Principal Consultant / Associate Director - Smart Buildings (Building Intelligence) - London / [...] (Leeds)

Principal Consultant / Associate Director - Smart Buildings (Building Intelligence) - London / Birmingham / Manchester / Leeds / Bristol

• Full-time

Turner & Townsend is a global business of 23k+ people, representing 115 nationalities and working together to deliver extraordinary results. For more than 80 years, we have delivered impactful projects and programmes. Our purpose is to transform performance for a greener, more inclusive and more productive world. We work in partnership with clients, combining local expertise, global capability and outcome‑led thinking to raise the standard of how projects are set up and delivered.

This is not a vendor or product role. You will have the chance to influence important client decisions, help turn ambition into delivery and work with specialists across Digital Buildings without being expected to do everything yourself.

You will join a fast‑growing team with the scope to develop your expertise, lead initiatives as you grow and help create a team culture where curiosity, collaboration, high standards, care and respect matter.

Location: London, Birmingham or Manchester, with flexibility for candidates based in other Turner & Townsend UK offices including Bristol and Leeds.

Working pattern: Hybrid. Expect two to three days a week in a Turner & Townsend office, plus client‑office or site attendance where required. UK travel may be required.

Appointment: We will appoint at Principal Consultant or Associate Director level, based on your experience, senior client influence, commission leadership, commercial contribution and capability‑building impact.

Lead the decisions that shape smarter buildings.

Turner & Townsend's Building Intelligence team helps clients turn smart‑building ambition into clear requirements, informed decisions and operational value. We work as the client's representative. We provide independent, solution‑agnostic advice and a client assurance role throughout the project life cycle.

We are looking for a senior adviser to lead complex Building Intelligence commissions or major workstreams. You will use technical judgement in building systems, data and integration to guide senior stakeholders through important decisions, while staying connected to delivery so that the value intended at strategy stage is not lost in implementation or operation.

You will work across the RIBA Plan of Work, particularly at stages 1‑4 where early strategy, use cases and requirements determine the direction of a project. Our work spans commercial occupier, education and healthcare environments, from significant complex commissions to a portfolio of smaller advisory assignments.

What you will do

• Lead client‑facing strategy, use‑case, requirements, standards, roadmap, investment and assurance work appropriate to the commission.
• Advise senior client stakeholders on operational needs, data, integration, interoperability and smart‑building outcomes.
• Turn strategic ambition into clear, deliverable client requirements, decision papers, standards and assurance recommendations.
• Provide credible challenge to proposed solutions, identifying risks, dependencies and trade‑offs before they affect client outcomes.
• Lead workshops, stakeholder engagement and high‑quality client outputs.
• Build trusted relationships with clients, designers, contractors, suppliers and Turner & Townsend colleagues.
• Grow capability through mentoring, workstream supervision, knowledge sharing and practical methods or guidance.
• Contribute to client relationships, extensions, bids and proposition development as part of a collaborative team effort.

You will not be accountable for detailed system design, installation design or platform configuration. Your technical authority will lie in helping clients make the right decisions, establish robust requirements and maintain focus on intended outcomes through delivery.

How the role grows

• You will lead complex commissions or major workstreams, own quality and senior client confidence, and materially contribute to winning work.
• You will lead selected bids and extensions, help manage commission performance, mentor colleagues and raise delivery standards.
• You will lead major client relationships, grow the Building Intelligence proposition and pipeline, and influence opportunities beyond individual commissions.
• You will build capability and leaders, strengthen cross‑business collaboration, have strong relationships across the industry and bring an entrepreneurial approach to business generation.

This role supports more than one route to senior leadership. Depending on the needs of the role and your strengths, you may lead as a subject‑matter expert, a people manager, or by leading a Building Intelligence team or vertical. We are interested in the impact you can make in the role, not a single prescribed management route. We expect leadership through judgement, mentoring, high standards, collaboration, care and respect, whether or not you have formal line‑management responsibility.

What we are looking for

• Practical smart‑building or complex‑estate project experience, gained in one or more of: client‑side estates or capital‑project teams; main or MEP contractors; smart‑building systems integration; BMS or building‑controls specialists; digital engineering, BIM or information‑management teams; complex‑estate operations; healthcare infrastructure programmes; or specialist consultancies.
• Proven ability to lead client‑facing advisory work and to guide senior stakeholders through complex decisions.
• Strong technical judgement across smart‑building principles, building systems, BMS and operational data, integration and interoperability.
• Demonstrable understanding of smart‑building architecture.
• Ability to translate complex needs into clear strategies, requirements, standards, roadmaps and decision support.
• Commercial awareness, strong delivery leadership and the confidence to build trusted relationships.
• Genuine curiosity about emerging technology, coupled with judgement about where it creates real client value or risk.
• Commitment to developing others and creating an inclusive, high‑performing team environment.
• Experience leading strategy, requirements, business‑case, assurance or operational‑readiness work across complex estates or programmes.
• Experience that connects requirements and strategy through procurement, construction, commissioning, handover and operation is particularly valuable. We are looking for the judgement to challenge technology vendors and project teams on system interoperability, data ownership and access, OT/IT cyber boundaries, commissioning evidence, operational handover and whether intended use cases work after occupation.
• Current security clearance, or eligibility to obtain it where required by a commission.
• Evidence of growing client relationships, winning work, developing propositions or leading cross‑disciplinary teams.

Turner & Townsend is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and actively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.