Your place in the landscape
Career paths are rarely girder straight, but more responsive, developing as you find your feet
We offer many opportunities to develop your engineering or other technical knowledge and skills in a dynamic business with a lot of different project types.
There are always opportunities to apply for specialist training or to transfer from one area to another as your career develops and your ideas change.
You don’t have to like mud to work here, but it helps.
Technical
Planning Engineers
Planners follow a similar path to estimators, through Apprenticeships in Civil Engineering, professional membership of ICE.
Opportunities abound for progression to senior positions as your mastery of the domain is cemented.
Estimating
Estimators can begin via Apprenticeships in Civil Engineering, NVQs in Estimating, Professional membership of ICE or AcostE.
Starting roles are often available for apprentice estimators, progressing quickly to junior and senior estimator. Through our management and leadership programmes you might continue your rise through a hierarchical structure to become managing or chief estimator.
Procurement
Procurement is a big part of civil engineering projects. Identifying and evaluating suppliers, negotiating terms and maintaining the resilience of our supply chain are all essential components in the success of the business.
We accept Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) members from level two (new entrants) to level six for senior procurement professionals. In common with other technical roles there is a clear progression route rewarding experience and knowledge as you grow.
Family office: Administrative functions provide solid support to the business.
Site-based careers
There are defined career paths for our key site workers.
Our Civil Engineers typically join us as graduates with a degree or postgraduate master’s degree in civil engineering, although an increasingly common route is through a degree apprenticeship.
An Engineer’s career progression will see them advance through the ranks to Project Engineer or people can opt to take the Sub Agent to Project Manager route.
We also support all our Engineers in gaining professional membership with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).
Our Quantity Surveyors (QS) typically join us with a degree or appropriate professional qualification. Again, there is a set a career progression, leading to Contract QS and Commercial Manager positions.
For those in the company who have been working as a Groundworker or Ganger and want to progress, we also offer a Trainee Foreman route, which involves study of a number of course including an NVQ Level 3 in Supervisory Operations.
Office-based careers
Our business is also made up of a variety of exciting career opportunities – mostly based at our head office in Ipswich but also with some located at our regional offices.
There are opportunities for Planning Engineers and Estimators to work their way up from an Apprenticeship to senior roles while positions in our Procurement and Bid Writing departments sometimes become available.
Other support teams include Fleet Management, IT, Accounts and Finance, and Administration.
As a people-focussed business with a strong supportive culture, Jackson also has a sizeable HR, Recruitment and Training team that plays an important role in maintaining the strength of the business and supporting everyone, whatever their role and seniority in the company.
As you can see – we are enthusiastic about helping people develop themselves and their careers at Jackson.
Support and systems
Administration
Like any business, there is a substantial need for administrative support within the firm. While structured clear paths are less prevalent than in technical roles, opportunities exist at every level from trainee to management. Entrance is normally at Apprenticeship in Business Administrator levels three of four.
IT
As a growing regional firm with distributed offices and a variety of systems and hardware support needs, the IT function is critical to smooth running.
We welcome new entrants via Apprenticeships in IT, or from other IT courses. Roles include IT technician, helpdesk, analyst, and IT management.
Accounts & finance
The finance function is a small but central team with a range of roles from new entrant to senior management accountant. We support apprenticeships available at AAT levels two, three and four, and professional membership of AAT at Chartered level.
HR, Recruitment & Training
As you will have seen, Jackson is a people-focussed business with a strong supportive culture. The HR, recruitment and training team plays an important role in maintaining the strength of the business, supporting everyone, whatever their role and seniority in the firm. We are enthusiastic about helping people develop themselves and their careers at Jackson.
We welcome entry through apprenticeship and then CIPD levels three, five and seven. We also encourage professional membership of CIPD on gaining qualifications and experience. Career progression from administrative to co-ordinator roles, is available leading to management and leadership positions.
Commercial
Commercial
Project co-ordination requires a strong commercial and compliance team led by QS, commercial and legal expert practitioners. Entry is normally through quantity surveying degree, commercial law degree.
A programme of internal courses supports you knowledge development. RICS and ICES professional membership is encouraged. Typical progression begins with assistant QS, QS, Senior QS, and Project QS, leading to commercial management and leadership roles.
Bid Writers
An essential grounding in communications can lead to a rewarding role in helping the firm to pitch and win business.
A degree in English or journalism might lead this way but is less essential than developing a thorough understanding of the business. We provide writing skills workshops and internal courses to help you develop communications skills that could see you from proposals co-ordination to junior and senior roles in proposals development.
Fleet management
There’s a lot of movement within civil engineering not just of materials but people. We operate a large fleet of vehicles and a range of policies that fleet managers can help to implement.
A background in logistics, supply chain management or business administration could lead this way to occupying roles in fleet administration, co-ordination, and management.