Senior Project Engineer, Depot, High Speed Rail

CPR; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

CPR is seeking a Senior Project Engineer for a depot programme on High Speed Rail. You will act as the client-side technical lead, coordinating across design, build, and railway systems, ensuring clear direction to contractors and managing interfaces to keep the project moving through design, construction, testing and handover.

The role emphasizes cross-disciplinary collaboration, proactive issue routing, and active engagement with subject matter experts to maintain programme momentum over a

Qualifications

• Experience as project engineer on major infrastructure programmes, client-side or equivalent.
• Ability to work across disciplines, coordinating technical activity and contractor relationships.
• Strong communication with contractors, specialists and internal stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the contractor's primary technical contact for the programme.
• Coordinate design and construction assurance across depot scope.
• Review and respond to contractor technical queries and manage issues and change.
• Fulfill NEC3 Supervisor duties and support CDM responsibilities within scope.

Skills

Project engineering

Cross-disciplinary coordination

Interface management

Contractor liaison

Risk management

Tools

Contract administration NEC3

Job description

Senior Project Engineer, Depot, High Speed Rail

Our client is looking for a Senior Project Engineer to join the client-side team responsible for a Depot programme worth £800 million. The Washwood Heath Depot is a mini railway in its own right, and this one carries the full complexity that comes with that. As part of the Senior Project Engineering team you and your colleagues will be the first point of contact for the Design and Build Contractor across the technical scope of the programme, coordinating engineering activity, drawing on subject matter experts where the work demands it, and making sure that contractor enquiries are managed and directed with clarity and purpose. Your job is to hold the technical thread across a genuinely multi-disciplinary project from design through to delivery.

This is not engineering management and it is not design management. It is project engineering on the client side, where your value lies in your ability to work across disciplines, ask the right questions, route technical issues to the right people, and keep the contractor moving in the right direction.

The programme runs for seven to nine years from here, taking you through design, construction, testing and commissioning, and final handover.

What the role involves

You will be the contractor's primary technical contact on the programme, coordinating design and construction assurance across the depot scope. You will manage interfaces between the depot contracts and the wider railway systems works, making sure that technical requirements are understood, applied and evidenced at each stage gate. You will review and respond to contractor technical queries, support the resolution of engineering issues and change, and manage the interface tools that keep system integration on track.

You will support the coordination of technical risk, working with subject matter experts within the client organisation to develop appropriate solutions where issues arise. You will also carry out NEC3 Supervisor duties and support Principal Designer responsibilities under CDM Regulations 2015 within your scope.

What you need to bring

Your background is in project engineering on major infrastructure programmes, on the client side or in an equivalent role where you have sat close to the client function. A background as a Design Manager, Client Representative Engineer or Delegated Project Engineer is directly relevant. What matters above all is your ability to work across disciplines rather than within a single one, coordinating technical activity and managing a contractor relationship with confidence.

You will have experience of managing engineering activity across design and construction on complex, multi-disciplinary programmes. You will understand how to balance technical requirements against cost and programme pressures, and you will know how to communicate clearly with contractors, specialists and internal stakeholders.

Familiarity with CDM Regulations 2015, NEC3 contract administration and UK railway technical standards is expected. Knowledge of common safety method risk assessment is useful. Your technical discipline background can be varied. The programme spans OCS, M&E, high-voltage power, communications, CCS, EMS, NICC, Track, Signalling and Power and the team values breadth of understanding alongside depth in at least one area.

Useful to have

Experience on major UK rail infrastructure programmes, particularly those delivered through large Design and Build or joint-venture supply chains. Familiarity with railway systems integration and the interfaces between discipline contracts. A track record that covers more than one phase of a programme lifecycle, from design through into construction and commissioning.