Infrastructure asset management professional

This occupation is found in a range of industries that manage physical assets including energy and utilities, manufacturing, petrochemical, buildings, and transport. They may be employed by asset owning companies, outsourced services companies, or asset management consultants. Companies may range in size from small to large.

Physical assets are defined as an item, thing or entity that has value to a business or service. Examples include buildings, bridges, digital hardware, flood defences, gas fiscal metering, pipelines (water/gas), plant (cranes), rail track, reservoirs, roads, retail space, runways, and wind turbines. ISO 55000 defines asset management as ‘the co-ordinated activity of an organisation to realise value from assets.

The broad purpose of the occupation is to lead the asset management function within an organisation. This involves formulation and leading the development of the asset management policy, strategy, plans, and objectives to ensure physical assets are managed in a way to achieve the organisation’s objectives, including resolving multiple competing goals and clarification of risk appetite. They ensure the necessary resources, competence, asset management information, suppliers and culture are in place to achieve this, along with audit and assurance.

Infrastructure asset management professionals lead the creation of short, medium and long term asset investment plans using optimisation and prioritisation developed through testing plans against multiple business scenarios. They oversee the asset investment business cases and define and establish the parameters for asset investment decision making, risk quantification, and mitigation plans. They will evaluate and report on performance and drive continuous improvement. A key part of the role is to lead stakeholder engagement. They will work primarily in the office.

In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with the wider business and executives in the organisation. In order to support their work, they will liaise with external and internal stakeholders. These could include senior executives, investment groups, policy teams, capital delivery, and customer services to ensure the asset management function aligns with customer, stakeholder, and organisational requirements. They are likely to routinely come into contact with representatives from other organisations or external bodies such as clients, funding agencies, regulators, and suppliers.

An employee in this occupation will be responsible for ensuring asset management complies with legal frameworks and legislation, including public health, health & safety, economic and environmental. They need to ensure they and others keep up to date with asset management requirements and best practice. They typically work to deadlines without supervision, being self-managing. They will have established a budget. They are likely to lead teams and be responsible for organisational functions.