Full job description

We are looking for a client-side Project Manager to deliver infrastructure and construction projects for Northern Territory clients. The role is based in Darwin and reports to our Darwin-based Territory Manager, Adam Walding.

THE TERRITORY MARKET

The Territory is in a sustained infrastructure build. Schools and health facilities, remote community infrastructure, airport and aviation development, power and water assets, port and marine facilities, defence and defence supporting works, and the roads, camps and supply chains behind onshore gas and critical minerals. Much of that work is still delivered by teams flown in from interstate.

We are taking the other approach. We are basing our people in Darwin because projects are better run by people who live where they are being built. You are there when it matters, you know the ground and the people, and you are accountable to the same community as your client. That is a commitment to the Territory, not a visit.

WHO YOU WILL REPORT TO

You will report to Adam Walding, SwitchCo's Territory Manager for the Northern Territory.

Adam is based in Darwin and has spent his career in Territory infrastructure. He knows the client organisations, the consultants and the contractors, and the approval pathways, and he has the local networks that come with that.

Adam will be your line manager, your introduction to the client relationships you deliver for, and your sounding board on the decisions that matter. You will be locally led and locally supported, with the systems of a national business behind you.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING

• Project Planning: Lead full lifecycle project planning, including feasibility, authority approvals, stakeholder alignment and design management.
• Team Leadership: Provide senior leadership across consultants, contractors and specialist stakeholders, ensuring compliance within live, operational or high risk sites.
• Operational Excellence: Drive procurement strategy, contract negotiation, risk allocation and commercial performance across multiple concurrent projects.
• Financial Management: Manage multi million dollar project budgets, forecasting, variations and commercial risk.
• Quality Assurance: Lead compliance reviews, regulatory engagement and site governance inspections.
• Client Representation: Act for the client in dealings with consultants and contractors, make recommendations the client can defend internally, and hold delivery parties to their obligations.
• Local Representation: Represent SwitchCo in the Darwin market alongside your Territory Manager, at client meetings, site walks and industry forums.

WHAT THE ROLE OFFERS

Broader scope than an equivalent role in a large consultancy. You will see the full lifecycle rather than one phase of it.

Ownership from day one. You will own your projects and be trusted to run them.

Direct access to the people making decisions. You will work closely with your Territory Manager rather than reporting into a distant chain.

Variety across sectors. Territory work spans building, civil, utilities, marine and resources supporting infrastructure, so you are unlikely to spend three years on the same project type.

REALITIES OF THE ROLE

This is a hands on delivery role with a high degree of autonomy. It is not a junior stepping stone. It requires sound judgement, commercial maturity and the confidence to make difficult decisions under pressure. You will be trusted to run your projects and to represent SwitchCo with authority in front of clients and contractors.

• Three things are specific to this role.