Senior Geotechnical Engineer

Sweco UK Ltd; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Pension

Life Assurance

Private Medical Insurance

Discretionary Bonus

Cycle to Work

Employee Assistance Programme

25 days holiday + 5 days

Salary sacrifice EV scheme

Job summary

Sweco UK Ltd is seeking a Senior Geotechnical Engineer to join our Ground Engineering team in Manchester. The role offers flexible, hybrid working with three days per week in the office and the option of adjusted start/finish times.

You’ll contribute to a diverse portfolio across the UK, delivering geotechnical design, ground investigations, and construction support for highways, water, energy and development sectors. The team collaborates across major projects and fosters knowledge sharing.

Qualifications

• Experience working within a geotechnical consultancy environment in the UK.
• Knowledge and/or experience of delivering geotechnical projects.
• Good interpersonal and teamworking skills, with the ability to build effective relationships with colleagues, clients and contractors.
• Experience in geotechnical design, ground investigations, reporting and construction support.
• Familiarity with software packages such as MS Project, Word, Excel, AutoCAD and geotechnical design software.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise workload and meet deadlines.
• Good problem-solving skills and the ability to develop practical engineering solutions.
• A proactive approach to personal development and supporting the development of others.

Responsibilities

• Support project start-up: clarify briefs, deliverables, milestones and QA strategy.
• Contribute to Project Management Plan technical elements and approvals.
• Attend project start-up meetings and share knowledge with the team.
• Review design inputs, issue RFIs and produce high-quality calculations, drawings and reports.
• Support project checking and approval processes and communicate design changes.
• Participate in technical reviews and internal project meetings.
• Support junior engineers and knowledge sharing.

Skills

MS Project

Word

Excel

AutoCAD

Geotechnical design software

Education

BEng/MEng in Civil Engineering

BSc/MSc in Engineering Geology or Geotechnical Engineering

MSc in Geotechnical Engineering desirable

Chartered Engineer (IEng/CEng) or Chartered Geologist (CGeol) status

Tools

MS Project

AutoCAD

Geotechnical design software

Job description

Society is in your hands, what are you waiting for?

We are currently looking for talented and motivated Senior Geotechnical Engineer to join our Ground Engineering team. This role can be based at our Manchester office and can be worked flexibly with a minimum of 3 days per week in the office/on site and the option of adjusted start and finish times.

What does the role involve?

In this role, you’ll be an active member of the Ground Engineering team helping to deliver a diverse portfolio of projects across the UK for a range of market sectors including highways, water, energy and development. The Ground Engineering team provide a wide range of geotechnical design services across all project stages including feasibility studies, ground investigations, geotechnical interpretation, preliminary and detailed design, and construction supervision for geotechnical works.

Sweco offer diverse experience for their engineers including projects spanning various industry sectors, as well varied geotechnical activities included ground investigation specification and management, earthworks and structures designs, and construction stage support.

You will be joining a very experienced and enthusiastic team that have recently supported the British Antarctic Survey’s £100M Antarctic Infrastructure Modernisation Programme and delivered the detailed geotechnical design for prominent projects such as the £790m Queensferry Crossing, Stockholm Metro Extension, A47 improvement programme and Beauly HDVC Convertor Station.

This is an exciting time to join Sweco and if you want to be part of a company who is small in all the best ways but large enough to provide a diverse and exciting workload, this job is for you.

Business Opportunity

• Support technical input into Project Management Plans.
• Contribute to technical proposals and tender submissions.

Tender

• Assist with the preparation of Scope of Services (Proposal) documents, including post-tender clarifications where required.
• Support the preparation of tender submissions.

Project Start-up

• Assist the Project Manager in clarifying the project brief, deliverables, key milestones, methodology, quality assurance and control strategy.
• Contribute to technical elements of the Project Management Plan.
• Support project checking and approval arrangements.
• Attend internal project start-up meetings.

Project Delivery

• Review and validate design inputs and raise RFIs through the Project Manager where required.
• Produce high-quality design deliverables including calculations, drawings, sketches and reports.
• Support implementation of project checking and approval processes.
• Identify and communicate design changes to the Project Manager.
• Participate in technical reviews.
• Check design outputs prior to submission for approval.
• Attend internal project review meetings.
• Support junior engineers and contribute to team knowledge sharing.

Project Close-out

• Attend client close-out meetings where appropriate.
• Contribute to improvements in technical processes, design solutions and knowledge sharing across the team.

To be successful in this role, you’ll have:

• Experience working within a geotechnical consultancy environment in the UK.
• Knowledge and/or experience of delivering geotechnical projects.
• Good interpersonal and teamworking skills, with the ability to build effective relationships with colleagues, clients and contractors.
• Experience in geotechnical design, ground investigations, reporting and construction support.
• Familiarity with software packages such as MS Project, Word, Excel, AutoCAD and geotechnical design software.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise workload and meet deadlines.
• Good problem-solving skills and the ability to develop practical engineering solutions.
• A proactive approach to personal development and supporting the development of others.

In terms of qualifications, you’ll have:

• A BEng/MEng in Civil Engineering or BSc/MSc in Engineering Geology, Earth Science or Geotechnical Engineering.
• An MSc in Geotechnical Engineering or a related field is desirable.
• Working towards or holding Chartered Engineer (IEng/CEng) or Chartered Geologist (CGeol) status.

You’ll experience a diverse, inclusive, friendly and flexible working environment where colleagues are encouraged to grow and develop. This is a meaningful role where you’ll help transform society by supporting our clients with trusted engineering expertise.

Let’s transform society together at Sweco.

Employee Benefits

• Flexible and hybrid working (Flexworks Policy)
• Competitive pension contribution
• Life Assurance
• Private Medical Insurance
• Discretionary Annual Bonus Scheme
• Payment of two relevant professional subscriptions
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays (with the option to purchase up to 5 additional days per year)
• Cycle2Work Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme (wellbeing, mental health, financial and work advice)
• Employee discounts via Sweco Benefit Select (Faircare)
• Salary Sacrifice Electric Vehicle Scheme
• We plant a tree for all new starters!

About Us

Transforming society together, we're planning and designing sustainable communities and cities of the future.

Solving the great societal challenges of our time is more relevant, demanding and inspiring than ever before. At Sweco, we bring together experts with different perspectives and skills to develop solutions that address the challenges of urbanisation, harness the positive power of digitalisation and make societies more sustainable.

We offer our clients a combination of global expertise and local presence, adapted to their business and reality. Our ambition is to be our clients’ most relevant partner, working together to help them solve their challenges, today and into the future.

Sweco is committed to enabling all its colleagues to achieve a great balance between work and their other priorities, such as caring responsibilities, leisure activities, further learning or other interests. We offer flexible start and finish times, part time and hybrid working options so that you can flex your hours around your day to day needs.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

It’s important to us that that all our colleagues thrive at work - we strive to have a friendly and inclusive culture which respects the contribution individuals can bring to Sweco. We aim to promote equality, inclusivity and diversity for everyone.

Here at Sweco we positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy or maternity/paternity.

We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant to ensure those who serve or have served, and their families, are treated fairly. To find out moreThe Armed Forces Covenant - Our Commitments | Sweco UK

We are an accredited Real Living Wage Employer which reflects our commitment to fair pay and support for all colleagues.

We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer, and will interview applicants covered by the Equality Act 2010 that opt into the guaranteed interview scheme on the application form and meet the minimum criteria for the role.

If I have a disability, can I get help (e.g. “reasonable adjustments”) with the application process?

If you’re an applicant with a disability that requires a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process or are limited in the ability or unable to use the online application system and need an alternative method for applying, please contact [e-mail] for assistance.

• Name
• The best method for contacting you (Phone or email)
• The position title
• Requisition/vacancy number

Upon receipt of this information, we’ll respond to you promptly to obtain more information about your request.

Please note: we reserve the right to close vacancies before the advertised closing date.

Sweco UK&I have an internal resourcing team who are responsible for all recruiting activity. We have a Preferred Supplier List of trusted agencies who we work with on those “hard to fill” roles.

We have defined processes for recruitment applications and it is company policy not to accept speculative CVs. Any speculative CVs received into the business (whether to a manager or member of the resourcing team) will become the property of Sweco and the agency will not be eligible for an introductory fee.

Our Preferred Supplier List was reviewed in November 2025 and we are not looking to add any additional agencies. We’ll be reviewing the PSL again at the end of 2026 and non-compliance with the above statements could be detrimental to you having the opportunity to be included.