Project Design Lead

Overview

As a Project Design Lead, you will steer multidisciplinary design coordination for major water infrastructure schemes in the UK and Ireland. You’ll ensure interfaces are resolved, designs are constructible, and aligned with programme milestones while navigating complex stakeholder environments. You’ll drive design reviews, risk mitigation, and commercial awareness across pre-construction and delivery phases. This is a pivotal role with exposure to joint venture structures and significant long-term projects that shape water infrastructure. You will work with cross-functional teams to deliver safe, efficient construction-ready designs and enable timely decision-making.

Pay / Benefits

• permanent role
• involvement in major projects
• professional development
• ambitious project environment

Responsibilities

• Coordinate multidisciplinary design teams and consultants to identify interfaces and resolve clashes while keeping deliverables aligned with programmes
• Review drawings, specifications and models, providing technical challenge to ensure practicality, compliance and constructability
• Manage design activities against construction programmes and identify risks impacting cost, scope or schedule
• Lead design reviews, approvals, assurance activities and document control per standards and client requirements
• Manage design changes, scope gaps, opportunities and design risk registers with appropriate mitigations
• Assess impact of design decisions on capital expenditure, costs, compensation events, programme and whole-life costs in collaboration with commercial teams
• Promote constructability by considering temporary works, sequencing, access, logistics, and safe delivery on site
• Lead workshops and meetings, communicating complex issues clearly and driving actions to completion across stakeholders

Key requirements

• Significant experience in design management/co-ordination in water or broader infrastructure
• Experience in both pre-construction and delivery phases on complex, large-scale programmes
• Strong grasp of engineering principles, constructability and design-delivery relationships
• Proven ability to coordinate multiple disciplines and lead designers even with limited direct line management authority
• Commercial awareness and ability to link design choices to cost, scope, programme and contractual changes
• Experience managing design risks, changes, interfaces, approvals, assurance and quality
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication with clients, consultants, contractors, suppliers, regulators and JV partners
• Strong technical writing, workshop facilitation, decision-making and problem-solving; collaborative and proactive approach

• stakeholder management
• clear communication
• problem-solving
• design management
• design coordination
• constructability

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