Joining Arup

Arup’s purpose, shared values and collaborative approach has set us apart for over 75 years, guiding how we shape a better world.

Arup is the creative force at the heart of many of the world’s most prominent projects in the built and natural environment. Working in more than 140 countries, the firm’s designers, engineers, architects, planners, consultants, and technical specialists work with our clients on innovative projects of the highest quality and impact. As a wholly independent organisation, we are owned in trust for the benefit of our employees and their dependants: with no shareholders or external investors we determine our own business priorities and direction.

About Arup University

Established in 2009, Arup University (AU) sits at the heart of how Arup - as a purpose led company with a distinct philosophy and history - learns, innovates, evolves, and delivers its best work. We enable our firm to see further, design better, and create lasting impact. Our mission is to help our members, leadership, and clients navigate change, deliver excellence, and thrive in a fast-changing world.

The core focal areas of Arup’s Strategy – enabling Total Design, being immersed in our markets, being agile and borderless, and providing an industry leading member experience – are all enabled by the capabilities, programmes, and services provided by AU. This includes our strategic foresight, research and innovation capability, our learning function, capabilities in knowledge and information management, as well as our global skills networks and work in cultural heritage.

https://www.arup.com/about-us/arup-university/

The Opportunity

The Arup University Information Management Leader sets the firm-wide direction for library and information services, ensuring information is treated as a trusted, strategic asset in an era of AI, distributed teams and evolving ways of working.

This role leads the transformation of Arup’s global information services from custodial operations to a cohesive, future-ready system that enables quality, confidence and value creation across the firm.

Leading three specialist teams – Photo Library, Project Library and Corporate Library, you will develop a cohesive, future-ready function serving professionals across regions, disciplines and time zones.

Key responsibilities:

• Define and lead a clear transformational global information management roadmap aligned to Arup’s strategic priorities
• Position information management as a firm-wide service with clear value propositions for leaders, members and as a differentiator for our clients
• Anticipate and respond to organisational and industry change, emerging technologies and evolving work practices, proactively shaping the function
• Sponsor and govern the responsible integration of AI, intelligent search and automation into information services
• Develop robust, evidence-based business cases to secure sustained investment and confidence of senior stakeholders
• Contribute to the evolution of the information management profession through targeted external engagement and thought leadership
• Mentor and develop colleagues, strengthening IM capability to build sustainable capability through succession planning and clear development pathways to retain and attract exceptional information professionals.
• Design governance, workflows and operating models that work effectively across a large, distributed organisation
• Drive continuous improvement in service quality, efficiency and user experience using data, metrics and feedback
• Manage budgets and resources to maximise impact and align investment with strategic priorities

Is this role right for you?

• Significant senior leadership experience in information management, library services or a closely related field within complex, global organisations
• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience); postgraduate qualification and information management chartership preferred
• Demonstrated capability to future proof information services by anticipating emerging technologies and evolving ways of working, and translating this into scalable, sustainable service models
• Strong professional grounding in taxonomy, metadata, records governance and digital asset management
• Practical understanding of how AI and emerging technologies are reshaping information work, with a clear ethical and governance perspective
• Experience leading distributed, multi-disciplinary teams across cultures and time zones
• Commercial and systems capability, including platform selection, systems integration, vendor management and budget stewardship

What we offer you

At Arup, we care about each member’s success, so we can grow together.

Guided by our values, we provide an attractive total reward package that recognises the contribution of each of our members to our shared success. As well as competitive, fair and equitable pay, we offer a career in which all of our members can belong, grow and thrive – through benefits that support health and wellbeing, a wide range of learning opportunities and many possibilities to have an impact through the work they do.

We are owned in trust on behalf of our members, giving us the freedom, with personal responsibility, to set our own direction and choose work that aligns with our purpose and adds to Arup’s legacy. Our members collaborate on ambitious projects to deliver remarkable outcomes for our clients and communities. Profit Share is a key part of our reward, enabling members to share in the results of our collective efforts.

Different people, shared values

Arup is an equal opportunity employer that actively promotes and nurtures a diverse and inclusive workforce. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds, regardless of age (within legal limits), gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, neurotype or mental health, race or ethnicity, faith or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and whether you’re pregnant or on family leave. We are an open environment that embraces diverse experiences, perspectives, and ideas – this drives our excellence.

Guided by our values and alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we create and contribute to equitable spaces and systems, while cultivating a sense of belonging for all. Our internal employee networks support our inclusive culture: from race, ethnicity and cross-cultural working to gender equity and LGBTQ+ and disability inclusion – we aim to create a space for you to express yourself and make a positive difference. Discover more about life at Arup at www.arup.com/careers/your-life-at-arup.

We are committed to making our recruitment process and workplaces accessible to all candidates. Please contact lia.wiltsher@arup.com to let us know if you need any assistance or reasonable adjustments throughout your application or interview process, and/or to perform the essential functions of the role. We will do everything we can to support you.

Our Application Process

To understand what to expect next, please visit https://www.arup.com/careers/recruitment-process/

Stay safe online – Arup will never ask for your bank details as part of our recruitment process. #LI-LW2

Recruitment Agencies - We have a Preferred Supplier List of trusted partners to assist us when required and do not acknowledge any speculative CVs or unsolicited candidate introductions from agencies not on the list.