Programme Director (Data Centres)

Society is in your hands, what are you waiting for?

We have an exciting opportunity for a Programme Director to lead and manage our portfolio of Data Centre projects within our Mission Critical Business Unit. 

The role is based in our London office with travel across the UK and overseas and can be worked flexibly with a minimum of 3 days per week in the office/on site or with clients and the option of adjusted start and finish times.

Our Mission Critical facilities engineering experts bring together global data centre design & engineering experience and unique multi-national technical capability from site acquisition to project completion. Delivering over 20 campuses across the UK and globally in 11 countries, our clients see us as their most committed and reliable partner for cloud facilities. Our Mission Critical team are recognised for our project leadership and collaborative approach, supporting client and project teams to build capacity whilst maintaining the critical path.

What does the role involve?     

As our Programme Director you will provide leadership to oversee and manage our portfolio of Data Centre projects, ensuring successful project delivery, maintaining and creating client relationships and strategically building a clear roadmap for future opportunities within the Data Centre sector.

Key activities will include:

• Overseeing the successful delivery of multiple Data Centre projects from initiation to completion, ensuring adherence to timelines, budgets, and quality standards.
• Developing and implementing project management methodologies, processes, and tools to optimise project delivery and ensure consistency across the portfolio.
• Providing guidance and support to ensure project success.

Ensuring decisions are made in a timely manner with due consideration to risk and uncertainty.

• Collaborating with internal stakeholders, including architects, engineers, and sub consultants, to ensure effective project coordination and communication.
• Developing and maintaining strong client relationships - acting as the main point of contact for clients throughout the project lifecycle.
• Identifying and pursuing new business opportunities within the Data Centre sector, including expanding existing client relationships and establishing partnerships with new clients.
• Conducting market research and analysis to stay abreast of industry trends, emerging technologies, and the competitive landscape.
• Preparation and delivery of presentations to clients, stakeholders, and senior management to communicate project status, key milestones, and business development strategies.
• Monitoring project performance metrics, identifying areas for improvement, and implementing corrective actions as necessary.

To be successful in this role you’ll have:

• Extensive experience in managing and delivering Data Centre projects alongside project management and people management experience.
• Strong leadership and management skills to enable you to be a proactive part of the Mission Critical management team working alongside and providing support to the wider team in the development of overall objectives. 
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to influence strategic decision-making within the business and make commercial decisions within defined parameters (delivers to agreed project scope, time, cost and quality).
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to work with complex technical topics and to adapt your style to suit different audiences. 
• Extensive experience of relevant tender processes with the ability to understand the brief and demonstrate our professional capability.
• The ability to engage with key stakeholders to gain commitment and to influence the acceptance of innovative ideas and concepts in respect of change plans.
• Excellent client relationship skills with the ability to gain insight beyond a customer’s immediate need to identify opportunities that benefit the customer through meaningful and productive relationships. 
• The ability to work across multi-discipline environments primarily within UK business, and also other Sweco business Regions, and generate business from leads.
• Experience of delivering across a multi-site organisation.

• Chartered membership of a relevant professional institution eg Project Management, MEP, Civils or Structures.

If you believe you have the skill set required to be our Programme Director and are keen to join a business with genuine opportunities for career progression, then we’d love to hear from you.

Let’s transform society together at Sweco!

About Us

Transforming society together, we're planning and designing sustainable communities and cities of the future.

Solving the great societal challenges of our time is more relevant, demanding and inspiring than ever before. At Sweco, we bring together experts with different perspectives and skills to develop solutions that address the challenges of urbanisation, harness the positive power of digitalisation and make societies more sustainable.

We offer our clients a combination of global expertise and local presence, adapted to their business and reality. Our ambition is to be our clients’ most relevant partner, working together to help them solve their challenges, today and into the future.

Sweco is committed to enabling all its colleagues to achieve a great balance between work and their other priorities, such as caring responsibilities, leisure activities, further learning or other interests. We offer flexible start and finish times, part time and hybrid working options so that you can flex your hours around your day to day needs. 

Please note: we reserve the right to close vacancies before the advertised closing date.

Sweco UK&I have an internal resourcing team who are responsible for all recruiting activity.  We have a Preferred Supplier List of trusted agencies who we work with on those “hard to fill” roles.

We have defined processes for recruitment applications and it is company policy not to accept speculative CVs.  Any speculative CVs received into the business (whether to a manager or member of the resourcing team) will become the property of Sweco and the agency will not be eligible for an introductory fee.

Our Preferred Supplier List was reviewed in December 2023 and we are not looking to add any additional agencies. We’ll be reviewing the PSL again at the end of 2024 and non-compliance with the above statements could be detrimental to you having the opportunity to be included.