Senior Design Manager - Water

GHD; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

GHD is seeking a Senior Design Manager to shape and lead AMP8 water projects in the UK. You will oversee multidisciplinary design teams to deliver buildable, well-governed outcomes, driving early project shaping and value engineering.

You will mentor design managers and work with clients, contractors and supply chain partners to challenge traditional delivery and pursue smarter, more sustainable solutions. This role focuses on leadership, strategy and delivering complex water infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Lead multidisciplinary design teams on major AMP8 water and wastewater programmes.
• Guide design teams from optioneering and outline design through detailed design and construction support.
• Manage design risk, technical interfaces, assumptions, decisions, reviews and assurance activity.
• Work closely with clients, contractors, framework partners and supply chain specialists.
• Challenge traditional delivery approaches and identify smarter, simpler and more sustainable solutions.
• Support work winning, framework growth, client engagement and early project shaping.
• Mentor Design Managers, coordinators and discipline leads so the team becomes stronger as the work bank grows.

Responsibilities

• Lead multidisciplinary design teams on major AMP8 water and wastewater programmes.
• Guide design teams from optioneering and outline design through detailed design and construction support.
• Manage design risk, technical interfaces, assumptions, decisions, reviews and assurance activity.
• Work closely with clients, contractors, framework partners and supply chain specialists.
• Challenge traditional delivery approaches and identify smarter, simpler and more sustainable solutions.
• Support work winning, framework growth, client engagement and early project shaping.
• Mentor Design Managers, coordinators and discipline leads so the team becomes stronger as the work bank grows.

Skills

Leadership

Multidisciplinary design

Optioneering

Risk management

Client engagement

Mentoring

Job description

Senior Design Manager – Water (AMP8)

We’re not asking you to manage programmes, we’re asking you to shape them.

Job Description

Senior Design Manager – Water (AMP8)

We’re not asking you to manage programmes, we’re asking you to shape them.

AMP8 is underway, and the UK water sector is entering one of its most important delivery periods in decades. Water companies are investing in resilience, environmental improvement, asset performance, spill reduction and future water security.

GHD is looking for a Senior Design Manager who can bring technical teams together, cut through complexity and help turn ambitious programmes into clear, buildable and well governed outcomes.

This is not a role for someone who wants to sit in project meetings and update trackers. It is for someone who wants to lead people, influence decisions, challenge conventional thinking and help shape how major water projects are delivered.

What You Will Do

• Lead multidisciplinary design teams on major AMP8 water and wastewater programmes.
• Guide design teams from optioneering and outline design through detailed design and construction support.
• Manage design risk, technical interfaces, assumptions, decisions, reviews and assurance activity.
• Work closely with clients, contractors, framework partners and supply chain specialists.
• Challenge traditional delivery approaches and identify smarter, simpler and more sustainable solutions.
• Support work winning, framework growth, client engagement and early project shaping.
• Mentor Design Managers, coordinators and discipline leads so the team becomes stronger as the work bank grows.

What Success Looks Like

• You are the person teams look to if a project becomes unstable or unduly complicated.
• You create clarity for your team when scope, risk, programme and interfaces are moving at pace.
• You help clients and delivery partners make confident decisions when options and standards are imperfect for the situation.
• You encourage and lead multi-disciplinary collaboration: civil, structural, process, mechanical, electrical, control, digital and environmental specialists.
• You develop other Design Managers and technical leaders, not just the project output.
• You protect quality, safety, constructability, sustainability and commercial performance without slowing delivery to a crawl.
• You see and act on project change effectively.

What Makes This Role Different At GHD

• Design management is treated as a leadership discipline, not an administrative function.
• You will have room to influence projects, teams and clients rather than simply report progress.
• You will work within major UK water frameworks while drawing on GHD’s wider technical, environmental, digital and delivery capability.
• You will be trusted to simplify complex problems, make decisions and help others perform at their best.