Principal Civil & Structural Engineer (Water)

Costain Group; Greater Manchester; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Costain Group is seeking a Principal Civil & Structural Engineer (Water) in Greater Manchester. The role is hybrid with 2-3 days in the Manchester office and occasional site visits.

You will deliver civil and structural advice, analysis, and design outputs for the Water Division, managing technical resources and interfacing with BIM teams and clients. You will lead projects technically, ensuring quality, compliance, and on-time delivery while guiding junior engineers and coordinating with

Qualifications

• Minimum BEng Civil or Structural Engineering.
• Chartership with ICE or IStructE.
• CSCS or CCNSG.
• Experience in leading small teams and supporting junior engineers.

Responsibilities

• Responsibility for C&S discipline technical input for projects and/or proposals; including preparation, checking and/or approval of engineering documentation
• Organising discipline staff, allocating work and ensuring delivery against plan
• Mentoring and developing graduates and less experienced engineers
• Production of high-quality C&S engineering deliverables to schedule, budget and client satisfaction
• Ensuring compliance with applicable codes, standards and procedures
• Preparing installation scopes of works and supporting constructability and delivery specialists
• Reviewing supplier quotations and preparing technical bid assessments
• Defining client requirements and planning project tasks
• Design of new structures and assessment of historic structures
• Advise on specialist discipline matters related to nuclear sector requirements

Skills

Leadership

C&S design

UK water industry

Project management

Education

BEng Civil or Structural Engineering

Chartered ICE or IStructE

CSCS or CCNSG

Job description

Principal Civil & Structural Engineer (Water)

Greater Manchester, United Kingdom (Hybrid)

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Job Info

• Job Identification 103080
• Job Category Engineering
• Posting Date 08/07/2026, 01:36 PM
• Degree Level Bachelor's Degree
• Locations M22 5TG EC3A 8BE (Hybrid)
• Contract Type Permanent
• Driving Required Yes
• Security Clearance Required Yes

Job Description

New opportunity for a Principal Civil & Structural Engineer to join to the Water Division of CEL - Costain’s multi-discipline engineering and design team who deliver design mainly across Costain projects. The design outputs range from studies to detailed design for permanent and temporary works. This team focus on the delivery of sustainable, safe-by-design outputs with a strong constructability ethos.

Working in a multi-disciplinary team delivering projects in the Water Sector, you will be responsible for the delivery of civil and structural advice, analysis, calculations, reports and specifications.

As a Principal Engineer you will be responsible for delivering key elements of design work on projects, primarily through the management of technical resources to deliver to Costain and Client promises. This role will require significant technical interface management between delivery teams, driving delivery, ensuring compliance and quality, reporting and resolving complex challenges.

You will take responsibility for leading projects and sub tasks from a technical perspective and communicate designs effectively to the BIM teams, other disciplines, construction personnel and stakeholders.

This is a hybrid role with office attendance circa 2-3 days per week in Manchester along with occasionally required for site visits, design reviews and client meetings, within our clients’ offices. Support and guide more junior team members. Challenge and deliver value engineering solutions. Confident and authoritative in front of clients.

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Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

As a client facing Principal Engineer, your responsibilities could involve:

• Responsibility for C&S discipline technical input for projects and/or proposals; including preparation, checking and/or approval of engineering documentation
• Organising discipline staff, allocating work and ensuring delivery against plan
• Mentoring and developing graduates and less experienced engineers
• Production of high-quality C&S engineering deliverables to schedule, budget and client satisfaction
• Ensuring all applicable national and international codes of practice, legislation and company/client standards and procedures are complied with.
• Preparing installation scopes of works and supporting constructability and delivery specialists
• Reviewing supplier’s quotations and preparing technical bid assessments

More specific tasks could include:

Defining client requirements

Planning and delivering project tasks undertaken by the C&S team

Design of new structures, assessment of historic structures, checking and approving C&S documentation from subordinates.

Development of specifications and sub-contract SOWs including GI / SI contamination scopes

Optioneering assessments, defining scopes of work, supporting estimates and business development.

Advise and guidance on specialist discipline matters relating to nuclear sector requirements, regulations, latest technologies and industry best practice.

Supporting the PM in identifying change, progress reporting, tracking of issues, risks and resolutions

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

Significant and proven experience within the UK water industry at all stages of the project lifecycle.

Good knowledge of design working practices and installation requirements of the discipline across a range of industries.

Extensive knowledge of UK legislation and standards.

Awareness of risk identification, quantification, management and of HSE requirements.

Experience of UK water industry standards and processes.

Experience with new and historic structures, optioneering assessments, defining scopes of work, supporting estimates and business development.

Experience in leading small teams and supporting more junior engineers.

Knowledge and experience of common forms of contracts.

Qualifications

Minimum BEng Civil or Structural Engineering.

Chartership with ICE or IStructE.

CSCS or CCNSG.

• Additional technically focused qualifications / training

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 tothe Disability Confident website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign