Associate Director - Regional Local Authority Account Lead

Arcadis is the world's leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets.

We are more than 36,000 people, in over 70 countries, dedicated to improving quality of life. Everyone has an important role to play. With the power of many curious minds, together we can solve the world’s most complex challenges and deliver more impact together.

Role description:

We are seeking an established and highly credible Associate Director to lead, manage and grow a strategically important Local Authority account within their region. This is a senior role requiring a strong blend of client leadership, technical expertise and commercial acumen within a construction consultancy environment.

The role sits within our Project Management and/or Commercial Management service lines and spans commissions across Capital Delivery, Regeneration, Infrastructure, Estates and Asset Management. The successful candidate will be responsible for maintaining excellent client relationships, ensuring high‑quality delivery and supporting sustainable account growth.

This is a highly visible, client‑facing position, acting as a trusted advisor to senior Local Authority stakeholders while also playing a key leadership role internally.

Role accountabilities:

Client Leadership & Relationship Management - 

• Act as the senior day‑to‑day lead for the Local Authority account, managing key client relationships.
• Build and sustain strong, trusted relationships with senior officers, procurement teams and other stakeholders.
• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of Local Authority governance, procurement procedures, frameworks and routes to market.
• Represent the consultancy professionally and credibly at client meetings, workshops and review sessions.

Account Development & Growth - 

• Support the development and delivery of the account management strategy, identifying opportunities for growth and service expansion.
• Contribute to framework bids, tenders and fee proposals, ensuring compliance with internal Governance.
• Work collaboratively with other disciplines and service leads to deliver integrated solutions to the client.
• Monitor workload, pipeline and performance against agreed account objectives.

Delivery & Technical Leadership - 

• Provide project or commercial management leadership across a portfolio of commissions.
• Ensure projects and programmes are delivered in line with agreed scope, quality, cost and programme requirements.
• Maintain a strong personal delivery record and oversee the performance of project teams.
• Promote best practice in project, commercial and risk management

People & Internal Leadership - 

• Line‑manage, mentor and support junior and mid‑level staff within the region.
• Contribute to team development, resource planning and performance management.
• Act as a role model for the consultancy’s values, behaviours and standards.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent, in a relevant construction, commercial, engineering or built environment discipline.
• Chartered or professionally qualified status with RICS, CIOB, APM or ICE (or demonstrably working towards chartership).
• Valid CSCS card holder, appropriate to role and level.
• Demonstrable experience within a construction consultancy or similar professional services environment.
• Strong experience working with Local Authority and wider public‑sector clients.
• Proven understanding of public‑sector procurement, frameworks and governance arrangements.
• Established reputation within the region and a demonstrable track record of delivering complex commissions.
• Confident and credible at senior client level.
• Strong communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills.
• Commercially aware with a clear understanding of consultancy operations.
• Collaborative leadership style with a hands‑on approach to delivery.
• Strategic mindset combined with attention to detail.

Why Arcadis?

We can only achieve our goals when everyone is empowered to be their best. We believe everyone's contribution matters. It’s why we are pioneering a skills-based approach, where you can harness your unique experience and expertise to carve your career path and maximize the impact we can make together.

You’ll do meaningful work, and no matter what role, you’ll be helping to deliver sustainable solutions for a more prosperous planet. Make your mark, on your career, your colleagues, your clients, your life and the world around you.

Together, we can create a lasting legacy.

Join Arcadis. Create a Legacy.

Our Commitment to Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging

We want you to be able to bring your best self to work every day which is why we take equality and inclusion seriously and hold ourselves to account for our actions. Our ambition is to be an employer of choice and provide a great place to work for all our people. We believe that by working together diverse people with different experiences develop the most innovative ideas. Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of how we improve quality of life and we work closely with our people across six ED&I Workstreams: Age, Disability, Faith, Gender, LGBT+ and Race. A diverse and skilled workforce is essential to our success.