Civil Engineer; Airports – Pavements and Drainage

Overview

Shape the Future of Airside Infrastructure Design

Purpose of the Position
This junior engineer role sits within our airports civil engineering team, above Technician level and reporting to an Associate. Its purpose is to support the technical design and coordination needed to deliver safe, buildable and operationally resilient airfield infrastructure. You will translate project requirements into drawings, models, specifications and calculations for airfield pavements and drainage, working closely with technicians and guided by senior engineers.

Typical work includes pavement inspections, materials assessment, rehabilitation design, and developing layouts and details for runways, taxiways and stands, alongside integrated drainage solutions that fit operational needs. You will collaborate with internal specialists and project managers, and gradually engage with clients, helping to produce clear scopes, coordinated design packages and concise technical reports. As you transition your highways, ports or general drainage experience into aviation, you will be supported through structured mentoring, on‑the‑job learning and exposure to the standards and methods used in airfield engineering.

Scope of the Role
You will work within a compact, multi‑level aviation engineering team that includes senior leaders, Associate Directors, technicians and an apprentice, with plans to strengthen the mid‑level engineering group. Your work will range from small technical tasks to substantial design packages, with project values spanning from low‑value specialist tracking or inspection work to six‑figure design stages for new stands and taxiways. The division typically delivers a few dozen live projects at any time across several airport and contractor clients, and you will contribute to multiple work streams, balancing survey inputs, multidisciplinary coordination and programme requirements.

The project pipeline covers regional and defence airfields as well as larger development programmes, giving you the opportunity to follow designs from feasibility through detailed design and into construction support.

What Can Be Achieved
In the first six months you will build confidence with our ways of working, toolsets and quality systems, take ownership of defined design tasks, and help uplift the productivity of the wider team by pairing effectively with technicians and learning the aviation standards that shape our outputs. By the end of the first year you can expect to run discrete work packages under supervision, contribute to site surveys and construction‑phase queries, and develop client‑ready sections of reports and design notes.

Over the medium term you will build fluency with the principal airfield standards and methodologies, broaden your experience across pavement rehabilitation, overlay and drainage integration, and begin to represent the team in technical meetings with appropriate support. Longer term, you will be well placed to progress into a fully autonomous airport civil engineer and, in time, take on project management and client liaison responsibilities, with exposure to high‑profile regional and international programmes as our aviation portfolio continues to grow.

Your Toolkit for Success at Tetra Tech RPS At Tetra Tech RPS, we value capability, curiosity and potential. If you meet around three‑quarters of what follows, we would still like to hear from you.

Key Areas