Job Description
Costain has secured positions on a variety of AMP8 frameworks (Thames Water, Southern Water, Severn Trent Water, Yorkshire Water, Northumbrian Water & United Utilities) providing a strong pipeline of water and wastewater programme delivery opportunities across the country.
The Head of Water role within our Engineering Services team will head up the delivery of multi‑disciplinary engineering services across a vast number of project sites and frameworks. They will be primary point of contact between Costain's Water sector and Engineering Services business, working closely with Framework Directors to identify and secure opportunities for the internal delivery of engineering services, as well as shaping engineering delivery plans and bid win strategies.
You will work with Engineering Discipline Leads to shape value propositions and be accountable for the successful delivery of multi‑disciplinary engineering services across Costain's portfolio of Water projects through appropriate deployment of people, processes and systems.
This is an opportunity to play an integral role in driving Costain's growth and strategic objectives of being an engineering‑led business within the Water Sector.
This role will report directly to the Group Director of Engineering Services. The role offers a hybrid working arrangement predominantly based in London or Manchester, with a requirement to occasionally work at multiple locations throughout the UK depending on contract needs.
At Costain, we believe diverse perspectives drive innovation. If you're passionate about making a positive impact and think you can bring value to our team, we'd love to hear from you—even if you don't tick every box. Your unique skills and experiences could be exactly what we need.
Responsibilities
- Engineering pipeline and resource forecasting – Responsible for working with the Water sector teams to gain insight of the engineering services pipeline and maximise opportunities for internal delivery of engineering services. Must accurately forecast future resource needs within the sector to inform multi‑disciplinary resource requirements and recruitment to meet demand. Expected to ensure the collective team skillsets and deployed resources accurately align with current and future project demands and complexity.
- Project Delivery & Progress Reporting – Responsible for leading the successful delivery of multi‑disciplinary engineering services across all Water projects and contracts, managing teams of Project Engineering Managers with individual project responsibility and ensuring optimal operation of the Water engineering delivery teams. Will ensure scope and service requirements, budgets and programmes are clearly defined and adhered to. Will be responsible for monitoring progress against budget and programme and clear reporting of this to senior management, sectors and clients.
- Technical Governance & Quality – Must work with Engineering Discipline managers to ensure the delivery of technically compliant and quality‑controlled designs which meet scope requirements, ensuring all the necessary technical and regulatory assurance activities have been undertaken across the programme lifecycle. To input into the development, management and maintenance of corporate technical management systems, including digital integration. Expected to proactively assist in resolving complex technical and delivery issues where identified.
- Strategy & Growth – Be involved in the development and robust implementation of Costain's overarching engineering strategy within the Water space, fostering client relations and driving successful delivery outcomes aligned with Costain's strategic drivers. Responsible for enhancing Costain's internal engineering capability and workload volumes to drive growth ambitions.
- Work Winning – Collaborate strategically with Account Directors to forecast service demand and proactively identify early client opportunities, coordinating the in‑house engineering contribution to develop best‑in‑class value propositions and winning bids. Must identify and monitor engineering budgets and resource requirements for tender activities and ensure compliance with all internal governance processes.
- Risk, Change & Continuous Improvement – Facilitate the capturing and clear communication of technical risks and opportunities to all stakeholders. Oversee the effective management of design change, applying a systematic challenge to minimise unnecessary scope variation. Act as a visible leader in developing a design delivery culture that emphasises ownership and accountability. Embed a structured approach to lessons learned and apply continuous improvement principles to all aspects of engineering services.
Knowledge, Skills, and Experience
Essential
- A background in managing the delivery of engineering services on complex projects across the programme lifecycle within the Water sector
- Experience in successfully managing the delivery of complex engineering scopes to budget and programme, and effective change management
- A background in managing single or multi‑disciplinary engineering teams, responsible for managing workload, resource demand and skillsets
- Significant engineering design experience within respective engineering discipline
- Be an authority in multiple design and construction systems and process models (e.g. plan of work)
- Experienced technical manager capable of reviewing technical quality and compliance of design deliverables; understanding of key technical concepts across a range of engineering design disciplines (e.g. civil, mechanical, process)
- Experience setting up / running design, assurance and reporting process on large projects
- Understanding of Water sector clients, challenges, opportunities and procurement / contract strategies
Desirable
- Experience setting up, leading or operating other aspects of project engineering delivery such as design workflows, information management systems, quality controls
- A thought leader in the field of engineering design and design management, with the ability to implement new ideas, technologies or practices that will influence the industry
Qualifications
- Essential
- Degree qualification in a relevant engineering discipline
- Chartered Engineer (ICE, IMechE, IStructE, IET, IChemE, CIOB, CIHT, other)
About Us
Costain helps to improve people's lives with integrated, leading edge, smart infrastructure solutions across the UK's energy, water, transportation and defence markets. We help our clients improve their business performance by increasing capacity, improving customer service, safeguarding security, enhancing resilience, decarbonising and delivering increased efficiency. Our vision is to be the UK's leading smart infrastructure solutions company. We will achieve this by focusing on blue chip clients whose major spending plans are underpinned by strategic national needs, regulatory commitments, legislation or essential performance requirements. We offer our clients leading edge solutions that are digitally optimised through the following five services which cover the whole lifecycle of their assets: future‑shaping strategic consultancy; consultancy and advisory; digital technology solutions; asset optimisation and complex programme delivery. Our culture and values underpin everything we do.
Costain appreciate the time and effort taken when applying for one of our positions but, due to the high volume of responses, we are unable to provide individual feedback on candidates at application phase.
We do share individual feedback following an interview.
A Disability Confident employer
Will generally offer an interview to any applicant that disclose they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high‑volume, seasonal and high‑peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non‑disabled people.
For more details please go to the Disability Confident website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign
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