Assistant Principal/Senior Civil Engineer (Treatment Plant)

Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management, and development consultancy committed to delivering impactful work that shapes the future.

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Whether you want to pursue excellence in your specialism or broaden your experience with flexible roles across our business, you’ll be connected to a community of global experts championing you to be your best. Join us and shape your story with Mott MacDonald, where everyone has the opportunity to be brilliant.

Job Purpose

To provide technical leadership in the planning, design, and delivery of civil and hydraulic engineering solutions for water and wastewater treatment projects. The role is responsible for leading hydraulic design activities, assuring technical quality, coordinating multidisciplinary interfaces, managing technical risk, and supporting successful project delivery across all project stages.

Roles and Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Design Delivery

• Lead civil and hydraulic engineering design for water and wastewater treatment works and associated infrastructure.
• Take technical responsibility for hydraulic design elements including treatment plant hydraulics, pumping systems, pipelines, channels, tanks, chambers and flow control structures.
• Develop and review hydraulic profiles, headloss assessments, flow balancing and system performance evaluations.
• Prepare, review and approve design calculations, technical reports, specifications and drawings.
• Support feasibility studies, optioneering, outline design, detailed design and construction support activities.
• Ensure compliance with client requirements, applicable standards, health and safety obligations and internal quality procedures.
  
  

Multidisciplinary Coordination & Project Delivery

• Coordinate with process, mechanical, electrical, ICA, structural and geotechnical disciplines to ensure integrated design solutions.
• Identify, manage and communicate technical risks, assumptions, constraints and interfaces.
• Support design reviews, hazard reviews, value engineering and technical assurance processes.
• Provide technical support during construction, commissioning and issue resolution activities.
• Apply safe-by-design principles in all engineering activities.
• Contribute to risk identification, mitigation and continuous improvement initiatives.
  
  

Client & Business Support

• Contribute to bid submissions, proposals and client-facing technical discussions.
• Support client engagement, technical assurance and project delivery performance.
• Contribute to business development activities and proposal development.
• Travel to project offices and sites as required.
  
  

Team Leadership & Capability Development

• Mentor and guide junior engineers and designers.
• Provide technical leadership across multidisciplinary project teams.
• Promote knowledge sharing, innovation and continuous improvement within the discipline.
• Support the growth of technical capability and engineering best practices across the business.

Candidate Specifications

Qualifications

Essential

• Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering or a related discipline.
• Master's degree in Civil or Environmental Engineering.

Desirable

• Chartered Engineer status or actively working towards chartership with a recognised professional institution.
  
  

Experience

Essential

• Significant experience in civil and hydraulic engineering design for water and wastewater treatment projects.
• Demonstrable experience leading technical delivery on multidisciplinary engineering projects.
• Experience preparing and reviewing high-quality engineering calculations, technical reports, specifications and design documentation.

Desirable

• Experience delivering major treatment works or complex water-sector programmes.
• Experience in design management, project planning and resource coordination.
• Experience supporting construction-stage activities and contractor engagement.
  
  

Technical Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• Strong understanding of treatment works hydraulics and associated civil infrastructure.
• Good knowledge of relevant industry standards, codes and engineering design practices.
• Ability to manage technical complexity, competing priorities and project deadlines.
• Strong problem-solving, communication and stakeholder management skills.

Desirable

• Familiarity with hydraulic modelling tools and specialist engineering software.
• Knowledge of digital engineering, BIM and design collaboration platforms.
  
  

Key Competencies

• Technical leadership
• Engineering judgement and decision making
• Collaboration and multidisciplinary coordination
• Quality and risk management
• Client focus and stakeholder engagement
• Communication and influencing skills
• Planning and delivery focus
• Coaching and mentoring

Flexible working
At Mott MacDonald, we support our staff to create work-life balance which works for them and welcome candidates looking for career flexibility. We are open to discussing flexible working at interview stage.

Our benefits package is designed to enhance your experience:

• Agile working
• Critical illness and compassionate leave
• Paternity Leave
• Group term life insurance, and Group medical insurance coverage
• Career mobility options
• Short and Long-term global employment opportunities
• Global collaboration and knowledge sharing