Technical Director - Transmission & Distribution (Multiple Locations, UK)

Burns & McDonnell

Birmingham

On-site

GBP 140,000 - 190,000

Full time

5 days ago

Be an early applicant

Get a reply from this employer

Your resume and cover letter, tailored to exactly what they’re hiring for.

Get past ATS filters

Job summary

Burns & McDonnell in Birmingham, UK, is seeking an Engineering Technical Director for Transmission & Distribution to lead a team of experts across high-voltage projects. You will define technical vision, set QA/QC benchmarks, and drive multidisciplinary EPC execution for clients worldwide.

This leadership role emphasizes safety, quality, and continuous improvement, with responsibilities spanning design direction, risk mitigation, and collaboration with global engineering leaders.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in related engineering field.
Professional Engineer registration preferred.
Minimum thirteen (13) years related professional experience.
Three (3) years of direct management experience recommended.
Proven leadership in communicating visions and results.

Responsibilities

Lead, manage, and develop the Technical Management Department and Technical Teams with clear direction and continual improvement.
Drive safety, quality and engineering excellence across the T&D portfolio.
Oversee design processes, QA/QC benchmarks, and risk mitigation.
Collaborate with global and UK leadership to align engineering solutions with client standards.
Foster innovation and adoption of modern design tools and digital delivery platforms.
Guide capacity planning, training, and performance development.

Skills

Strategic leadership

People management

Technical vision

Communication skills

Collaboration

Change management

Problem-solving

Interpersonal skills

Planning and execution

Organizational governance

Education

Bachelor's degree in related engineering field

Professional Engineer registration preferred

Job description

Chart your own course and change the world — with the support of people whose interests are aligned with yours. At Burns & McDonnell, opportunity is waiting. We’re looking for people with big ideas and an entrepreneurial mindset. It’s those kinds of people who’ve helped us grow from a small consulting business back in 1898 to a global leader in engineering, architecture and construction solutions. Today, we’re a thriving company with more than 10,000 professionals working in 75 offices worldwide and recognised as a Global Leader within T&D Construction.

At Burns & McDonnell, our engineers, architects, construction professionals, and specialists plan, design, permit, construct, and manage critical infrastructure facilities across the globe. As an employee-owned firm, our success is driven by empowering our teams to solve the world's toughest technical and operational challenges.

The Engineering Technical Director – Transmission & Distribution (T&D) will be responsible for leading the team of subject matter experts, and strategic engineering advisors across our high-voltage power delivery portfolio. In this pivotal leadership role, you will collaborate with Burns & McDonell’s global technical leadership team to define the technical vision, champion engineering excellence, establish rigorous design and QA/QC benchmarks, and direct multidisciplinary teams executing complex transmission projects for our clients.

The Technical Director will operate at the intersection of client standards and specifications, emerging T&D technology, and large-scale EPC execution projects, developing the next generation of technical leaders.

The primary mission of the T&D Technical Director is to continually enhance and advance Burns & McDonnell’s engineering excellence. Through oversight of engineering processes and tools, this role is pivotal in establishing T&D as the leading provider of design solutions characterized by the highest quality, safety, and effectiveness.

The T&D Technical Director will ensure consistency in direction and technical execution by providing leadership, guidance, and oversight to the Technical Design career paths.

Quality & Engineering Leadership

Drive a culture of safety, quality and continual improvement.
Partner with the Quality Manager / Director to ensure the requirements of the Burns & McDonnell Quality Management System are suitable for the work being undertaken and the technical direction of the engineering.
Oversee the identification and mitigation of technical and procedural risks across the business.
Oversight of cause analysis and corrective action sessions for technical issues/best practices, NCR trends, and supporting activities to maintain ISO 9001 compliance.
Responsible for engineering processes, tools, and specifications. This includes driving improvement as a result of the audit program or other measures.
Coordinate with the department management and technology management to implement innovation to engineering processes, focused on efficiency, tools, and technology.
Manage internal technical training for T&D, collaborating with resource management to maintain training consistency, effectiveness, and vision.
Collaboration with Engineering Technical expertise in the broader global company to identify opportunities to improve technical solutions deployed in the UK, including OEM equipment/system solutions, innovations and engineering means and methods.
Drive constructability, operability, safety-in-design (Prevention through Design), and outage-sequencing reviews for both greenfield builds and brownfield utility modernizations.
Confirms clear objectives and key results are established and met to drive business needs and communicates these to the broader team.
Cultivate, facilitate, and guide technical execution best practices and documentation across the departments.
Identify emerging technical risks, resolve non-conformance trends, and implement systemic corrective actions across regional and global production centres

Leadership

Lead, manage, and support our technical management organization with clarity, common direction, and a focus on continual improvement and development.
Champion a ‘for all’ organization through a proactive pursuit of diversity while fostering transparency, trust, inclusion, open dialogue, and open access to opportunity.
Develop and foster an innovation culture that challenges the norm and utilizes tools, technology, and processes to drive continuous improvement and efficiency.
Steer the adoption and integration of cutting-edge design tools, power system modeling packages, and digital delivery platforms.
Establish clear lines of proactive employee feedback and recognition.
Oversight and management of chargeability and proper investment of overhead labour and costs for the Technical Management Department and Technical Teams.
Drive a culture focused on safety in compliance with company and site safety policies.
Actively foster a culture based on our MacCulture principles, quality, diversity and inclusion, and team cohesion and camaraderie.

People Management

Proactively coordinate with the Engineering Manager to create hiring plans for experienced strategic hiring needs for each department to meet project delivery resource demands.
Oversee the implementation of career development programming, specifically professional development, of the technical staff in the departments including project engineers and technical consultants.
Organize, lead, and conduct the annual performance appraisal process reporting staff.
Work with Human Resources and staff to identify, prepare, communicate, and monitor performance plans for employees with areas of needed improvement.

Collaboration

Fosters proactive collaboration with business line leadership and Department Management to confirm alignment between people, technical resources, and business direction, including working together to develop cohesive goals and initiatives to position Burns & McDonnell for continued success and profitability.
Fosters proactive collaboration with EPC and Program Management leadership, and the broader Burns & McDonnell Engineering community to support long-term business goals for growth in services related to those delivery methods and seamless transitions between design, procurement and construction.
Close collaboration with counterparts across UK offices and GPs and US T&D to align with direction and goals.
Provides guidance for strategies to cross-sell engineering services across the organization.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in related engineering field. Minimum thirteen (13) years related professional experience.
Registration as a Professional Engineer is preferred.
Preferred three (3) years of experience in direct management of professionals.
Proven leadership in developing and implementing visions that have brought positive impact.
Ability to thoughtfully and positively influence, lead and manage.
Demonstrated excellent oral and written communication skills; strong interpersonal skills; and the ability to clearly and effectively present complex information to all levels of employees, management, and clients.
Ability to plan, guide, and implement effective changes.
Ability to handle difficult situations with tact, poise, and discernment.
Proven collaboration, facilitation, and organization problem-solving skills in previous roles.
Demonstrated planning and analytical skills.
Knowledge and demonstrated experience in implementing organizational management methodologies and tools.