Senior Principal Water Resource Consultant

Overview

In this role you lead water resource planning and delivery within a multidisciplinary team, shaping outcomes for UK water resilience and environmental protection. You collaborate with water companies, regulators, and other stakeholders to ensure projects meet scope, budget, schedule, quality, and regulatory standards. You will develop and mentor early-career colleagues across WRMPs, drought plans, and related modelling and environmental assessments, while maintaining strong client-facing relationships. This position offers meaningful impact on national resilience and sustainable water management.

Pay / Benefits

• competitive salary
• bonus schemes
• enhanced pension plan
• annual leave with buy/sell option
• private medical insurance
• group income protection & life assurance

Responsibilities

• Lead planning, delivery and implementation of water resource projects within scope, budget and regulatory constraints
• Manage client-facing engagements and bids/proposals, and support commercial aspects of the Water and Environment department
• Develop and contribute to WRMPs, Regional Water Resource Plans, Drought Plans, water resource modelling, and demand management
• Oversee options development, environmental assessments (HRA, SEA, WFD) and RAPID-led gated processes for SROs
• Collaborate with regulators, water companies, engineers, contractors, planners and diverse stakeholders
• Support the growth and development of early career colleagues across technical areas
• Ensure high-quality outputs and alignment with national resilience strategies and environmental protections
• Work flexibly across a growing portfolio and contribute to wider department goals

Key requirements

• Degree in Geography, Geology, Environmental Science or Civil Engineering
• Postgraduate qualification in Hydrology, Hydrogeology or Water Resources Management (ideally)
• Chartered or working towards chartered status with CIWEM, ICE or Institute of Water
• Extensive experience in water resources projects and consultancy, water company, regulatory or academic environments
• Experience with WRMPs, Drought Plans, regional water resource plans and supply-demand balance assessments
• Proficiency across hydrological, hydrogeological and environmental assessment work (HRA, SEA, WFD)
• Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams, build trusted client relationships, and manage complex programmes with commercial awareness
• Open to applicants not meeting every requirement and encouraging suitable candidates to apply

• Client-facing communication
• Building trusted stakeholder relationships
• Collaborative mindset in multidisciplinary environments
• WRMPs and Drought Plans
• Regional Water Resource Plans
• Water resource modelling

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