From trainee to the top: Willmott Dixon opens 37 roles for the class of its 175th year

Willmott Dixon has opened recruitment for 37 trainee roles starting in September 2027, inviting the next generation into the programme that produced the people now running the business. The new intake will join the company in its 175th year.

Executive chairman Rick Willmott, chief executive officer Graham Dundas, Interiors and Fortem chairman Chris Tredget, Construction chief operating officer Stewart Brundell and Simon Ramage, managing director for North London and Northern Home Counties, all began their Willmott Dixon careers as trainees.

Graham Dundas joined as a management trainee in 1998 and became chief executive in 2024. Stewart Brundell, then a trainee site manager, was named the company’s first-ever Trainee of the Year in 1989, an award contested every year since.

The 2027 intake comprises 32 graduate and degree apprentice roles and five year-out placements across more than a dozen disciplines, from quantity surveying, site management and design to digital, sustainability, building services, planning, estimating and preconstruction. Roles are spread across Willmott Dixon’s regional network, with the largest number, 11, in the North across the North West, North East and Yorkshire.

Graham Dundas:

“It is part of our DNA to develop and promote our people and provide the opportunity for a career of a lifetime. For almost 50 years we have backed young people early, given them real responsibility on live projects and helped them grow into our future leaders. The 37 people who join us next September have an opportunity to shape this industry in the decades ahead.”

The recruitment drive comes as the CITB’s Construction Workforce Outlook 2026–2030 forecasts that the industry needs to find around 206,000 extra workers by 2030, more than 41,000 a year.

Investing for the future

Willmott Dixon’s management trainee programme, which started in 1979 with a first intake of 20, was created as a fast track for the company’s future leaders. Trainees earn while they learn, studying part-time for a relevant degree or professional qualification with the company’s support. Each is allocated a mentor and gains experience across the business before specialising, with the programme taking between two and five years depending on entry point.

The company was ranked Europe’s fourth best place to work in the 2025 FT Best Employers guide and named the best big construction company to work for in the 2025 Sunday Times Best Places to Work guide. Women make up 34% of its workforce, more than double the industry average of 16%.

2027 trainee roles by local office region

• 11 in the North (North West, North East, Yorkshire): quantity surveying, site management, design, new business and preconstruction
• 7 in London & East (Hitchin): quantity surveying, site management, estimating, planning and sustainability, plus two year-out placements
• 6 in the Midlands (Birmingham, Oxford, Warwick, East and West Midlands): proposals, preconstruction, quantity surveying, site management and building services, plus one year-out placement
• 5 in Wales & West (Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter): site management, quantity surveying, building services and environmental
• 4 at Willmott Dixon Interiors (London): commercial, digital and environmental sustainability, plus one year-out placement
• 3 in the South (Weybridge): design, quantity surveying and site management, plus one year-out placement
• 1 at the Strategic Accounts & Services Team (London): frameworks

How to apply

Applications for the September 2027 intake are open now at https://www.willmottdixon.co.uk/careers/job-search?category=management+trainee and close on 22 November 2026. The company wants to hear from people of all backgrounds with a passion for construction, whether they are school leavers, graduates or changing direction. The process includes an online application and video interview, with shortlisted candidates invited to an assessment day.