Mechanical and Electrical - Principal Engineer

Mechanical and Electrical
- Principal Engineer

United Kingdom

Posted Thursday 18 June 2026 at 00:00 | Expires Friday 10 July 2026 at 23:59

About the Trust

We're one of the UK’s biggest charities and we care for 2,000 miles of canals, rivers, docks and reservoirs because we believe life is better by water. We're looking for people who support our cause and want to make a difference for future generations. Could this be you?

Along with our waterways we also manage museums, archives and the country's third largest collection of historic buildings, as well as the nature and wildlife that calls our canals home. All of this enables us to provide wellbeing opportunities for millions of people each year.

Join Our Team:
Principal Mechanical & Electrical Engineer, national role.

Navigate your future and lock in your career as we keep our canals open and alive.

Our Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation, Control & Automation (MEICA) function is critical to keeping the canal network safe, compliant, and operational. From locks and bridges to water control systems, our assets underpin the resilience and reliability of the waterways. Through intelligent asset management, data-led decision making, and engineering excellence, we ensure our infrastructure continues to serve communities now and into the future.

We are seeking a Principal M&E Engineer to take a leading role in managing infrastructure risk and helping to shape the strategic direction of MEICA asset management across the Trust.

This is a highly influential role, working in close partnership with senior stakeholders to ensure our assets are resilient, compliant, and fit for the future. As a Principal Engineer, you will:

• Provide strategic technical leadership across mechanical and electrical disciplines, acting as the Trust’s subject matter expert
• Lead the assessment and management of infrastructure risk, ensuring robust, data-driven investment and maintenance decisions.
• Oversee inspection and maintenance strategies, ensuring delivery aligns with national standards, regulatory frameworks, and asset management plans.
• Drive the technical assurance of designs, ensuring safe, efficient, and sustainable engineering outcomes.
• Influence and contribute to long-term asset strategy, capital programmes, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Partner with our Principal Engineers (ICA/SCADA and Projects) and senior leadership to shape and deliver the Trust’s MEICA engineering vision.

Although this is a home-based role, it is a national position requiring travel across our waterway network to manage both our M&E assets and teams. Currently this is forecasted to be 1 - 2 days per week for site visits/meetings, with occasional overnight stays. Our hub spaces for collaborative meetings are located at
- Birmingham, Burnley, Ellesmere Port, Gloucester, Hatton (Warwick), Leeds, Leighton Buzzard, London (Little Venice) and Newark.

This role is great for someone who enjoys variety, splitting time between home, our Trust Hubs and regular site visits, and who’s happy to work flexibly when needed, including the occasional early start, late finish or weekend.

Core hours: 37 hours, 5 days a week, work pattern.

You should be able to reasonably commute to one of the following hubs:
Birmingham, Burnley, Ellesmere Port, Gloucester, Hatton (Warwick) Leeds, Leighton Buzzard, London (Little Venice) and Newark.

Role Overview

Join us as our Principal M&E Engineer and help shape our strategies, providing definitive expert advice on M&E Engineering risk, maintaining the Trusts M&E standards and regulations, and driving our maintenance and inspections program. You will assess outputs from inspections and make informed recommendations on the prioritisation of work required, taking account of risks, costs, time, resources, heritage, environment, and safety issues.

The post holder will set the standards of how we assess, prioritise, and identify engineering solutions to support delivery through our internal M&E delivery teams and national framework contracts. Not only will you be managing work on our diverse portfolio of M&E assets, from our mechanised locks and bridges, pumping stations and…