Head of Pre-Construction - Internal Drainage Boards (IDB)

Job Title: Head of Pre-Construction - Internal Drainage Boards (IDB)

Location: Flexible across Central, Eastern and South East England, including Northampton, Cambridge, East Anglia, London and Kent.

Company: Balfour Beatty - Regional Civils

Sector: Water / Flood & Coastal Erosion Risk Management / Internal Drainage Boards

About the Role

Balfour Beatty is looking for an experienced Technical Head of Pre-Construction to lead and develop our growing presence within the Internal Drainage Board (IDB) market.

This is a senior and influential role for someone who understands the water, drainage, flood resilience or pumping station environment and can combine technical pre-construction expertise with strong customer relationships, work winning and strategic market development.

You'll work closely with Internal Drainage Boards, the Environment Agency, consultants, designers, suppliers, local authorities and wider water industry stakeholders, developing trusted long-term relationships and helping to identify, shape and convert opportunities across the sector.

With a particular focus on pumping stations and associated civil engineering works, you'll provide leadership from the earliest stages of an opportunity - bringing together technical, design, commercial, estimating and operational expertise to develop practical, innovative and deliverable solutions.

This isn't simply a bid management position. We're looking for someone who can become a recognised technical and pre-construction leader within the IDB sector, building relationships today that create a sustainable pipeline of work for the future.

As Technical Head of Pre-Construction, you will take a leading role in developing Balfour Beatty's IDB capability and pipeline across Regional Civils.

You will:

• Build strong, long-term relationships with Internal Drainage Boards, the Environment Agency, consultants, designers, suppliers and other water industry stakeholders
• Develop a detailed understanding of customers' future programmes, challenges and investment priorities
• Identify, shape and pursue new IDB and flood resilience opportunities alongside our FCERM and regional business development teams
• Lead early contractor involvement and technical pre-construction discussions with customers and partners
• Develop opportunity strategies that improve our long-term positioning and conversion across the sector
• Act as a senior technical and pre-construction interface between customers, Regional Civils teams and our FCERM leadership
• Lead and coordinate technical, design, commercial, planning and estimating input into opportunities
• Provide technical leadership around pumping stations, civils infrastructure and the integration of MEICA solutions
• Ensure solutions are buildable, commercially viable and aligned with customer requirements
• Develop greater IDB capability across Regional Civils, sharing market knowledge and supporting local pre-construction and operational teams
• Maintain visibility of the IDB opportunity pipeline, helping prioritise where we invest our time and resources
• Support governance, assurance and investment decisions throughout the work winning lifecycle
• Represent Balfour Beatty at customer meetings, industry forums and relevant sector events
• Ensure strong integration between work winning, pre-construction and operational delivery teams
• Support the effective handover of successful opportunities into project delivery

We're interested in hearing from experienced professionals from a civil engineering, water, flood risk, drainage or pumping station background who have operated within pre-construction, technical leadership, project delivery, work winning or business development.

You may currently be working as a:

Head of Pre-Construction, Pre-Construction Director, Technical Director, Technical Manager, Work Winning Lead, Framework Manager, Project Director, Senior Project Manager or Business Development Lead within the water or civil engineering sector.

More important than your current job title is your understanding of the market and your ability to build relationships, technically influence opportunities and bring the right people together to develop winning solutions.

Ideally, you'll bring:

• Strong experience within civil engineering pre-construction and/or project delivery
• Knowledge of the Internal Drainage Board, FCERM, water, pumping station or drainage environment
• Established relationships or experience engaging with IDBs, the Environment Agency, consultants and wider industry stakeholders
• Experience of pumping station infrastructure and associated civil engineering works
• A working understanding of MEICA and how mechanical and electrical systems integrate with civil engineering delivery
• Strong technical judgement and the ability to challenge, develop and improve proposed solutions
• Experience shaping opportunities before formal procurement or tender
• Strong commercial awareness and an understanding of the investment decisions involved in pursuing infrastructure opportunities
• The ability to coordinate design, technical, estimating, planning and commercial specialists
• Excellent customer relationship and stakeholder management skills
• The credibility to operate with senior customers, industry partners and internal business leaders
• An entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to identify opportunities and turn market insight into a sustainable pipeline of work

Why Join Balfour Beatty?

This is an opportunity to play a significant role in developing an important growth market for Balfour Beatty.

Rather than inheriting a narrowly defined tendering role, you'll have the opportunity to shape our approach to the IDB market, strengthen customer relationships and influence how opportunities are developed from their earliest stages.

If you have strong technical experience within water or civil engineering and enjoy building relationships, shaping opportunities and influencing projects long before construction begins, we'd love to hear from you.

Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK's most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities.

Why join us?

As if contributing to and supporting work that makes life better for millions wasn't rewarding enough, we offer a full range of benefits too. You'll have the freedom to shape the package that's right for you and your life. Here are some of our key benefits:

- Smart working, giving you more flexibility such as staggered start and finish times, with up to 40% remote working, where roles allow.
- 25 days paid annual leave (pro rata)
Family friendly policies which include 28 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave and four weeks full pay for paternity/partners leave
- Pension, share incentive plan, volunteering leave, recognition schemes and much more

With a strong track record of delivery, our civils teams connect communities through infrastructure projects in the highways, public realm, rail, flood and coastal defence, and industrial sectors across England and Wales.

Diversity and inclusion

At Balfour Beatty we believe that diversity and inclusion are essential components of any successful, happy workplace. Through our Value Everyone Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan, we are growing our diverse workforce and developing our inclusive culture where everyone is able to thrive and reach their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. To find out how we are making this a reality, visit

To help and support us with our desired commitment to create an inclusive culture we are members of WISE, enei, Business Disability Forum and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE). In 2020, we signed the Audeliss and Involve Open Letter to demonstrate our commitment to taking key long term and sustainable actions on Black Inclusion. Balfour Beatty is also a Gold Award holder in the Ministry of Defence 'Employer Recognition Scheme' and actively encourage applications from Armed Forces personnel, veterans and reservists.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to working with people who have disabilities and long-term health conditions to remove barriers for them in obtaining employment. We are also committed to offering applicants with a disability an interview if they meet the minimum requirements for the role. For more info, visit

We are looking to continually improve our resourcing process and ensure that it is fair and inclusive for all. If you have any feedback on the process, please share this with us at