Technical Principal Water

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

We are a team of over 20,000 experts working across the world in more than 50 countries.
We are proud to be part of an ever-changing global industry, delivering transformative work that’s defining our future. It’s our people who power that performance. As an employee-owned business, we invest in creating a space for everyone to feel safe and valued and empowered with the right tools and support.

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.

About the Role

We are seeking a technically credible and commercially aware Leader to provide senior technical, functional and project-delivery leadership for GDSC India’s Water business. Working closely with the Water Leader, you will shape technical direction, translate global demand into delivery and capability plans, strengthen relationships with global business units and clients, and assure the successful delivery of complex international Water projects. As deputy to the Water Leader, you will provide leadership continuity, take delegated decisions and represent GDSC India in agreed technical, client and operational forums.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy and Business Growth

• Support the Water Leader in providing overall leadership of the Water Discipline team across multiple regions, including the US, UK, Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, ensuring both technical excellence and the continued development of leadership capability across the function.

• Translate business pipelines and client priorities into practical capability, capacity, mobilisation and delivery plans.

• Promote early GDSC involvement in pursuits, project planning and multidisciplinary delivery.

• Build trusted relationships with global business-unit, client, account and project leaders.

• Lead the technical and delivery aspects of major pursuits, including solution development, resourcing, estimates, pricing and risk review.

• Identify opportunities to broaden services delivered from India and build a sustainable pipeline of work.

Technical and Project Leadership

• Provide technical leadership and independent judgement across complex, multidisciplinary Water projects and programmes.

• Direct and assure work across water and wastewater systems, networks, treatment, drainage, flood risk and related asset strategies.

• Establish proportionate technical governance, checking, review and approval arrangements.

• Oversee project performance across scope, programme, budget, change, quality and risk, intervening where recovery is required.

• Champion digital engineering, automation, data-led planning and innovation to improve safety, quality, efficiency and client outcomes.

• Share standards, lessons learned and best practice across GDSC and the global Water community.

People and Capability

• Lead and connect multidisciplinary project teams, discipline groups and technical specialists.

• Coach and mentor engineers, specialists and emerging leaders.

• Contribute to workforce planning, recruitment, succession, deployment and retention for priority capabilities.

• Build an inclusive, accountable and collaborative culture focused on technical excellence and consistent delivery.

Operational and Stakeholder Leadership

• Coordinate resource forecasting and deployment, balancing delivery continuity, responsiveness, development and commercial efficiency.

• Support portfolio reporting, operational decisions, risk escalation and corrective actions.

• Strengthen collaboration with lead offices through joint planning, clear interfaces and transparent performance information.

• Represent GDSC India in global Water technical and delivery forums.

• Act as deputy to the Water Leader for agreed functional, client and operational matters.

Candidate Specification

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in an appropriate engineering or technical discipline.

• Substantial senior experience in water, wastewater or related infrastructure consulting, with recognised technical credibility in a relevant discipline.

• Strong experience delivering for the UK Water market, with sound knowledge of its regulatory environment, frameworks and client priorities.

• Proven leadership of complex, multidisciplinary projects and globally distributed teams.

• Experience across the Water project lifecycle, from strategy and feasibility through design, delivery and operational improvement.

• Strong commercial capability across bids, estimates, contracts, change control, resource management and project performance.

• Experience building and managing large teams and developing technical and project-delivery leaders.

• Strong knowledge of technical governance, quality assurance, design risk, programme controls and commercial risk management.

• Ability to integrate engineering, planning, digital, environmental and asset-management perspectives into practical solutions.

• Excellent communication, influencing, decision-making and stakeholder-management skills across cultures and geographies.

• A collaborative and inclusive leadership style, supported by sound judgement, resilience and commercial awareness.

• Commitment to safety, ethics, integrity, innovation and continuous improvement.

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

Employment Compliance Requirement

As part of our global compliance requirements, all candidates must hold a valid Right to Work (RTW) document in India, which will be verified during the recruitment process.
Acceptable documents include a Passport, Voter ID, or Birth Certificate.
By applying, you confirm that you can provide valid documentation if and when required.