Meet Jason Downes one of our Contracts Managers. Starting in the business in 2011 his journey from Operative to Contracts Manager was driven by his commitment and dedication to his own development – supported by the opportunities and training available within Tamdown.
From a young age Jason was around heavy plant machinery, including agricultural machines, so when the time came to select a career path, working in the construction industry seemed a logical first step.
During his early career, he gained tickets for driving and operating various plant and equipment, he also developed an interest in the larger infrastructure elements of a project such as drainage, roads and sewers.
In 2013 he had the opportunity to continue his learning, from our team of skilled Site Managers, and moved into a Site Supervisor position, helping to oversee the site/s he worked on. Then after a few years in this role, in 2016 he was promoted to be a Site Manager himself where he led sites and their teams, from delivery of projects to customer relationships and Health & Safety.
As his skills and experience grew, Tamdown was in the position to help Jason in the next step of his career and promoted Jason into a Contracts Manager role in 2021. He now oversees between 5-7 sites and works closely with both Site and Office teams.
We asked Jason about his typical week and what he enjoys most about his role…
“As a Contracts Manager, I work with a really wide range of people, whether they’re Tamdown professionals onsite and offsite, our valued customers, or the general public.
Every day and week is different… sometimes I am on site all week working closely with the Site Managers and teams to ensure quality delivery and the right commercial approaches.
Other weeks I’ll be supporting our Estimating team with tenders and programmes, and dealing with HR, labour or other items.
Working closely with the housebuilder site team, and dealing with customer care on sites is another area I get involved with, and I really enjoy this.
With the training and development opportunities I’ve had, I really enjoy paying it forward whenever I can.
Training others and bringing up the next generation is always really satisfying – helping them to find their areas of strength. I think by setting an example and sharing my experience I can make a difference, particularly to those in the early stages of their careers.
Working with so many skilled and diverse people is great too; the whole construction department is really supportive, as is the wider business. That support means we can deliver our best work for our customers and the public – I get real satisfaction from seeing a job done well.”