Principal Design Engineer

Principal Design Engineer Leeds City Centre | Up to £80,000 | Hybrid working - up to 2 days from home

There are Principal Engineer jobs where the title comes with a bit more responsibility and then there are Principal Engineer jobs where you're genuinely trusted to make the technical call.

This is very much the latter.

I'm working with an established specialist engineering and construction business looking to appoint a Principal Design Engineer into its Leeds city centre design team. They need someone technically strong enough to review, approve and sign off engineering calculations and drawings, while providing leadership to the Engineers developing the designs beneath them.

The work is considerably more interesting than conventional building structures.

You'll be involved in complex UK infrastructure projects incorporating shafts, underground structures, retaining walls, reinforced concrete, foundations, temporary works and tunnelling interfaces, working closely with geotechnical, construction and temporary works teams to develop solutions that are not only technically robust, but actually buildable.

You'll provide technical leadership across both permanent and temporary works design, remaining close enough to the engineering to get involved in complex calculations and design decisions while taking responsibility for the quality of the team's output.

That will include reviewing and approving structural calculations and drawings, developing solutions for reinforced concrete and steel structures, managing design risk and providing technical assurance across multidisciplinary projects.

You’ll work directly with construction and geotechnical teams during constructability and value engineering reviews, helping determine how challenging pieces of infrastructure are going to be designed and ultimately built.

You’ll also:

• Review, check, approve and sign off engineering calculations and drawings.
• Lead permanent and temporary works design across complex infrastructure schemes.
• Develop solutions for shafts, retaining structures, slabs, foundations and reinforced concrete structures.
• Coordinate structural design with geotechnical, tunnelling, temporary works and construction teams.
• Lead technical and design assurance reviews.
• Identify buildability improvements and value engineering opportunities.
• Prepare and review specifications, design reports and assurance documentation.
• Work within BIM Level 2 / ISO 19650 requirements.
• Ensure designs comply with CDM 2015, Eurocodes, British Standards and internal HSEQ procedures.
• Support projects delivered under NEC4, including early warnings, programme reviews and change management.
• Represent the design function during client meetings, bids and technical reviews.
• Mentor Engineers and help develop the technical capability of the wider Leeds team.

This needs someone who has reached the point in their career where they're comfortable taking responsibility for other Engineers' work.

You’ll ideally be a degree-qualified Civil Engineer or Structural Engineer with around 10+ years' experience across infrastructure, heavy civils, structural engineering, temporary works or tunnelling.

Strong experience designing reinforced concrete and steel structures to Eurocodes is important, as is an understanding of how structures actually get built rather than simply how they're analysed.

Experience involving shafts, deep excavations, retaining structures, temporary works, underground structures or tunnelling would be particularly relevant.

Software experience should include AutoCAD, Civil 3D and structural analysis packages, while knowledge of Tekla, Revit or Robot Structural Analysis would be useful.

Chartered status through the ICE or IStructE…