Project Operations Manager

# Project Operations Manager##
** Join us to be the Strategic Force Behind Exceptional Project Delivery.
** This person can be based in either our London, Bath, Manchester or Leeds office on a hybrid working model. At Buro Happold, we pride ourselves on delivering brilliantly coordinated, commercially robust projects that help our clients realise their ambitions. Our UK Project Operations team plays a critical role in making this possible, and we are now looking for a Project Operations Manager to join us in driving operational excellence, commercial insight, and consistent project delivery across our UK business.

** About

The Role
** As a Project Operations Manager, you will be a strategic partner to project teams, Discipline Leaders, Job Leaders and Project Directors, ensuring our operations, data, and systems support exceptional delivery outcomes. You’ll bring structure, rigour and clarity to how we plan, review and monitor our work, enabling stronger decision‑making, clearer forecasting and improved performance across our project portfolio.

This is a highly collaborative role, ideal for someone who enjoys working at the intersection of people, processes, and data. You will contribute to strengthening our internal standards, enhancing our systems, and identifying operational and commercial risks before they impact delivery. Ultimately, you will play a vital part in supporting the resilience, efficiency, and long‑term success of our business.
** Key Responsibilities
*** Lead monthly resource and pipeline review meetings with Discipline Leaders and Leadership teams to validate allocations, confirm pipeline inputs and ensure alignment with future workload.
* Support month‑end job account reviews by providing operational insight, helping interpret financial data, and advising on updates to plans, fee structures, contingencies and change management.
* Work closely with Project Directors to review project portfolios, ensure accurate system visibility of bids and maintain strong quality assurance across their workload.
* Lead regular portfolio reviews for Project Directors and Job Leaders requiring enhanced operational support, helping projects stay on track.
* Identify risks and issues proactively through data analysis and stakeholder engagement, addressing root causes and coordinating solutions across teams.
* Act as a super‑user and subject matter expert for business systems and processes, ensuring consistent standards, strong data integrity and efficient workflows.
* Monitor projects delivered at risk, collaborating with Finance, Commercial and Legal teams to escalate issues and support the development of mitigation strategies.
* Deliver onboarding and refresher training on systems, dashboards and operational processes to enhance consistency and capability across the business.
* Support reviews of major projects by providing operational insight, commercial awareness and practical guidance to Project Directors and Finance teams.
* Build strong, collaborative relationships with business services teams, resolving issues quickly to improve operational efficiency and alignment.
* Contribute to strategic commercial and operational risk management through data‑led insight, industry awareness, and proactive problem‑solving.
** What We Are Looking For:
*** Degree or equivalent experience in Engineering, Business Management, Finance, Project Management or a related field.
* Strong numeracy skills with the ability to work confidently with large data sets and present clear, meaningful analysis.
* Ability to understand complex business concepts and communicate them simply to a wide range of stakeholders.
* Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to produce high‑quality, insightful reporting.
* Experience working within engineering, design or professional consultancy environments.
* Strong familiarity with ERP systems (ideally Deltek Vision/Vantagepoint) and skilled in extracting, reviewing and analysing data.
* Advanced MS Excel capability, with Power BI experience beneficial.
* Proven ability to influence operational and commercial outcomes in a complex, multi‑disciplinary environment.
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