Rail & Systems Practice Director

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At AECOM, we're delivering a better world. Whether improving your commute, keeping the lights on, providing access to clean water, or transforming skylines, our work helps people and communities thrive. We are the world's trusted infrastructure consulting firm, partnering with clients to solve the world’s most complex challenges and build legacies for future generations.

There has never been a better time to be at AECOM. With accelerating infrastructure investment worldwide, our services are in great demand. We invite you to bring your bold ideas and big dreams and become part of a global team of over 50,000 planners, designers, engineers, scientists, digital innovators, program and construction managers and other professionals delivering projects that create a positive and tangible impact around the world.

We're one global team driven by our common purpose to deliver a better world. Join us.

Are you passionate about shaping the future of transportation systems and leading talented teams? Join us as the Practice Director for Transportation Systems, where you’ll play a pivotal role in driving innovation, delivering major projects, and nurturing a culture of excellence across our UK & Ireland operations. This position can be based in any UK&I AECOM office and will work across all regions to drive world class delivery excellence and grow revenue in Systems.

As a key member of our leadership team, you’ll guide our Rail & Systems Practice with a focus on project delivery, resource management, business growth, and people engagement. This is your chance to make a real impact—championing technical excellence, operational efficiency, and sustainable growth while fostering a collaborative and inclusive environment.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Direction

• Through insight from clients and the broader industry, identify future trends, risks and opportunities that shape AECOM’s future capabilities in systems
• Work with key stakeholders within AECOM and with our clients to respond to the changing needs in Transport. Contribute to the development of new capabilities and investment, in line with the strategy.
• Support our existing strategic initiative in Systems and identify new initiatives that contribute to AECOM’s growth

Safety Leadership

• Promote a strong safety culture within the team and across projects.
• Ensure compliance with safety regulations and reporting requirements.
• Champion safety initiatives and participate in safety cascades, demonstrating commitment to the health, safety, and wellbeing of all staff.
• Lead by example in safety leadership, ensuring that safety is prioritized in all aspects of project delivery.

Financial & Operational Leadership:

• P&L Management: Full accountability for the financial performance of the sub-business line, including revenue growth, margin improvement, and overhead control.
• Utilisation: Proactively manage the billable time of your staff to meet or exceed regional targets, ensuring a healthy balance between project work and professional development.
• Offshore Integration (EC): Act as a champion for our Global Enterprise Capability (EC) teams. You will drive the strategy to move delivery work to our offshore hubs, ensuring cost-competitiveness and 24/7 delivery excellence.

Project Delivery & Business Development

• Winning Work: Lead the pursuit and capture of new business opportunities with a primary focus on contracts valued up to $5m. Engage with clients, in collaboration with Regional colleagues.
• Identify and grow a sustainable pipeline of opportunities in the discipline across the UK & Ireland market.
• Engage clients to gain a deeper understanding of future needs and position AECOM effectively in the market.
• Participate in industry events to engage with new clients and partners.
• Produce internal/external thought leadership and knowledge-sharing papers relevant to the discipline.
• Act as a champion for Digital delivery and use of AI in project delivery.
• Project Oversight: Act as the senior point of escalation for project delivery (primarily for projects up to $5m), ensuring projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to the client’s satisfaction.
• Resource Allocation: Lead the staffing strategy for all projects within the business line (regardless of value), matching the right talent to the right challenge to ensure optimal delivery. Co-ordinate key pursuit planning, and bid and project delivery resource planning

People & Technical Excellence

• People Management: Mentor and lead a diverse team of professionals, fostering a culture of inclusion, continuous learning, and high performance.
• Technical Stewardship: Uphold the highest standards of technical quality and safety. You will ensure the practice remains at the forefront of industry trends and innovations.
• Act as an external figurehead and technical expert in the discipline.
• Inspire technical excellence within the discipline and ensure technically sound solutions are produced.
• Talent Pipeline: Identify and recruit future leaders while managing the career progression of existing staff. Support the development and growth of technical teams, by ensuring suitable skills and competencies are identified, planned and developed

• Proven success in a senior leadership role within a global infrastructure or engineering consultancy.
• Strong financial acumen, with hands-on experience managing P&L and deep knowledge of consultancy commercial models.
• Strategic thinker with experience implementing workshare or offshoring models to boost delivery efficiency.
• Well-connected within the UK&I infrastructure sector, with a track record of securing contracts in the $1m–$10m range.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and inspire technical teams.
• Experience in relevant senior technical leadership roles on major programs
• Proven record in the delivery of significant systems infrastructure
• Knowledge of relevant standards
• Involvement in relevant industry bodies e.g. INCOSE
• Experience of collaborative relations with clients, contractors and partners
• High integrity professional standards
• Outstanding inter- personal skills including teambuilding, influencing, communication at all levels – able to translate complex transportation systems concepts and bring them to life for wider audiences.

Qualifications

• Professional qualifications related to systems or in adjacent fields

• Chartered status (e.g., CEng, MICE) highly preferred.

• Demonstrate your dedication to driving our inclusion and wellbeing strategies by instilling a culture of respect and care within your team, role modelling behaviours aligned to these strategies.
• Build a diverse and inclusive workforce by recruiting and retaining the best talent and nurturing the next generation of leaders who will do the same.
• Lead with empathy, respect and understanding, actively seeking out diverse points of view and creating a psychologically safe environment where these points of view can thrive.
• Provide all employees the freedom they need to grow, develop, innovate and be their whole selves at work.

About AECOM

AECOM is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering professional services throughout the project lifecycle – from advisory, planning, design and engineering to program and construction management. On projects spanning transportation, buildings, water, new energy and the environment, our public- and private-sector clients trust us to solve their most complex challenges. Our teams are driven by a common purpose to deliver a better world through our unrivaled technical and digital expertise, a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to environmental, social and governance priorities. AECOM is a Fortune 500 firm and its Professional Services business had revenue of $16.1 billion in fiscal year 2025. See how we are delivering sustainable legacies for generations to come at aecom.com and @AECOM.

Freedom to Grow in a World of Opportunity 

You will have the flexibility you need to do your best work with hybrid work options. Whether you’re working from an AECOM office, remote location or at a client site, you will be working in a dynamic environment where your integrity, entrepreneurial spirit and pioneering mindset are championed.

You will help us foster a safe and respectful workplace, where we invite everyone to bring their whole selves to work using their unique talents, backgrounds and expertise to create transformational outcomes for our clients.

AECOM provides a wide array of compensation, benefits and well-being programs to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families. We’re the world’s trusted global infrastructure firm, and we’re in this together – your growth and success are ours too.

Join us, and you’ll get all the benefits of being a part of a global, publicly traded firm – access to industry-leading technology and thinking and transformational work with big impact and work flexibility. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person’s potential, and we’ll help you reach yours.

We are a Disability Confident Employer and will offer an interview to applicants who have a disability or long-term condition, who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role. Please let us know using this email address [email protected]  if you would like to apply through the Disability Confident Interview Scheme.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.