Principle Design Engineer

Lead the engineering decisions that keep the UK's energy future moving.

At National Grid, we're at the heart of the energy transition, connecting millions of people and businesses to the power they rely on every day.

As a Principal Engineer
, you'll provide technical leadership across major construction programmes, ensuring projects are safe, buildable, operable and successfully delivered from concept through to commissioning.

This is a high-impact role where you'll influence critical infrastructure projects, bringing your site expertise, engineering judgement and operational awareness to some of the most complex challenges in the energy sector.

The role is hybrid and can either be based from our warwick office or in Ashford, Sellindge depending on your location.

As the technical lead for construction delivery, you'll act as the bridge between Project Managers, engineers, Operations, planners, Design Assurance teams and external suppliers, ensuring technical decisions support successful project outcomes.

You'll:

• Provide senior technical leadership throughout the project lifecycle, from development and design through to construction, commissioning and handover.
• Challenge and influence designs to ensure they are safe, practical to construct, maintainable and operationally effective.
• Review technical specifications, standards, testing requirements and tender documentation, identifying risks and gaps before delivery begins.
• Support supplier selection by assessing technical compliance, constructability and commissioning approaches.
• Lead technical input into outage planning, commissioning activities, switching interfaces and work sequencing.
• Ensure engineering changes are effectively managed, with appropriate governance, approvals and stakeholder engagement.
• Identify programme dependencies, technical risks and opportunities, helping optimise construction activities and outages.
• Support and mentor engineers across project and development teams, sharing knowledge and reducing avoidable rework.

We're looking for an experienced engineering leader who can combine technical excellence with a practical understanding of construction and operational environments.

You’ll have:

• Significant engineering experience within electrical transmission, power, interconnector or other major infrastructure environments.
• Strong knowledge of asset design, construction methodologies, testing, commissioning and operational interfaces.
• Experience reviewing designs, drawings, specifications and engineering standards, with the ability to identify technical risks and ambiguities.
• A deep understanding of constructability, safe systems of work, outage management and energisation requirements.
• The confidence to challenge constructively, influence senior stakeholders and drive evidence-based decision making.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate complex technical issues into clear, actionable recommendations.
• A collaborative approach, with the ability to bring together multiple teams to solve technical challenges and deliver successful outcomes.

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A competitive salary between £64,242.00 - £76,014.50 per annum - dependent on capability.

As well as your base salary, you will receive a bonus based on personal and company performance and a competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%. You will also have access to a number of flexible benefits such as a share incentive plan, salary sacrifice car and technology schemes, support via employee assistance lines and matched charity giving to name a few.

This role closes on 27th October 2026 at 23:59
, however we…