Associate Director, Construction Delay

The role

You will lead complex engagements involving disputes related to delay, disruption, project controls, causation, and financial impacts. You will work with senior experts, lawyers, and clients to perform forensic delay and critical path analyses.

What you will do

• Review project schedules, progress records, correspondence, contracts, technical documentation, and cost records.
• Perform and direct forensic delay and critical path analyses.
• Analyse disruption, productivity impacts, and financial consequences of delay and disruption.
• Quantify impacts such as prolongation, acceleration, additional resources, and productivity loss.
• Integrate schedule, cost, factual, and technical evidence to establish and test causation.
• Analyse large project datasets using data analytics and visualisation.
• Critically review opposing expert analyses and opinions.
• Draft substantial sections of expert reports.
• Lead workstreams and smaller engagements including planning, managing teams, budgets, and deadlines.
• Supervise, coach, and develop junior colleagues.

Required qualifications

• Intellectual rigour, independent judgement, curiosity and ownership.
• Strong practical understanding of how complex projects are planned and delivered.
• Strong knowledge of forensic delay analysis and critical path methodologies.
• Experience analysing disruption, productivity and/or project-related financial impacts.
• Strong scheduling capability, including Primavera P6 or comparable scheduling software.
• Experience analysing large and sometimes incomplete or conflicting project datasets.
• Strong written and spoken German and English.
• Ability to communicate complex technical and financial matters clearly to lawyers, clients and other non-technical audiences.
• Experience managing and developing junior team members.
• A relevant degree or equivalent professional background in engineering, construction management, project management, project controls, quantity surveying, commercial management or a related discipline

Nice to have

• Approximately 10+ years of relevant experience in construction, engineering, project controls, planning, scheduling, cost management or construction disputes.
• Experience in construction disputes, claims or expert consulting, preferably including international arbitration.
• Additional European or international language skills are advantageous.

About the company

Secretariat is a firm of experts and innovators dedicated to solving complex legal, financial, and regulatory matters. The firm works alongside law firms, corporations, and institutions on high-stakes global business decisions.