We're looking for a Preconstruction Manager to join our Southern regional team, based in either our Weybridge, Southampton or Dartford offices. We support hybrid working with three days in the office and two days at home each week, depending on team needs.
Reporting to the Head of Preconstruction, you'll play a pivotal leadership role in securing future work for the business, leading high-performing preconstruction teams to develop winning solutions and deliver profitable, high-quality bids. You'll provide strategic direction across our regional work-winning activities, ensuring that opportunities are appropriately resourced, governed and positioned for success.
You'll oversee multiple preconstruction opportunities across sectors including Education, Leisure, Health, Blue Light, Defence, Transport and Science & Technology, ensuring that projects are strategically positioned, commercially robust and aligned with customer requirements. Working closely with customers, consultants, operational leaders and supply chain partners, you'll create an environment where successful bids are developed and converted into secured projects.
This is a highly influential role where you'll combine strategic leadership, commercial acumen and stakeholder engagement to drive 2nd stage bid success, strengthen customer relationships and support the continued growth of our Southern business.
Key responsibilities:
2nd stage Project Management Leadership
- Lead and oversee multiple preconstruction opportunities, ensuring bids are delivered on time, to the highest quality and in line with business objectives.
- Establish and drive winning bid strategies that respond to customer priorities while protecting commercial outcomes.
- Ensure effective governance throughout the preconstruction process, including board approvals and key decision gateways.
- Champion innovation, value engineering and customer-focused solutions that differentiate our offer in the market.
Leadership & Team Development
- Lead, inspire and develop multidisciplinary preconstruction teams, ensuring the right resources, skills and expertise are deployed across opportunities.
- Provide coaching and support to Project Managers, Design Managers, Estimators, Planners and wider bid teams.
- Foster a collaborative, high-performing culture focused on continuous improvement, learning and success.
- Support succession planning and the development of future preconstruction talent.
- Ensure effective resource planning and allocation across the preconstruction portfolio, balancing workloads, capability and business priorities.
Commercial & Strategic Management
- Ensure 2nd stage bids are commercially robust, accurately costed and aligned with profitability expectations.
- Oversee project risk identification, mitigation strategies and opportunity management throughout the preconstruction phase.
- Contribute to regional business planning through pipeline management, resource forecasting and strategic work-winning activities.
- Support regional business planning activities through pipeline management, opportunity review, resource forecasting and work-winning strategy development.
- Monitor bid performance, customer feedback and market trends to continually improve preconstruction performance.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with customers, consultants, design partners and supply chain organisations.
- Act as a trusted advisor throughout the preconstruction process, developing confidence and alignment around project outcomes.
- Collaborate with operational, commercial and technical teams to ensure seamless transition from preconstruction into delivery.
- Represent Willmott Dixon professionally across customer meetings, interviews and industry engagements.
- Proven experience leading and managing preconstruction activities within a main contractor environment... 2nd Stage
- Strong knowledge of two-stage negotiated tender processes.
- Solid experience of securing work and delivering successful bid outcomes.
- Strong commercial awareness with the ability to balance customer priorities, programme requirements and project profitability.
- Experience leading, developing and coordinating multidisciplinary teams.
- Excellent stakeholder management and customer-facing skills.
- Strong understanding of construction methodologies, risk management and design development processes.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills.
- Degree qualified in a construction-related discipline or equivalent industry experience.
- Membership of MCIOB, RICS, APM or a similar professional body.
- Experience managing multiple concurrent preconstruction opportunities.
- Understanding of sustainability, social value and modern methods of construction within the preconstruction process.
About Us
With over 170 years of rich history, Willmott Dixon’s purpose is beyond profit; delivering brilliant buildings, transforming lives, strengthening communities and enhancing the environment so our world is fit for future generations. Ensuring that we add lasting value to the neighbourhoods we work in; our values, people, innovation, partnerships and focus on sustainability has allowed us to build a successful and solid privately owned business where our people can thrive.
Willmott Dixon was recognised by The Sunday Times as one of the Top 10 "Big" Companies to Work For in 2025, named among the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality in 2024, and ranked in the Top Five of Europe’s 1,000 best workplaces by the Financial Times in 2025.
Willmott Dixon is also the first major contractor and developer to win a King's Award for Enterprise in the category of sustainable development.
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