Principal Process Engineer

Overview

In this Principal Process Engineer role, you will lead process design and technical oversight for water and wastewater projects. You’ll guide multidisciplinary teams, validate design deliverables, and ensure compliance with client and regulatory standards. The position emphasizes technical leadership, practical design delivery, and continuous improvement within the water sector. You will shape robust treatment solutions and support tender submissions, with a clear impact on project outcomes and safety.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of efficient, practical process design solutions
• Review and approve design deliverables, including reports, specifications and DRAs
• Check mass balances, sizing, hydraulic calculations and PFDs
• Review control philosophies and commissioning strategies
• Provide technical guidance across projects and support tender submissions
• Direct and mentor engineers and graduates
• Ensure designs comply with technical standards and water company requirements
• Record and implement design changes and adhere to design processes
• Estimate design hours and support project planning
• Lead or participate in HAZOP, ALM, KM and other technical reviews
• Communicate technical standards and procedure updates
• Support continuous improvement of process engineering standards and practices

Key requirements

• Extensive process design experience in the regulated water industry
• Extensive knowledge of wastewater treatment processes and plant design
• Experience delivering process design for water and/or wastewater projects
• Degree, HND or significant practical experience from technician level progression
• Strong IT and digital capability
• Chartered Engineer status
• Ideally experience across both clean water and wastewater projects
• Experience participating in or leading HAZOP studies (ideally as Chair)
• Experience supporting tenders and technical proposals
• Full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle

• leadership
• mentoring
• cross-functional collaboration
• process design
• mass balances
• hydraulic calculations

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