Senior or Principal Consultant – Flood Risk and Drainage

At Tetra Tech, you will work on meaningful projects that help shape resilient, sustainable places across the UK. Joining our Flood Risk and Sustainable Water Management team, you will play a key role in delivering high-quality flood risk assessments, drainage strategies and sustainable water management solutions for development, regeneration and infrastructure projects.

This is an opportunity for an experienced consultant to take technical ownership of projects, provide trusted advice to clients and stakeholders, and contribute to the continued growth and development of a collaborative and technically strong team.

Purpose & Scope of the Role

As a Senior or Principal Flood Risk and Drainage Consultant, you will lead and contribute to a varied portfolio of projects involving flood risk assessment, drainage strategies and sustainable water management. You will provide clear, practical and technically robust advice to support due diligence, master planning, planning applications, development consent processes and wider environmental and infrastructure projects.

Your work will include preparing, reviewing and overseeing Flood Risk Assessments, drainage strategies, surface water management plans, sequential and exception test documentation, flood risk statements and supporting technical reports. You will assess flood risk from fluvial, tidal, surface water, groundwater, sewer and artificial sources, and develop proportionate mitigation and management measures.

You will bring sound knowledge of sustainable drainage systems, surface water runoff assessment, discharge rates, climate change allowances, exceedance routing, drainage constraints and water quality considerations. You will also be expected to interpret hydraulic modelling outputs and other flood risk information to inform technical advice, assess development constraints and support the development of deliverable solutions.

Working closely with planners, environmental consultants, engineers, architects, project managers and developers, you will help ensure that flood risk and drainage considerations are integrated effectively into project design and decision-making.

You will engage directly with clients, local planning authorities, Lead Local Flood Authorities, the Environment Agency, Internal Drainage Boards, water companies and other stakeholders. You will support technical discussions, respond to consultations and queries, attend meetings and workshops, and help shape project strategy.

The role will also involve project management, fee proposals, tender submissions, technical leadership, quality assurance and the mentoring and development of junior colleagues.

Your Impact in this position

You will play a key role in helping clients progress development and infrastructure projects through the planning and assessment process. Your technical advice will support the delivery of safe, sustainable and policy-compliant schemes that appropriately manage flood risk and surface water.

Through your project leadership and technical input, you will help improve the quality and consistency of project delivery, strengthen client relationships and contribute to the growth of the Flood Risk and Sustainable Water Management team.

You will also support the development of less experienced colleagues by sharing your knowledge, reviewing technical work and providing practical guidance on flood risk assessment, drainage strategy and sustainable water management.

Flood Risk Assessment and Technical Advice

Strong experience in preparing and reviewing Flood Risk Assessments, drainage strategies and related flood risk documentation for planning, environmental and infrastructure projects. You will be able to identify flood risk constraints, assess the suitability of development proposals and recommend proportionate, practical and technically defensible mitigation measures.

Drainage and Sustainable Water Management

Strong experience and understanding of surface water drainage, sustainable drainage systems, runoff calculations, discharge restrictions, attenuation, exceedance flows, water quality and the wider water environment. You will be able to develop and appraise drainage strategies that respond to site constraints, regulatory requirements, climate change and the principles of sustainable development.

Hydraulic Modelling and Flood Risk Data

Experience of interpreting hydraulic modelling outputs, flood maps, topographic…