Assistant Manager, Commercial Advisory and Assurance (Major Projects Advisory)

Base Location: London, Manchester and Birmingham.

The Team

KPMG’s Major Projects Advisory (MPA) team works with industry-leading organisations, helping to solve some of the biggest challenges in infrastructure. As a true market leader, we boast an impressive client base across the commercial and public sectors, delivering lasting results on projects and programmes which are household names.

We focus on providing clarity to Boards, Executives and SROs at major public and private sector organisations, on the delivery of their projects and programmes. We work on some of the UK’s most strategically important programmes, and across all sectors including natural resources, energy, power and utilities, transport, corporates, oil and gas, defence, health, housing and education.

Our team comprises specialists with deep construction industry experience, from working for project owners, contractors, engineering consultants and others in the UK and overseas.

On the back of continuing growth, we’re once again investing in our team and boosting our numbers, which means you’ll be joining one of the fastest growing areas of the firm at a time of real significance.

The role

This role is for an ambitious professional at Assistant Manager level, who can work alongside our existing team to use their lived delivery experience of infrastructure and construction, and commercial acumen, to solve complex problems.

The MPA team in the UK are based in London, Birmingham and Manchester. This role will be based in one of these locations but will require some travel to client locations throughout the UK and occasionally overseas.

The team member

You will have a background in commercial advisory and assurance of construction or infrastructure projects, whatever shape that might take. You may have experience in a field such as commercial management & quantity surveying, project controls, civil, mechanical or electrical engineering, or you may have held a specialist assurance role within a client or in a public sector organisation. You may have been based on site, or in an advisory role.

The role requires experience with the following attributes:

• A good understanding of the factors which drive costs on construction projects
• A good understanding of contractual mechanisms operating in infrastructure and industry-standard contract forms
• A good understanding of issues which impact project performance
• Client or senior stakeholder-facing experience
• Experience in writing and reviewing key commercial documents such as briefing notes, recommendations and commercial reports
• Experience working in highly political and confidential environments
• Experience of managing the work of junior colleagues
• An ability to assess new situations and data quickly to provide a basis for developing an understanding of causal factors
• Project resource forecasting and management including work planning, annual leave tracking and timesheet analysis
• Support to financial management including the production of monthly applications for payments in line with reporting requirements
• Proactively managing the monthly drumbeat of activity to ensure deadlines are met and all activity is delivered to a high quality

In addition to the above, experience in some of the following areas would also be of benefit to the candidate in the environment that we work in:

• Project management
• Project controls
• Earned value management
• Estimating
• Risk management
• Programme management
• Procurement strategy
• Resource management
• Claims, disputes and dispute avoidance
• Governance and control of projects
• Hold or working towards a relevant professional qualification, such as MRICS, MICE, ChPP, MAPM, CIOB, etc.

In addition to the technical requirements of the role we also expect the right candidate to:

• Be a self-starter, who builds a rapport with new team members quickly
• Be confident and articulate with senior clients and stakeholders
• Be committed to learning for a lifetime
• Provide clear and concise advice to clients and manage client relationships
• Assist with business development and supporting delivery of the MPA growth strategy

A final word from us…

Everybody likes to say they’re different... but we really think we are.

We’re hugely proud of what we’ve managed to achieve so far, but we’re only just getting started. We’re looking for people to grow with us and are committed to helping everybody reach their destination, regardless of what that is.

No matter what skills you bring to our team, you’ll be surrounded by spirited, naturally curious people. People who want to learn from you, and who’ll also teach you a thing or two along the way. It’s how we make a collective impact, greater than the sum of its parts.

And if this isn’t the role for you but you like what you see, keep in touch. There will be other opportunities to join us.

To discuss this or wider Infrastructure Advisory roles with our recruitment team, all you need to do is apply, create a profile, upload your CV and begin to make your mark with KPMG.