Consultant to Manager – Advisory

Consultant to Manager – Advisory

Laing O'Rourke Australia Construction Pty Limited is seeking experienced professionals for its Advisory team in North Sydney.

Laing O’Rourke is a global engineering and construction leader with a turnover of $6 billion, specialising in state-of-the-art infrastructure and building projects. Operating in Australia for over 20 years, the company builds on more than 70 years of local expertise. Laing O’Rourke is driven by a purpose to push the boundaries of what’s possible in service of humanity, creating essential facilities like safer hospitals, cleaner water, secure defence infrastructure, and better-connected cities. The company also fosters meaningful careers and inclusive workplaces. With global strength and deep local roots, its unique operating model integrates cutting-edge technology and modern construction methods to ensure client certainty and transform infrastructure engineering and delivery. Laing O’Rourke also owns Select Plant Australia, the nation’s fourth-largest plant hire company, and Laing O’Rourke Rail Operations, which supports major projects and nationwide rail maintenance.

This role is suitable for individuals who excel at structured problem-solving and wish to play a more direct part in shaping critical infrastructure delivery. You will work collaboratively with those responsible for planning, procuring, and constructing major infrastructure projects.

The position involves a blend of client-facing and internal engagements, often within fast-moving, ambiguous, and commercially sensitive environments. The expectation is to not only analyse challenges but also to assist teams in navigating them and achieving practical outcomes. Depending on your experience, responsibilities may include owning defined workstreams, leading small teams, or significantly contributing to client engagement strategies.

Key Responsibilities

The work is diverse but generally encompasses understanding current project or organisational operations, identifying performance gaps, and defining necessary changes. This may involve:

• Assisting project teams to diagnose delivery delays.
• Supporting clients in re-evaluating program governance.
• Contributing to the commercial or delivery strategy for significant opportunities.
• Collaborating with business leaders to enhance decision-making, risk management, and outcome delivery.

Daily activities include structuring problems, analysing data and documentation, engaging with stakeholders at various organisational levels, and translating findings into clear, actionable recommendations. Time will be dedicated to both analysis and discussions, testing concepts with individuals responsible for on-the-ground delivery. You will work closely with Laing O’Rourke colleagues, leveraging expertise in engineering, construction, commercial, procurement, project delivery, and operations to ensure recommendations are practical and informed by real-world delivery experience.

About You

Candidates should possess strong consulting fundamentals, including structured problem-solving, critical thinking, analytical rigour, clear communication, and sound judgement. You should be capable of deconstructing ambiguous or complex issues, formulating pertinent questions, analysing data and evidence, and articulating findings as clear, practical recommendations. The role requires comfort in transitioning between analytical work and stakeholder conversations, building a factual basis, testing ideas, offering constructive challenges, and facilitating team decision-making.

Strong communication skills are essential. You must be able to summarise complex issues into clear, concise materials, write effectively, develop compelling presentations or written outputs, and confidently lead discussions, workshops, and stakeholder interactions.

A practical, commercially grounded mindset is also important. This role is for individuals who understand real-world applicability beyond theoretical solutions and can work credibly with senior stakeholders, delivery teams, and subject matter experts.

As a guide:

• Consultant level: Approximately 2–5 years of relevant experience.
• Manager level: Approximately 5–8+ years of relevant experience, including experience leading workstreams, managing stakeholders, and taking ownership of deliverables from problem definition to final recommendation.

Relevant backgrounds may include consulting, strategy, transformation, operations, commercial, PMO, project controls, major projects, infrastructure, engineering, or other complex operating environments.

Why Join Us

This is an opportunity to develop an advisory career within a growing team that offers the pace and autonomy of a startup environment, combined with the stability and support of a major infrastructure business. You will engage with complex, high-impact problems and gain direct insight into the operation of major projects and programs. The work focuses on practical application rather than purely theoretical outputs.

Location: North Sydney Work Type: Full-time Salary: Negotiable $$$ based on experience | Base + Super On-site/Remote: Onsite