Deputy Business Development Director - Rail, Place and Regional Development

Our Rail business is seeking a Deputy Business Development Director – Rail: Place and Regional Development to lead Rail's engagement with the evolving place and regional development agenda across the UK.  As investment, influence and accountability increasingly move towards mayoral strategic authorities, combined authorities, local government and regional transport bodies, you will build trusted relationships, market insight and integrated propositions needed to shape place-led rail investment and deliver sustainable growth. 

Reporting to the Business Development Director – Rail, you will focus on emerging and established regional clients and the partners through whom rail propositions are developed and delivered.  You will connect Rail capability with WSP’s wider Local Government, Transport, Advisory, Planning, Environment and Property expertise, presenting a coordinated OneWSP proposition. 

You will work closely with Group Directors, client and account leads, Regional Growth Leads, Strategic Growth Directors and WSP’s Local Government Sector leadership to identify emerging programmes early, understand regional policy and funding priorities, shape client propositions and convert market intelligence into a visible, qualified pipeline.  In short, bringing structure to the complexity into which we face. 

The role provides leadership and connection into WSP’s Local Government Sector and Regional Growth structures; it does not replace them or own every regional authority account.  Instead, it will ensure that rail-focused propositions, relationships and opportunities are coordinated through existing Rail and Local Government governance and pipeline arrangements.  The role focuses on market development, relationship building and opportunity shaping. Once opportunities become defined strategic pursuits, leadership transfers to the Strategic Growth Director through established capture governance. 

This is a highly visible leadership role within the Rail business, providing direction and coordination across WSP's devolution and regional growth agenda.  Success will come through building trusted relationships, connecting capability across the business and helping colleagues identify, shape and convert emerging opportunities into sustainable growth. 

Key accountabilities 

Market leadership & strategy 

• Lead our engagement with the UK&I place and regional development agenda. 

• Build and maintain a view of emerging investment priorities, funding mechanisms and policy drivers across strategic authorities, local government and regional transport bodies. 

• Represent WSP in relevant place-making, regional growth, transport and economic development forums. 

• Translate regional intelligence into actionable opportunities and investment choices for the Rail business. 

Client engagement & market development 

• Build senior relationships with mayoral strategic authorities, combined authorities, local authorities, regional transport bodies and place-based delivery organisations, while supporting interfaces with Network Rail / Great British Railways. 

• Develop engagement plans for established and emerging strategic authorities, with named relationships, intelligence priorities, routes to market and agreed actions. 

• Identify emerging rail propositions before they become conventional procurement opportunities, connecting transport investment with housing, regeneration, economic development, skills, accessibility and decarbonisation outcomes. 

• Build relationships with delivery partners, contractors, operators and specialist advisers where regional clients require integrated development and delivery propositions. 

• Connect rail investment propositions with wider place outcomes including housing growth, regeneration, economic development, skills, accessibility and decarbonisation. 

Work winning & pipeline leadership 

• Convert market intelligence into a visible, qualified, and prioritised pipeline of Rail and Transit owned opportunities. 

• Support investment decisions on where WSP should engage and build relationships across the diverse mix of client and stakeholder organisations. 

• Support the Business Development Director and Strategic Growth Director in transitioning pipeline opportunities into more formal capture and pursuit governance. 

Collaboration & integration 

• Convening multidisciplinary teams around rail and transit place-based opportunities, working with, Transport Planning, Advisory, Planning, Environment, Property, and related capabilities. 

• Share intelligence systematically across Rail and the wider WSP business, avoiding duplicated engagement or isolated approaches to the same authority. 

• Provide a clear handover into Strategic Growth-led capture once opportunities become defined strategic pursuits. 

A typical week…

Whilst a typical week in a dynamic role like this does not exist, we would expect most of your time to be spent on client engagement and market development (meeting with clients, delivery partners, contractors etc.), with a secondary focus on work winning and pipeline development. Your role will take you all around the UK and you will need to be flexible to travel.