft Office, estimating and scheduling software, project management software


• Must have the ability to interact with various design teams, have excellent organizational, project management and communication (both written and verbal) skills


• An attitude and commitment to being an active participant of our employee-owned culture is a must

What We Believe

HDR is our company. Together, we build on each other\'s life experiences and perspectives to make great things possible every day. This shapes our collaborative culture, encourages organizational trust and connects us closer to the clients and communities we serve.

Our Commitment

As employee owners, we all have a role in creating an inclusive environment where each of us is welcomed, valued, respected and empowered to bring our authentic selves to work every day.

Our eight Employee Network Groups (Asian Pacific, Black, Hispanic/Latino(a), LGBTQ+, People with Disabilities, Veterans, Women, Young Professionals) help create a sense of belonging and foster a supportive environment where everyone is empowered to engage and contribute. Each group has an executive sponsor and is open to all employees.

Primary Location: United Kingdom-England-Manchester

Industry: Building Engineering

Schedule: Full-time

Employee Status: Regular

Business Class: Building Commissioning

Job Posting: Aug 27, 2025

At HDR, we are committed to the principles of employment equity. We are an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants, regardless of criminal histories, arrest and conviction records.