Senior Design Manager

Kier Group; Maple Cross; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Kier Group is seeking a Senior Design Manager to join the Thames Water Capital Frameworks team based at Maple Lodge in Rickmansworth. The role focuses on delivering technically compliant, cost-effective and sustainable design solutions for water and wastewater infrastructure projects.

You will lead design teams, manage consultants, and build trusted client relationships to ensure projects meet regulatory commitments and client objectives, while driving innovation and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Degree-qualified engineer, preferably chartered.
• Experience in water or wastewater industry, with BIM and managing consultants or contractor designers.
• Full driving licence and ability to communicate technical solutions clearly.

Responsibilities

• Lead design teams to ensure delivery on time, cost, quality and safety standards.
• Manage project programmes, coordinate with design partners and ensure technical deliverables stay on track.
• Conduct technical design reviews and ensure compliance with client asset standards and regulatory requirements.
• Identify value engineering opportunities and drive innovation for cost-effective solutions.
• Build strong client relationships through clear communication and proactive risk management.

Skills

Design management

Project management

Client relationship

Regulatory compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Tools

BIM

Job description

We're looking for a Senior Design Manager to join our Thames Water Capital Frameworks team based in Maple Lodge, Rickmansworth.

Location: Maple Lodge, Rickmansworth
Hours: 40 hours per week - some flexibility on hours available if desired, just let us know when you speak to us.

We are unable to offer certificates of sponsorship to any candidates in this role.

As a Senior Design Manager, you'll play a key role in delivering technically compliant, cost-effective, and sustainable design solutions for Thames Water projects. Working within our collaborative joint venture, you'll ensure schemes meet regulatory commitments and client objectives whilst supporting innovation and continuous improvement. You'll lead design teams, manage consultants, and build trusted relationships with clients to deliver successful outcomes across water and wastewater infrastructure projects.

What will you be responsible for?

As a Senior Design Manager, you'll be working within the Thames Water Capital Frameworks team, supporting them in delivering design and build services for new and existing infrastructure assets. Your day to day will include:

• Leading and performance managing design teams to ensure delivery on time, cost, quality and safety standards
• Managing project programmes, coordinating with design partners and ensuring technical deliverables remain on track
• Conducting technical design reviews and ensuring compliance with client asset standards and regulatory requirements
• Identifying value engineering opportunities and driving innovation to achieve cost-effective, outcome-based solutions
• Building strong client relationships through clear communication, proactive risk management and timely delivery of commitments

What are we looking for?

This role of Senior Design Manager is great for you if:

• You hold a Full driving licence
• You have proven experience in the water or wastewater industry, ideally with BIM and managing consultants or contractor designers
• You're a degree-qualified engineer, preferably chartered, with strong technical knowledge across design disciplines
• You've worked previously as a Design Manager or Principal Engineer and have excellent people and project management skills
• You can communicate technical solutions clearly to diverse audiences and build collaborative, trusted relationships

Rewards and benefits

We're proud to be able to offer our brilliant people a wide variety of benefits that you can tailor to your needs. You can see more information of benefits here.

Diversity and inclusion

Making Kier a diverse and inclusive place to work is a huge priority for us. We're proud of the steps we've taken so far, but we know we must always do more. Our employees are key in shaping Kier's diversity and inclusion initiatives and our people have made a huge impact on how we work, by using their experiences to shape our policies. You can see our D&I action plan here. As a Disability Confident employer, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this role will be offered an interview.

• Thames Water - Snr Design Manager (1) (2).docx