Technical Delivery Lead

Location/s: UK-wide
Recruiter contact: Laura Kennedy

Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management, and development consultancy with over 20,000 employees across more than 50 countries and 140+ offices.

We work across incredible global industries, delivering exciting work that is defining our future and making an important societal impact in the communities we serve. Our people power our performance – we succeed when they do. With countless opportunities to collaborate, learn, and grow, the possibilities for excellence are as varied as every individual.

Whether you want to grow as a subject matter expert or broaden your experience with roles across our international community, you’re surrounded by global specialists who want to combine their expertise and champion you to be your best. As a proudly employee-owned business, we benefit our clients, our communities, and each other, investing in creating the right space for everyone to feel empowered, included, and valued. Whatever your ambition, Mott MacDonald is where people come to be brilliant.

About the business unit

Mott MacDonald’s support services are the driving force behind our organisation, enabling us to run efficiently and effectively. The team works collaboratively to offer specialist advice, best practice and technology to all areas of our business, specifically designed for our global reach.

Overview of the role

We are looking for a Technical Delivery Lead to join our Central Digital AI team.

This is a hands-on leadership role for an experienced project manager who combines disciplined delivery management with strong technical understanding and practical engineering capability. You will lead multidisciplinary teams that create AI agents and wider AI and automation solutions.

You will own complex digital and innovation projects and programmes end-to-end, from concept and business case through design, build and assurance to deployment, adoption and scaled operation. A central part of the role is turning promising pilots into robust, repeatable and scalable tools that deliver measurable value.

You will be expected to move between governance forums, delivery plans and stakeholder decisions and practical work such as prototyping agents, shaping workflows, connecting data and tools, reviewing technical designs, testing behaviour and resolving delivery blockers.

Key responsibilities and duties include:

End-to-end delivery leadership

- Shape the opportunity. Work with business users and domain specialists to define the problem, intended outcomes, scope, success measures, constraints and route to value.

- Lead from concept to scale. Own complex digital and innovation projects and programmes through discovery, business case, design, build, test, deployment, adoption, benefits realisation and transition into sustainable operations.

- Plan and control delivery. Establish integrated delivery plans, milestones, budgets, resource profiles, dependencies and critical paths; manage risks, assumptions, issues, decisions and change control. Understand when to escalate and strong focus on risks as well as unblocking challenges.

- Coordinate multidisciplinary teams. Bring together technical delivery, data science, software development, engineering, design, domain and operational expertise, ensuring that responsibilities and interfaces are understood.

- Assure adoption and service readiness. Plan testing, user acceptance, training, communications, deployment, operational support, monitoring and handover so that solutions are adopted and sustained.

AI agents and technical delivery

- Deliver applied AI and automation. Lead initiatives involving advanced analytics, machine learning, computer vision and intelligent automation, translating technical possibilities into practical, safe and valuable solutions.

- Build agents. Hands-on and prototype, configure, code, integrate, test and debug AI agents using low-code approaches. This includes prompt and instruction design, knowledge grounding, retrieval, tool and action integration, workflow orchestration, and evaluation.

- Select the right implementation path. Understand the strengths, limitations and trade-offs of low-code and pro-code AI capabilities, and choose an approach based on speed, control, integration complexity, security, scale, maintainability, cost and supportability.

- Design for responsible use. Embed data protection, information security, responsible AI, human oversight, traceability, evaluation and proportionate controls throughout the delivery lifecycle.

Scaling, governance and commercial value

- Turn pilots into products. Move prototypes beyond proof of concept by establishing repeatable delivery patterns, reusable components, production-grade controls, operational ownership, documentation and deployment playbooks.

- Enable reuse. Manage contractual, commercial and intellectual-property considerations with the relevant specialists so that solutions, components and learning can be reused appropriately across projects.

Stakeholder and people leadership

- Translate between audiences. Explain complex technical choices in clear business language and convert user and business needs into actionable technical and delivery requirements.

- Lead and develop people. Line manage and mentor delivery leads, setting clear objectives, giving constructive feedback, supporting career development and building delivery capability.

- Create an effective team culture. Coach team members, remove blockers and foster ownership, inclusion, learning, quality and pragmatic decision-making.

Candidate specification

Essential:

- Proven experience leading complex digital or innovation projects and programmes end-to-end, including successful transition from concept or pilot to scaled deployment.

- Strong hands-on project management capability across scope, plans, budgets, resources, governance, risk, dependencies, quality, change, suppliers, stakeholder communications and benefits.

- Demonstrable experience leading teams that build AI agents, together with practical experience personally building, configuring, integrating, testing and troubleshooting AI agents.

- Working knowledge of both low-code and pro-code AI delivery, with the judgement to select and combine them appropriately.

- Technical fluency across modern AI, data and software delivery, including APIs, integrations, cloud services, data pipelines, testing, deployment, observability, security and support.

- Understanding of applied AI and automation capabilities, including advanced analytics, machine learning and computer vision, and the controls needed to use them responsibly.

- Experience delivering solutions that connect physical systems or hardware and data capture with analytics, AI and software platforms.

- Evidence of turning prototypes into robust, repeatable, supportable and scalable products or services.

- Experience developing business cases, governance models, delivery structures, cost and resource models, and deployment or operating blueprints.

- Ability to address data, intellectual-property, responsible-AI, contractual and commercial considerations in partnership with relevant specialists.

- Experience coordinating multidisciplinary teams that include technical, analytical, engineering, domain and business contributors.

- Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to explain technical subjects plainly, facilitate decisions and constructively challenge assumptions.

- Line-management and mentoring experience, with a record of developing delivery professionals and building high-performing teams.

- A practical, collaborative and outcomes-focused approach, with the willingness to roll up your sleeves and work directly on delivery problems.

- Proactive and challenging of best practices, ways of working and enablement: comfortable challenging business processes and supporting collaborative enablement.

- Risk focused: proactive focus on risks for complex initiatives that have dependencies or high uncertainty.

Desirable:

- Experience with Microsoft’s AI and cloud ecosystem, for example Copilot Studio, Power Platform, Azure AI capabilities, Azure, SharePoint, DevOps or GitHub.

- Experience with agent frameworks, software development languages and integration patterns used to build pro-code AI solutions.

- Knowledge of solution architecture and experience working with architects to implement secure, resilient and supportable standards.

- Experience of Architectural, Engineering and Construction tool ecosystems or geospatial and digital-twin platforms, such as Autodesk Platform Services, Bentley iTwin or Esri.

- Experience in engineering, infrastructure, the built environment or another asset-intensive sector

- A recognised project, programme, product or agile delivery qualification, or equivalent practical experience.

- Experience with engineering project contracts, including administering contracts and assessing risks relating to AI solutions, is advantageous.

We are actively recruiting a diverse workforce that is reflective of the communities we serve. We recognise that differences in ability, skills and experience are a strength and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.

UK Immigration

Mott MacDonald Ltd. are not currently offering sponsorship to candidates under the Skilled Worker visa route in the UK. This decision is as a consequence of the changes made to the Skilled Worker route by the UK Government in April 2024. We continue to welcome applications from candidates who are eligible for alternative immigration routes in the UK, that do not require sponsorship as a Skilled Worker now or in future.

Agile working

At Mott MacDonald, we believe it makes business sense for you and your manager to choose how you can work most effectively to meet your client, team, and personal commitments. We offer a hybrid working policy that embraces your well-being, flexibility, and trust.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion

We put equality, diversity, and inclusion at the heart of our business, seeking to promote fair employment procedures and practices to ensure equal opportunities for all. We encourage individual expression in our workplace and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels they can contribute.

AI Usage

At Mott MacDonald, we see the value AI can bring, but we take a people-first approach to hiring. While AI tools can help candidates prepare and build confidence, every application and hiring decision is reviewed by our recruitment and hiring teams. We encourage the responsible use of AI while ensuring we get to know the real person behind the application.

Accessibility

We want you to feel supported and able to perform at your best throughout our recruitment process. If there is anything we can do to make applying or interviewing with us more accessible, please contact us at [email protected] and we'll be happy to discuss how we can help.

We offer some fantastic benefits including:

Financial wellbeing

- We match employee pension contributions between 4.5% and 7%.

- Life assurance equal up to 4 x your basic salary, with an option to increase the level of cover to 6 x your salary.

- Our income protection scheme provides a financial benefit, as well as absence and return to work support due to long-term illness or injury.

- Flexible benefits, including increased life assurance cover, critical illness insurance, payroll saving and will writing.

- As an independently owned business we share the financial success of the business with all our colleagues in various ways including annual bonus schemes.

Employee Ownership

- Our employee ownership model means no external investors, just us, creating a culture of shared success.

- Our employees have a stake and a voice in our business, giving them a direct connection to our success through our personal and group performance bonuses.

- As your career grows, so does your stake, recognising your long-term impact and contribution.

- Your voice matters, with the opportunity to connect directly with senior leadership through formal channels to help shape our future.

- For our senior roles you will have a direct pathway towards ownership from day one.

Health and wellbeing

- Private medical insurance for all UK colleagues.

- Health cash plan to support you with every day health costs and treatments.

- Access to Peppy, providing free support from menopause experts for all UK colleagues.

- A variety of wellbeing support is available through our comprehensive wellbeing program, including access for you and your family.

- Ability to flex your salary to opt into a wide range of health benefits, many of which can be extended to your family too.

Lifestyle

- A minimum of 33-35 days holiday each year, inclusive of public holidays and dependent on level, with the ability to buy or sell leave through our flexible benefits programme.

- 10 days additional paid leave for Armed Forces Reservists and Cadet Force Adult Volunteers.

- Holiday entitlement increased to a minimum of 35 days after 5 years’ service.

- Variety of employee saving schemes and discounts from high-street retailers.

Enhanced family and carers leave

- Enhanced family leave policies, including 26 weeks paid maternity and adoption leave, and two weeks paid paternity/partner leave.

- Our shared parental leave matches maternity leave meaning we pay up to 24 weeks at full pay.

- Up to five additional days leave are provided for those with significant caring responsibilities, two of which are paid.

- We offer policies and dedicated support to help military families balance service life with career and wellbeing.

Learning and development

- Primary annual professional institution subscription.

- A broad range of opportunities to enhance both technical and soft skills through mentoring, formal training, and self-development options.

Networks, communities, and social outcomes

- Join a wide range of groups including our Advanced Employee Networks which support our LGBTQ+, gender, race and ethnicity, disability, and parents/carers communities.

- We are proud signatories of the Armed Forces Covenant and Gold Award holders in the MOD Employer Recognition Scheme, supported by our dedicated internal Armed Forces Network.

- Make a difference within our communities through our social outcomes (https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mottmac.com%2Fabout-us%2Fsocial-outcomes%3FappliedFilters%3D%2522CultureId%2520eq%2520127%2520and%2520SubsiteIds%2Fany(t%2520%3A%2520t%2520eq%2520%25271%2527%2520or%2520t%2520eq%2520%2527105%2527)%2522%26searchTerm%3D%2522Social%2520outcomes%2522%26highlightedFilters%3D%255b%255d%26filterOption%3Dexact%26searchType%3Dgeneral&data=05%7C02%7Ccareerpoint%40mottmac.com%7Cd8ea9a88ab7f490eafc008dc2e4689a2%7Ca2bed0c459574f73b0c2a811407590fb%7C0%7C0%7C638436127685834191%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=A6WPLkNo7mkbnPnlj%2BVZ99APvqUlGen6%2Bw4hgG0OKu8%3D&reserved=0).

Apply now, or for more information about our application process, click here.