Head of Structures / Technical Design Lead

Head of Structures / Technical Design Lead

Right across infrastructure, there’s a requirement to not only maintain, but also renew and reimagine. Whatever stage you’re at in your career, with us you’ll have an opportunity to grow and develop. Delivering essential infrastructure services for life, while being safety first, and client and customer centric in a friendly, professional and respectful environment where you are encouraged to thrive.

Where will you be working?

You’ll be working as part of our Oxfordshire Highways contract, supporting the delivery of essential highway infrastructure services across the county. Our Professional Services team provides technical design, project management and assurance across a broad portfolio of highway infrastructure schemes, including bridges, highway structures, capital maintenance, active travel, road safety and public realm improvements.

The Bridges and Structures team plays a key role in maintaining and improving Oxfordshire’s bridge stock and highway structures assets, developing practical, safe and buildable solutions from early feasibility through to detailed design and construction support. Want to be a part of it?

What you’ll be doing

You’ll provide senior technical leadership for the Bridges and Structures Design Team, leading Principal Engineers and the wider technical team in the successful development and delivery of bridge and highway structure schemes across the Oxfordshire Highways contract.

Reporting to the Professional Services Design Manager, you’ll be responsible for leading the structures technical function, providing clear technical direction, assurance and support across a varied portfolio of inspections, assessments, maintenance schemes, strengthening works, refurbishments and structure replacement projects.

You’ll lead the development of safe, compliant, practical and buildable design solutions, ensuring outputs meet client requirements, technical standards, programme commitments, commercial expectations and UK legislative obligations, including full compliance with CDM 2015.

Working closely with the client, project managers, construction teams, commercial colleagues, programme teams and supply chain partners, you’ll help ensure that design solutions are properly scoped, coordinated, assured and aligned with construction and operational needs.

You’ll support the management of design programmes, technical risk, change control, resource planning and forecasting, ensuring the structures team has the right capability and capacity to meet current and future programme demands.

As a senior technical representative, you’ll act as a key interface with clients and stakeholders, providing clear, evidence-based advice on technical issues, design options, risks, constraints and opportunities. You’ll also play an important role in embedding buildability, maintainability, innovation, sustainability and low-carbon thinking into the team’s approach.

A strong focus on health and safety will be central to the role. You’ll ensure design risks are identified, mitigated and clearly communicated, and that Designer and Principal Designer duties are properly supported across the structures portfolio.

You’ll also mentor, support and develop engineers within the team, helping to build a collaborative, high-performing and professionally accountable technical environment.

What you’ll bring

• A degree, or equivalent qualification, in civil engineering, structural engineering or another relevant engineering discipline.
• Proven experience leading technical teams, including Principal Engineers, Senior Engineers, Engineers, Technicians and/or external design suppliers.
• Strong technical knowledge of bridge and highway structure inspection, assessment, maintenance, strengthening, refurbishment and replacement schemes.
• Good knowledge of relevant technical standards, including DMRB, Eurocodes and associated bridge and highway structure guidance.
• A strong understanding of UK health and safety legislation and design regulations, particularly CDM 2015.
• Proven ability to lead multiple schemes simultaneously while managing technical quality, programme, cost, risk and change control.
• Experience working collaboratively with clients, project managers, commercial teams, construction teams and supply chain partners.
• Strong communication and leadership skills, with the ability to explain complex technical issues clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Commercial awareness, including experience of scope definition, fee management, resource planning, forecasting, risk and opportunity.
• Experience working within a local authority, highways maintenance or infrastructure contract environment would be desirable.
• Experience of NEC contracts would be desirable.
• Chartered Engineer status (CEng MICE, or equivalent).
• Full UK Driving Licence.

What’s in it for you?

• Online GP service, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• Employee assistance programme
• My Rewards portal, access to 1000’s of retail discounts
• Cycle to work, salary finance and give as you earn schemes
• Enhanced maternity, paternity leave and adoption leave
• Reward and recognition scheme
• Recommend a friend – get rewarded for introducing people to us!
• Company car and fuel card with a range of EV and hybrid vehicles to choose from
• My Car Choice, our salary sacrifice EV / hybrid car scheme
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays

About us

We want to be an employer of choice and a great place to work, attracting diverse and talented people who join us and make a difference. We’re one of the Top 100 UK companies actively supporting and recruiting army veterans. Our ENABLE inclusion networks bring together people who have a shared passion, helping to create an environment where everyone belongs. Our values help to shape our culture and how we work with one another. We recruit with these values in mind to ensure your aspirations and ways of working align with ours.

• We’re responsible and go further for our people, clients, communities and the planet.
• We’re open and seek new and better ways of exceeding expectations.
• We’re together and as one team; the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
• We’re ambitious and embrace opportunity, to lead essential infrastructure services for life.

For certain roles, successful candidates will be subject to third-party background checks as part of the hiring process. Some roles require drug and alcohol testing as part of induction and onboarding.

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