Director - Transport in Warrington

Job Title: Director - Transport

Location: London, Birmingham, Leeds or Warrington

(we offer Hybrid working supported by a Smart Working Policy)

Full Time or Part Time: Full Time

Salary: Competitive

Directorate: Land Assembly

Company Overview:

Ardent is the UK’s leading provider of land, consent management and stakeholder engagement services to support major infrastructure and regeneration projects from concept to delivery.

We are Project Managers, Chartered Surveyors, Transport Planners and Land Referencers, based in London, Birmingham, Warrington, Leeds, Glasgow and Dublin and supporting projects throughout the UK and Ireland.

Established in 1992 to provide a 'one stop shop’ for land and property matters for major infrastructure projects, our client portfolio includes some of the biggest players across our four core sectors of transport, renewables, utilities and regeneration.

We are passionate about delivering life-improving change for communities and future generations and we are proud to play a key role in facilitating and delivering the UK and Ireland’s net zero agenda, improving connectivity, enabling the repurposing of high streets and town centres and delivering new homes for the people who need them most.

We are problem-solvers, can-doers and solution-drivers working collaboratively with our clients to provide proactive and strategic advice to identify and mitigate risks, deliver efficiencies and, ultimately, achieve deliverable consents and build projects that positively impact people’s lives and the world that we live in.

The role of a Director is to inspire and lead teams, manage financial performance of teams, be responsible for service quality, identify recruitment needs, perform the role of Project Director for complex large projects that involve multiple Directorates and deliver against all Directorate level KPIs and objectives, reporting directly to the Senior Leadership Group and Board as required. Actively developing strategic thoughts into the MD Vision & Strategy for the Directorate, ensuring the Directorate Business Plan is the best it can be supporting the Ardent Group Vision.

The ideal candidate will have a successful background within Land Surveying (Chartered) with an in-depth knowledge of Development Consent Orders (DCO'S), Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO's) for NSIP'S relating to transport schemes.

People

The role is accountable for the following:

• Create, develop and maintain trusted relationships with peers and key people across the Ardent Group.
• Lead, motivate and develop all direct reports and their reports (your team) to optimise every individuals performance and professional growth and create the spirit of team.
• Engage all direct reports and your wider team in the Purpose, Vision and Values of Ardent and in the Directorate’s annual and quarterly objectives, ensuring those objectives support the effective execution of the Directorate business plan and the Ardent Vision.
• Develop high-performing teams through providing challenging and meaningful opportunities and recognise them for the impact that they make.
• Demonstrate empathy and resilience through leadership, creating a clear sense of direction in challenging times.
• Set quarterly recruitment forecasts for approval by MD.
• Actively engage as a Coach across the business, proactively supporting a Coaching and learning culture within Ardent and training others across the business on how to be an effective Coach.
• To positively change engagement/happiness KPI.
• Ensure compliance with Company policy and processes, demonstrate respect to Corporate Services and drive these behavior's within the Directorate.

Quality

The role is accountable for the following:

• Demonstrate excellent technical knowledge of all Directorate’s service lines.
• Be visible to all members of your team, including regularly visiting all offices and providing regular feedback to your direct reports.
• Set quarterly objectives that respond to the Directorate’s annual objectives and business plan.
• Clearly articulate objectives and report performance against objectives to all members of your team, in a manner that achieves buy-in, understanding of the Vision and fosters commitment, loyalty and a strong sense of team.
• Influence clients, teams, and individuals positively. Leading by example and establishing confident relationships with senior stakeholders.
• Work closely with other Directors to ensure consistency of high quality service delivery.
• Collaborate with other Directors to manage and utilise resources effectively and profitably.
• Understand the goals of clients and align team members to these objectives, setting clear priorities and direction.
• Champion the importance of client care and improved client outcomes, leading the way in a manner that sets the tone and example to more inexperienced colleagues.
• Serve as a trusted advisor and partner with clients to identify opportunities for improvement, consistently monitoring client feedback & sharing it with the team in order to identify opportunities for improved performance.
• Sets the tone in ensuring all members of the team provide advice to clients in a proactive manner, owning their problems and demonstrably making a difference to client outcomes.
• Takes accountability for others complying with ISO9001 (Quality);
• To positively change Customer Delight KPI.

Growth

The role is accountable for the following:

• Foster collaboration across Directorates, sectors, and geographies, to maximise cross-selling opportunities.
• Work collaboratively with all Sector Leads to ensure recruitment requirements reflect forward order book / pipeline.
• Demonstrate extensive knowledge of your team's key clients (including their projects, their supply chain, their people and their objectives and challenges).
• Utilise market reputation to secure opportunities through leveraging personal profile, including through speaking at events, webinars and pod-casts, and/or through writing thought-leadership articles on LinkedIn.
• Manage forward order book effectively and lead strategies to secure new instructions with existing and prospective clients.

H&S/SV

The role is accountable for the following:

• For your team and in any interaction all others compliance with ISO14001 (Environment) ISO45001 (Health & Safety) accreditations and identify opportunities to improve the same.
• Lead efforts to transform the organisational culture to one that prioritises safety at all levels.
• Demonstrate the right behaviors with respect to Health & Safety for yourself and colleagues.
• Take responsibility for integrating ESG into core business practices.

Finance

The role is accountable for the following:

• Set quarterly financial forecasts for approval by MD.
• Develop and execute strategies for substantial revenue growth, working with sector leads to support market analysis and long-term planning.
• Proactively adopt and implement strategies that pull on the seven levers.
• Set the direction for profitability optimisation within your team, including resource-allocation, pricing models, cost controls, and client segmentation.
• Know your team and Directorates numbers and positively influence the Gross Margin results.

Behavioral Knowledge, Skills & Experience Required:

• Thirst for Knowledge - Demonstrate a strong commitment to the development of yourself and your people for your role in a growth company and future role. Coach (and mentor) others to have a deep understanding of their knowledge and experience. Actively supporting with areas of development and career goals, extending beyond a technical remit and actively developing your business knowledge on an on-going basis.
• Own It - Act like it matters, take pride and caring about the outcome of your people and your clients objectives.
• Be the Difference - Be confident in your decisions and implementing them, taking into account the wider structure and objectives of the business, working with or alongside peers across the business. Be more than any other competent person in your role.
• Enjoy the Journey - Translating goals and visions of the business into meaningful objectives for your team in a positive and engaging manner, demonstrating your commitment to Ardent and the wellbeing and development of your team, understand the needs of your people to have, purpose/fulfilment, personal growth, engagement, team culture and fair pay.
• Adapt As a growth company Ardent is all about change. You must be a change maker. Demonstrate ability to drive and implement change to enable Ardent to continue to excel. Listen to your team and actively search for opportunities to create change. Exhibit a resilient attitude, communicate key information in a clear and engaging way to influence others.

Ardent is an equal opportunities employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of race, colour, religion or belief, age, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability status or other legally protected characteristics.

With people at the core of our business, we offer employees an unrivalled career opportunity rather than simply a job. In a fast growing organisation, we train, develop and support our staff to grow and achieve their career goals. This is supported by a number of initiatives to look after the wellbeing of our employees whilst allowing employees to work flexibility and maintain a positive work life balance.

We offer an attractive benefits package to include :-

• Hybrid working
• Smart Working Policy
• Medical health plan
• ·Career progression
• Coaching
• Cycle to Work
• Electric Car Scheme
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay

For more information, please see our services page on our website at

Interested? Get in touch!

Should you be interested in hearing more about the position or wish to send your CV in to or contact Stuart Thomas