Principal Civil Engineer

Location/s: Cambridge, Reading, Belfast or Leeds; UK
Recruiter contact: Laura Easdon

Mott Mac Donald is a global engineering, management, and development consultancy with over 20,000 employees across more than 50 countries and 140+ offices.

We work across incredible global industries, delivering exciting work that is defining our future and making an important societal impact in the communities we serve. Our people power our performance – we succeed when they do. With countless opportunities to collaborate, learn, and grow, the possibilities for excellence are as varied as every individual.

Whether you want to grow as a subject matter expert or broaden your experience with roles across our international community, you’re surrounded by global specialists who want to combine their expertise and champion you to be your best. As a proudly employee‑owned business, we benefit our clients, our communities, and each other, investing in creating the right space for everyone to feel empowered, included, and valued.

Whatever your ambition, Mott Mac Donald is where people come to be brilliant.

About the division

The Water Consultancy Division is Mott Mac Donald’s centre of excellence for responding to water and wastewater challenges, offering fantastic opportunities to get involved in diverse and technically challenging work. The work we do is at the forefront of ensuring safe water supplies for future generations and protecting our environment. Our multi‑disciplinary teams provide a variety of services throughout the full project life cycle, from advisory services and feasibility studies, through outline and detailed design, to construction support and site supervision.

Overview

of the role >

Due to significant growth and future market opportunities within our Water Consultancy Division, we are looking to establish and grow a Front‑end Engineering Delivery team focussed on the leadership, management and engineering delivery of major water projects. This will include the UK water company Strategic Resource Options and major schemes working on flood and coastal risk management, navigation and water land and biodiversity assets and across the hydropower market.

Front‑end Engineering is expected to include feasibility, concept and outline design stages.

Join our dynamic and award‑winning One Water Team at Mott Mac Donald, where we are committed to our Clients, our People and the Environment.

We are agile across our resource teams, which offers candidates excellent career progression opportunities. You will work alongside industry recognised experts to deliver value to key clients, including water companies, Environment Agency and contractors.

In this role, you will:

• Lead multi‑disciplinary design teams in project delivery
• Support technical excellence activities through digital innovation, sharing best practice and implementing robust QA procedures
• Contribute to our commercial success through forecasting and risk management, and the production of bids and proposals
• Work to Mott Mac Donald’s global standards and review Health, Safety and Welfare alongside environmental impact
• Review of design submissions to ensure compliance with contract requirements
• Conduct discipline checker role on standard outputs
• Interfacing and liaising with clients and other stakeholders
• Mentoring and contributing to the development of junior staff
• Working with resource leads to coordinate project resources and to grow and develop our capability through recruitment and training
• Business development including providing specialist support to our Account Leaders and Practices and leading on proposals and tenders in the water and wastewater fields

Candidate specification

We are seeking a driven individual with a passion for finding solutions that meet environmental and cost drivers whilst delivering excellent customer outputs.

• Chartered engineer with relevant technical degree
• Experience of leading engineering design and/or multi‑disciplinary design teams on water or wastewater projects in the UK and Ireland water market
• Front‑end major projects experience
• Solid knowledge of water or wastewater specifications and standards
• A team leader capable of managing and…