David Turnbull
David partners with clients across construction, transport, power, renewables and water, designing workforce planning frameworks that secure critical talent ahead of delivery demand.
Full Bio
David is a Director at Infrastructure People with more than 20 years of international talent acquisition and recruitment experience, gained both in-house and in consultancy, within technical, project and operational disciplines. His background spans market sectors including construction, transport, power, renewables, water, defence, oil and gas and mining.
David's career includes nine years with UGL, where he established the centralised national white-collar recruitment function supporting more than 8,000 employees and led recruitment for the Utilities and Resources business across Australia and New Zealand, and a workforce planning and resource management role with Oil Search, designing the resource planning framework for operations across Australia and Papua New Guinea. His project history includes the Ichthys LNG Combined Cycle Power Project, the North West Rail Link, the Tailem Bend, Bannerton and Kidston solar farms and the Digital Train Radio Systems program. Through Infrastructure People, David has worked as an embedded talent partner with businesses including Alstom and National Intermodal, helping clients build strong teams and source scarce critical competencies during ramp-up periods.
David has extensive experience in the development and implementation of workforce planning frameworks, strengthening Infrastructure People's commitment to ensuring partners have the right talent in place, with the right capabilities, at the right time, to deliver on Australia's significant future demands.
What they say about us...
We have had great success since entering an agreement with Infrastructure People in late 2022, recruiting approximately 60 employees in 5 months. I would like to thank the team for your hard work and continued input into the successful recruitment drive.
At all times the team have gone above and beyond to ensure candidates of the highest levels are identified and presented to our business. Their ability to identify the right candidates, understand our business and our internal selection processes has been outstanding, making the recruitment process simple and easy, thereby minimising the distraction to our business and people.
Our Infrastructure People consultant was as much a part of our team as all our other employees, dealing with all the needs we had for personnel, sourcing and screening them, then the onboarding. This was just what we needed to allow us to focus on the other moving parts we have going on, while ensuring the most critical aspect was not forgotten and was given the utmost attention needed. As they say, get professionals to do what they do best so you can do your best at what you do.
David from Infrastructure People provided exceptional support and expertise during the recruitment process for some of the key positions in National Intermodal's PMO team. His deep understanding of our needs, coupled with his ability to identify top-tier talent, ensured that the perfect candidates were found for the team. The high quality of candidates presented exceeded expectations, and his guidance throughout made a significant difference in securing the right fit for the team.
Infrastructure People's focus on understanding our specific needs and providing tailored solutions ensured he was able to hit the ground running and make an immediate impact. Overall, the combination of exceptional skills and Infrastructure People's business model made for an effective partnership.
Their market knowledge, sourcing skills, tenacity and ability to use data to push for results has been brilliant, along with the additional support, market mapping and market intelligence provided. Our consultant has been an integral member of our team at UGL, driven and positive. Her commitment to candidate and hiring manager care has been a standout.
Our Infrastructure People consultant commenced with us on an initial short-term placement to fill a gap when we had immediate resourcing needs. However, her commitment to the role on SPARK and the way she supported her senior stakeholders quickly saw her become a critical and vital part of our team. In the year she was with us, due to her understanding of the industry and her professionalism, she was able to place over 100 people in ongoing roles on SPARK. I would recommend Infrastructure People to others in the industry.
Our Infrastructure People consultant played a critical part in growing and strengthening the commercial team on the Spark North East Link project, placing over 20 commercial professionals in long term roles. The volume of recruitment within my team would not have been possible without her dedication and commitment. She always made herself available, providing guidance and support.
Our Infrastructure People consultant commenced with us on an initial short-term placement, but her unwavering dedication and commitment to her role and supporting her stakeholders was simply exceptional and saw her become a critical and vital part of our team. She placed over 125 people in ongoing roles on project and received a SPARK Monthly award for "Succeeding Together", a testament to her persistent efforts and positivity. Her professionalism and work ethic are valued by the team and the wider P&C Area.
We engaged Russell and Infrastructure People to assist us in taking our business to the next level. In the short time we have been working together, we have dramatically improved our processes and strategies to attract talent and to secure long-term contracts with our clients. I would highly recommend Russ and Infrastructure People.
Over the duration that Russ has been partnered with Titan IND we have seen a sustained company growth of 40%. I have no hesitation in recommending IP.
Russell and the team at Infrastructure People have been a breath of fresh air to assist with our ongoing recruiting needs. The lengths they have gone to be able to understand and immerse themselves in our business and the way it is conducted has been amazing to watch. We appreciate all of the efforts by the IP staff and look forward to a strong and ongoing future.
They invested time and effort to understand our business and project requirements, matching us with suitable candidates in this challenging job market. The communication throughout the process was prompt and efficient, keeping the business informed at every step. Their extensive network and industry knowledge were evident as they presented high-quality candidates to the business.
From the start, the team have had the ability to understand our business and the company culture, and the capability to produce high levels of candidates for required roles within our business. Degnan Constructions feel comfortable in the team’s ability at Infrastructure People to deliver any current or future requirements and I am happy to recommend in any capacity.
Right from the start, Rob and his team took the time to get to know me on a personal level, building a close working relationship. It's refreshing to find a company offering recruitment services that are not interested in making a fee. I would highly recommend.
By engaging Infrastructure People, we were able to cost effectively consolidate our recruitment efforts into one partner. With the breadth of their recruitment efforts and reach, we were able to fill many roles covering project management, admin and civil and electrical trades roles, delivering a record level of recruitment into the business and ensuring services and projects were delivered to our customers' satisfaction.
Infrastructure People became an integral member of the ARTC Major Construction Projects Talent team. I found them to be proactive, focused and was responsible for the recruitment of some outstanding talent to ARTC.
We engaged Infrastructure People for specialist role recruitment to help complete our bulk campaign to get our Project fully resourced. It is critical to build strong project teams within the right timeframes, the support from Infrastructure People allowed us to tap into a high calibre pool of applicants that were unknown to us, we have been very happy with the service provided.
Their timeliness in response has been outstanding, more so than their industry peers and they provide honest feedback in relation to the candidate market. The effort taken to understand our business needs and culture translates into the quality of candidates put forward to us. The business model proposed by Infrastructure People was carefully tailored for us.
They actually know who you want, and they can vet candidates and give you ideas of people that should work for your business. It means you're not chasing phone calls all the time. It really takes you out of the grind of having to find people yourself. They take on all the hard work upfront, and they seem to genuinely enjoy it, which tells you something. By the time we're involved, we're at the part we actually want to be at. It's definitely the way most recruitment should go, if I'm being completely honest.
David has an extraordinary talent for communicating and connecting with people. His ability to form a connection with both the candidates and the hiring team was impressive and contributed immensely to the success of this recruitment process. David's professionalism, willingness to go above and beyond, and excellent communication skills made the whole process a lot smoother than expected.
Alstom has partnered with Infrastructure People for over 18 months, in particular David Turnbull, who has worked alongside and been a part of our own internal talent acquisition team. David has played a critical role in our ability to quickly ramp up during a critical phase in our business, to build strong teams of high calibre people and source scarce critical competencies. Their business model and way of working fits with our business, they are extremely responsive, they understand our business and we look forward to continuing the partnership in the future.