Graduate Water Engineer

Buro Happold Limited; Greater London, Bath, Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 28,000 - 34,000; Full time

Job summary

Buro Happold Limited in London/Bath/Leeds is seeking a Graduate Water Engineer to join the Water Group. You will support water resource assessments, flood risk, coastal design, and modelling under supervision while developing professional skills and pursuing chartership.

The role offers hybrid working with opportunities to travel across the UK and overseas, and a pathway to broaden your experience across building, city and regional projects.

Qualifications

• Education: degree level in civil/structural/water engineering, master's preferred.
• CAD and GIS skills helpful for spatial design and modelling.
• Commitment to sustainable water engineering and climate resilience.

Responsibilities

• Undertake water resource and flood risk assessments.
• Support coastal design including harbour design and beach management.
• Collaborate within the design team and communicate with stakeholders.
• Develop modelling skills for hydrology, open channel flows, piped networks, and coastal flushing.
• Work with spatial mapping software such as QGIS.
• Prepare concept and design drawings and deliver engineering solutions.

Education

Degree in Civil Engineering

Master’s degree preferred

Tools

QGIS

CAD

Job description

Graduate Water Engineer

From helping shape our environment to adapting to the climate emergency, a career at Buro Happold presents the chance to make a difference.

This opportunity is to join our Water team in September 2027 to be based in either our Bath, Leeds or London office.

We have an exciting opportunity for a talented graduate level engineer to join our Water Group based in either our Bath, Leeds or London office, with the opportunity for travel across the UK and overseas.

Water is one of our planet’s most precious assets, and our engineers ensure that this finite resource is managed in the most sustainable way possible, whether it is at a building, city or regional project scale. We specialise in identifying innovative solutions to ensure maximum, sustainable performance. Practising expertise in cloud-to-coast engineering, we deliver sustainable civil engineering solutions across the globe, from the earliest stages of project feasibility, through to planning and delivery through detailed design and site supervision.

This Graduate role is suitable for engineers beginning their career. We also have a Graduate Hydrologist role available.

Our Projects

The Water Group works at a range of project scales; from individual buildings through to regional strategies; from feasibility studies at project inception to detailed design and site supervision, practising our expertise across the UK and also the Middle East, North and South America, Africa and Asia.

We practise our expertise in the following core areas of the water sector:

• Flood Risk Management
• Water Resource Management
• Coastal and Maritime
• Waterfront development
• River Engineering

Our team has delivered an enviable range of projects of varying scale and complexity. In London, the team has helped to deliver some of the most high profile riverside developments on the Thames including Lots Road Power Station and Battersea Power Station redevelopment. Since 2005 we have been “water” at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, taking responsibility for site wide flood risk management, drainage strategy, water strategy and the waterspace masterplan. Outside of London our engineers have delivered lasting, sustainable transformation of the area around Folkestone Harbour and rehabilitated the River Medlock as part of the regeneration at Mayfield. Sandford Hydro is a fine example of our engineers using their hydraulic expertise to create a renewable energy scheme on the River Thames. The Water Group works across the globe and is able to create lasting change through climate change adaptation and providing resilience to cities. The Detroit Future Cities and Nairobi Rivers Restoration are two examples where our engineers have used their skills to identify strategies that can bring lasting change in these cities. Nowhere is our ability to create change more evident than in the Middle East. The Wadi Hanifah project in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an exciting and challenging environment for water engineers, is a project that has rehabilitated the wadi, provided resilience in terms of flood risk management and transformed the relationship between the cities inhabitants and the natural environment. This project has spawned a host of projects in the region that build on the success of Wadi Hanifah and further establish our reputation as industry leaders in the region.

Key Duties

• Undertake water resource and flood risk management assessments.
• Support coastal design including harbour design and beach management.
• Work competently on an independent basis, as well as collaborating within the design team.
• Communicate directly with external stakeholders, such as the Environment Agency, Local Planning Authorities, and design team members.
• Develop numerical modelling skills for hydrology, open channel flows, piped networks, and coastal flushing.
• Working with spatial mapping software such as QGIS.
• Prepare concept and design drawings and take responsibility for delivering engineering solutions.

Qualifications and Skills

You will be educated to at least Degree level, with Master’s level preferred.

Civil Engineering, Engineering with Civil Engineering specialisation, other Engineering degrees preferred. Whatever your degree subject you should be able to demonstrate a passion for a sustainable approach to water.

You may also have basic CAD and/or GIS skills.

We are a self-motivated, have a keen interest in sustainable engineering, an understanding of climate change adaptation and a desire to learn within the context of a strong, highly skilled team.

Graduate Development

When you join Buro Happold you are embedded into an exciting network of engineers and consultants, that supports your career development. We have a Graduate Connect learning programme that targets specific learning and supports your journey to chartership as well as our Young Employee's Forum that links all our young talent in terms of knowledge sharing, learning and very importantly socialising.

We place great importance on a having a safe and inclusive environment and will seek to make any arrangements that may be required to enable all who work with us to thrive. We have flexible working hours and hybrid working, and welcome applications from all backgrounds and walks of life.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

Our exceptional portfolio of projects is the result of the diversity of thought, identities, backgrounds, and experiences that shape us. Appreciating each other’s differences is key, we want employees to feel they don’t have to mask elements of their identity to thrive. We are working to change the lack of representation of marginalised groups in the built environment. We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who feels they are underrepresented in the industry. We have much to learn from one another.

Embracing differences allows us to develop the most innovative and elegant solutions.

Eligibility

Please note that we are unable to offer visa sponsorship now or in the future for graduate level roles, so candidates must have the full right to work in the UK upon application (now and in the future).