Construction recruitment in the North West

The construction market in the North West

Manchester city centre has one of the most active commercial and residential construction pipelines outside London. High-rise residential, Grade A office development, hotel, student accommodation, and mixed-use regeneration schemes have sustained continuous demand for project managers, site managers, quantity surveyors, and design managers. The city's growth has spread into Salford, Trafford, and the wider Greater Manchester conurbation, and shows no sign of plateauing. Main contractors including Bowmer and Kirkland, Eric Wright, Morgan Sindall, and Sir Robert McAlpine all recruit through us regularly, alongside the Manchester arms of Kier and BAM.

HS2's North West enabling works and preparatory civils packages, particularly around Manchester Piccadilly and the Crewe hub, have added infrastructure engineering demand to a market already stretched by commercial construction activity. Laing O'Rourke and Galliford Try are among the contractors active on HS2 enabling and preparatory works in the North West, and civils contractors and specialist groundwork businesses are competing for a thin pool of experienced civils engineers, project managers, and planning engineers across the region. Nuclear infrastructure work at Sellafield and Heysham, including new-build and decommissioning packages, adds a further specialist construction demand layer in Cumbria and west Lancashire.

The residential sector across Greater Manchester, Cheshire, and Lancashire is delivering significant volume. Housebuilders from the nationals to regional developers need site managers, assistant site managers, and quantity surveyors in large numbers. Vistry and Taylor Wimpey are among the volume housebuilders delivering at scale across the region. Liverpool's waterfront and city centre regeneration, including ongoing residential conversion and new-build schemes, adds Merseyside activity to what is already a region-wide construction recruitment challenge.

Salary benchmarks

Site engineers and assistant quantity surveyors in the North West earn £33,000 to £42,000. Site managers and quantity surveyors at mid-level earn £44,000 to £58,000. Project managers and commercial managers with solid experience earn £56,000 to £70,000. Senior project managers and operations directors on major Manchester schemes command £68,000 to £84,000. Nuclear and HS2-adjacent roles often carry a 10 to 15 per cent premium over comparable commercial construction roles.

Roles we fill in the North West