Building Senior Leadership and Specialist Capability for a Leading UK Infrastructure and Construction Group

About the client

The client is one of the UK's leading construction and infrastructure groups. Through its family of specialist businesses, it delivers work across highways, rail, utilities, civil engineering, building and specialist infrastructure services. Its projects keep the country moving, connected and powered, from road and rail networks to the pipes and cables that sit beneath our streets.

The challenge

Organisations of this scale depend on a small number of senior people who shape strategy, protect performance and steer the business through complex, long-term projects. They also rely on specialists who keep the core systems and processes running smoothly. Both are hard to find. Candidates are often in post, highly sought after and not actively looking, and a poor hire at senior level is costly in both money and momentum.

The group needed a recruitment partner that could reach this passive talent, understand the technical and commercial demands of each role, and do so without the heavy fees of a traditional agency.

Our partnership

Talent Acumen has developed a strong working relationship with the group, supporting the organisation with a range of senior leadership and specialist appointments.

• IT Director: A technology leader is essential for a business of this size. The role underpins digital transformation, cyber security, data and the systems that connect dispersed project teams and sites. The right appointment keeps operations secure, efficient and ready for future change.

• Finance Director: Construction and infrastructure operate on tight margins and long project cycles. A strong finance director safeguards cash flow, manages commercial and contractual risk, and gives the board the insight needed to bid, invest and grow with confidence.

• Trenchless Contracts Director: Trenchless technology allows underground pipes and services to be installed or repaired with minimal surface disruption, which is vital for modern utilities and infrastructure work. This is a specialist, niche discipline. The contracts director leads commercial delivery in a field where experienced leaders are scarce, directly influencing project profitability, client relationships and reputation.

• Head of HR: In an industry facing skills shortages and an ageing workforce, people strategy is a business-critical issue. The Head of HR shapes culture, retention, workforce planning and employee engagement across a large, geographically spread organisation, ensuring the group can attract and keep the talent it needs to deliver.

• Two COINS Business Partners: COINS is the construction-specific enterprise software that supports financial control, commercial management and project reporting. Business partners with deep COINS expertise are in short supply, and they play a vital role in keeping data accurate, processes efficient and decision-makers well informed. Filling both positions gave the business the specialist capability to get the most from a system central to how it operates.

Each role required approaching the right people and engaging them with a clear, honest picture of the opportunity.

The Talent Acumen difference: our day rate model

Traditional recruitment firms typically charge a percentage of the successful candidate's first-year salary. At director and senior specialist level, that can mean fees running well into five figures per hire.

Our day rate model works differently. The group pays for the time and expertise actually invested in the search, not a percentage of salary. The result is transparent, predictable pricing with no surprise invoice when the offer is made.

Across these appointments, this approach has saved the group tens of thousands of pounds compared with what they would have paid through a traditional recruitment fee structure. That is budget they can put back into the business, without any compromise on the quality or seniority of the people hired.

The outcome

• Six roles filled across technology, finance, specialist contracts, HR and systems

• Significant cost savings against traditional agency fees

• A trusted, ongoing partnership built on transparency, specialist market knowledge and results

Looking to hire senior and specialist talent without the traditional agency fees? Get in touch with Talent Acumen to find out how our day rate model could work for you.