Senior Project Engineer

Thames Water; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 53,000 - 63,000; Full time

Job summary

A major UK water company is seeking a Senior Project Engineer to lead critical technology projects. You will manage the planning and execution of OT projects, ensuring compliance with safety and quality standards. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience in project engineering and a degree in a relevant field. The role includes a competitive salary of up to £63,000 and a comprehensive benefits package that includes a generous pension scheme, annual leave, and a car allowance.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Annual leave increasing with service

Car allowance

Pension scheme

Health and wellbeing benefits

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in project engineering or project management.
• Strong technical knowledge of SCADA, PLCs, telemetry, and OT cyber security.
• Proven ability to prioritise, solve problems, and make balanced decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the planning, execution, and handover of OT projects.
• Provide technical leadership across various OT technology.
• Manage project budgets and build effective supplier relationships.

Skills

Project engineering

Technical leadership

SCADA

PLCs

Telemetry

Industrial networks

Cyber security principles

Stakeholder management

Education

Degree in Electrical Engineering, Automation, Instrumentation, or Control Systems

Job description

Overview

As the UK’s largest water company, we are shaping the future of water through innovation and digital transformation. Operational Technology (OT) sits at the heart of our operations – from remote monitoring and control to safeguarding assets and delivering real-time data insights from over 2.1 million data points. OT is critical to achieving our strategic goals and ensuring resilience for generations to come.

We are now looking for a Senior Project Engineer to join our OT Projects team and lead the successful delivery of critical technology projects across our water and wastewater networks.

What you’ll be doing as a Senior Project Engineer

As a Senior Project Engineer, you will work closely with colleagues across Operations, IT, Asset Management, and external suppliers to deliver outcomes that exceed customer expectations.

• Lead the planning, execution, and handover of OT projects, ensuring delivery against scope, schedule, and budget.
• Provide technical leadership across PLCs, SCADA, telemetry, and industrial networks, ensuring compliance with design standards, cybersecurity, and industry regulations.
• Manage project budgets, including forecasting, tracking, and reporting financial performance.
• Build and maintain effective supplier and stakeholder relationships, ensuring performance and value.
• Take ownership of the end-to-end delivery of Operational Technology projects, ensuring they are delivered safely, on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards.
• Uphold the highest standards of safety, compliance, and quality, with a focus on continuous improvement.

Base location: STW site nearest to your location - Hybrid

Working hours: 36 hours, Monday to Friday

What you should bring to the role

We’re looking for a motivated, collaborative and technically strong engineer who can lead complex OT projects.

Essential

The essential criteria to help you succeed in this role is:

• Extensive experience in project engineering or project management, ideally within Operational Technology or Industrial Automation, preferably in a regulated industry.
• Strong technical knowledge of SCADA, PLCs, telemetry, industrial networks, and OT cyber security principles.
• Degree in Electrical Engineering, Automation, Instrumentation, or Control Systems (or related field).
• Proven ability to prioritise, solve problems, and make balanced decisions in fast-paced environments.
• Strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills with excellent communication.
• Full UK driving licence is a requirement for this role.

Desirable

Additional skills and experiences would be great to have or bring are:

• Knowledge of the water industry, utilities sector, or similar regulated environments.
• Professional project management certifications such as PRINCE2, PMP, or APM.
• Experience managing budgets and commercial reporting.
• Experience of customer (internal & external) relationship management.

What’s in it for you?

You’ll have the chance to make a real difference by working in a business that delivers a vital public service, while gaining exposure to cutting-edge digital and security technologies within a critical national infrastructure environment. In return, we offer a competitive salary, a generous benefits package, and excellent opportunities for career development, detailed below:

• Competitive salary up to £63,000 per annum, depending on experience.
• Annual Leave: 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service (plus bank holidays)
• Car Allowance
• Performance-related pay plan directly linked to both company and individual performance measures and targets
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of you and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Find out more about our benefits and perks

Who are we?

We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Learn more about our purpose and values

Working at Thames Water

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.

If you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.

Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

We’re committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, whether that’s extra time, accessible formats, or anything else just let us know, we’re here to help and support.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business and meet colleagues.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.