Country Director

Job description / Role

You take a lead in creating the climate for delivering technical and business success, developing the business plan, managing and planning resources and fostering a collaborative, professional and positive working environment. You have a real sense of what clients and employees are thinking and feeling about the business you run and what you need to do to drive improvement. An ambassador for the international business, you stimulate profitable growth and excellence by making the most of the international resources available.

Functions & Scope:
• Drive the strategic positioning of our business offering within country ensuring the operational success and delivery of business targets to facilitate the future growth of the business. This is also predominantly a senior client facing role in country with a remit to develop critical client relationships, win and deliver new work for the country. The individual must be a proven work winner and relationship builder in the Country.

Behaviours:
• A Winning Attitude, you clearly demonstrate and demand from your team a sense of purpose in delivering targets, realising opportunity and set the tone for moving the business forward. You are a self starter with high levels of motivation.
• Customer Driven, you place the customer at the heart of businessstrategy, creating a customer-focused culture in- country and across the region. You challenge your team to improve customers’ experience.
• Meet the challenge, you create and sustain an environment for learning and the development of talent within your business. You are a role model by never seeing your own development as done.
• Aware, you understand local and regional global business priorities and have knowledge of organisational culture. You use this knowledge to formulate your own business plan and drive change across the wider country and region. You are culturally aware and act with a high level of charisma.
• Delivers, you mobilise teams to translate big ideas and vision into reality. You work with senior colleagues to align plans and strategies across business units, staying focused on key performance measures.
• Team Player, you build and promote a one team approach and address performance or communication issues swiftly. You confront and resolve organisational conflict and entrenched positions as well as celebrating success.
• Engaging, you inspire and persuade, motivate and energise employees – invoking passion and commitment. You encourage and champion honest, two-way feedback up, down and across the business at the most senior levels of the region.
• You demonstrate strong influencing skills and the ability to interact at all levels.
• Adaptable, you are positive and determined. You drive through organisational change by personally communicating the rationale. You understand the wider business environment to anticipate and prepare for the changes that will affect the business.

Key Attributes:
• Strong record of wining work and maintaining long term client trust. Ensures excellence in service delivery;
• Successful track record of leading businesses and projects in the Middle East environment including planning and independently managing stakeholder and client relationships at senior levels. Lead by example in terms of collaborating across the country and region to ensure consistent high performance and maximise business opportunities;
• Developing the in country Business Plan and integration into the wider regional strategy;
• Culturally aware with strong relationship building / influencing skills and agility across different relationships and situations;
• Demonstrable experience of working within a matrix structure (countries and sectors);
• A strong track record in financial management (P&L and project) as well as commercial /negotiation management;
• A strong leadership qualities including the ability to inspire and motivate.

Your Contribution:
• Directing the recruitment and development of staff in support of the business plan.
• Maximise employee potential. Identify and mentor future stars. Support cross business mobility and deployment of talent. Effectively manage poor performance.

Principal Responsibilities:
• Leading the Country business unit. Ensuring excellence in service delivery. Carrying out senior level performance and development reviews.
• Full responsibility for business plan and profit and loss of Country business in line with business plan and being the principal work winner;
• Manage and grow long term relationships with targeted and existing clients;
• Client director on major projects and key clients. Actively participate and influence the market as a key executive;
• Develop and manage team structures and formal lines of reporting. Reorganising team structures as appropriate – be flexible to wider business needs;
• Hold in-country Power of Attorney and signatory authority;
• Manage and control in-country overheads and prioritise discretionary spend;
• Drive improved cash management;
• Lead business improvement in line with regional / international initiatives;
• Member of Middle East senior leadership team;
• Manage and develop “day to day” relationships with country sponsors;
• Work with sector and regional support departments to develop business in line with strategy;
• Identify and manage and business risk. Support, coach, develop and recruit staff.

Requirements

Qualifications:
• Professional membership of a relevant institution (preferred)
• Degree qualified.

Your Experience:
• Detailed knowledge of competitors, understand the market differentiators and help to shape them.
• Proven business development skills, understand the external market and forward workload in your nominated region and national sector/service.
• Possess a track record in securing new business;
• Managed a team on major/complex projects or managed team servicing a range of projects for clients;
• Thorough understanding of the business drivers of your clients and the ability to proactively advise clients on built environment solutions;
• Full understanding of the wider F+G, Atkins and Acuity. Alert to and actively support cross-business opportunities, capitalising on the full range of expertise available;
• Detailed knowledge of the regional service/sector in which you operate and externally acknowledged expert in this field. Membership of national working forum, change programme or similar initiative.

About the Company

Atkins is one of the leading providers of professional, technology based consultancy and support services to the industry, commerce and governments in all of the worlds major economies. With over 17,000 staff operating in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the Americas, Atkins has a broad range of skills and resources and provides Clients with a comprehensive service throughout the entire life cycle of the projects in the built environment.

We aim to be the international first choice supplier of technical and integrated services. Shaped by our customers' needs, our vision is to:

• focus on quality
• seek world class design and excellence
• strive to add value
• be flexible to the evolving needs of a changing society

Atkins first carried out design and supervision commissions in the Gulf area in 1967. From its regional head office in Dubai, U.A.E. Atkins Middle East now employs over 2000 staff located in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Oman (Muscat ), Qatar (Doha) Bahrain (Manama), Kuwait (Kuwait City) and India (Bangalore).