Head of Construction

Cubico Sustainable Investments is seeking a Head of Construction based in London. This senior role involves leading a central Technical Team, advising senior management, and managing construction risks for renewable energy projects. Responsibilities include providing support to local teams, ensuring project delivery on time and budget, managing stakeholder relationships, and developing procedures for construction activities. The ideal candidate has an engineering background and extensive experience in utility-scale projects.
Head of Construction

Department: Operations

Employment Type: Tempo Integral

Location: London (UK)

Description
The Head of Construction is a senior member of a flexible central Technical Team that sets standards, provides support to Cubico’s local development and construction teams, and independently advises senior management and the Board. This is a global role is focused on evaluating construction risks and mitigations during development and acquisition; preparing projects for construction; ensuring project structures and procedures are in place to govern construction; and providing guidance and support during construction and handover to operations.

The Head of Construction will lead a small central team of Construction Managers and Analysts. The ideal profile will be open and outward-looking by nature. They are self-motivated, with well-rounded interpersonal skills and adept at working in different cultures. The successful individual will be happy working in a flat, flexible team able to support regional and central offices as required and are internationally mobile.

An engineering/technical background is required, at least as important is the ability to understand the commercial drivers of their actions, to have a customer-service oriented approach and an ability to coach/develop others.

It will be important to have extensive experience in the planning, contracting and delivery of utility scale renewable energy projects. An awareness of project finance principles will be advantageous.

Key Responsibilities
• Provide leadership, guidance and support to the central construction team and local construction project directors;
• Lead by example on safety and act as a role model to contractors, the project team and the wider business
• Work closely with local teams to provide hands-on support throughout the development, pre-construction and construction phases, to:
• Successfully deliver construction projects on time and budget
• Ensure that construction projects achieve quality targets and can accomplish their long-term performance goals.
• Proactively Identify, manage and mitigate construction related risks.
• Manage key stakeholder and contractor relationships.
• Resolve construction related challenges and contractor claims, acting as an escalation point to resolve issues as required.
• Identify and capture valuation upsides, e.g. through cost savings, early revenues and optimisation of contingency spend.
• Support the negotiation of EPC, TSA and BOP contracts as required, and work closely with the Head of Procurement on tenders for construction contracts and owner’s engineers;
• Develop and propose resourcing plans for construction management, including project manager and owner’s engineer;
• Develop role descriptions for project managers, leading on their recruitment in close collaboration with the relevant country head;
• Directly conducting project development and construction management activities in exceptional circumstances, e.g. prior to recruitment of a local project manager;
• Develop, maintain and improve a set of processes and procedures governing pre-construction and construction activities, to set a framework for Cubico teams and projects globally and to provide guidance to project managers and country teams;
• Sit on Steering Committees for construction projects, providing guidance to the Committee, support to the country head and a sounding board to the project manager;
• Provide timely and clear global construction reporting to senior management, outlining project progress, key risks, mitigation plans and lessons learn;
• Support local construction teams in conducting an effective handover into operations;
• Gather lessons learned from Cubico’s construction projects and disseminate around the wider business. Actively build the company’s corporate knowledge and understanding of construction management and risks;

Key Stakeholders
• Technical Director
• Country Heads
• Local and regional construction / project directors
• COO

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
• Degree-level qualification in engineering with significant relevant experience
• Significant experience of leading and developing high performing teams
• Demonstratable success in the construction of renewable energy projects either in the capacity of owner, EPC contractor or investor
• Track record in construction management and the ability to successfully execute projects through third party contracts. [Good understanding of the engineering and design process]
• Significant and active experience in creatively solving the complex technical and commercial challenges typically experienced in the development and delivery of renewable energy projects
• Strong commercial and contractual acumen with a proven ability to negotiate, manage and implement the contractual frameworks typically found in utility scale renewable energy projects
• Working knowledge of project finance documents and how they relate to the construction of renewable energy projects
• Strong commitment to deliver health, safety and environmental best practice.
• Pro-active and diligent approach. Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
• Strong communication skills. Ability to explain complex technical issues and their resolution to senior stakeholders. Fluent in English. Fluent in other languages would be advantageous