Water Front End Engineering Lead

Location/s: UK Wide 
Recruiter contact: David McFall 
Closing date: 29/08/2025

Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management, and development consultancy with over 20,000 employees across more than 50 countries and 140+ offices. 

We work across incredible global industries, delivering exciting work that is defining our future and making an important societal impact in the communities we serve. Our people power our performance – we succeed when they do. With countless opportunities to collaborate, learn, and grow, the possibilities for excellence are as varied as every individual. 

Whether you want to grow as a subject matter expert or broaden your experience with roles across our international community, you’re surrounded by global specialists who want to combine their expertise and champion you to be your best. As a proudly employee-owned business, we benefit our clients, our communities, and each other, investing in creating the right space for everyone to feel empowered, included, and valued. Whatever your ambition, Mott MacDonald is where people come to be brilliant.

Due to significant growth and future market opportunities within our Water Consultancy Division, we are looking to establish and grow a Front-end Engineering Delivery team focussed on the leadership, management and engineering delivery of major water projects. This will include the UK water company Strategic Resource Options and major schemes working on flood and coastal risk management, navigation and water land and biodiversity assets and across the hydropower market.

Front-end Engineering is expected to include feasibility, concept and outline design stages.

To keep our service offering joined up, ensure consistent, high-quality technical output, and to provide space for our people to grow around a team working on similar work with similar clients, we plan to establish a Front-end Engineering Delivery team within Water Engineering Team of our Water Consultancy Division.

The Front-end Engineering Delivery Lead will have responsibility for leading our teams to deliver on the early stages of project development, ensuring that we have the right Project Technical Leads in place to ensure quality and control our risk exposure.

Roles and responsibilities

• Establish and grow a team to deliver front-end engineering across a large range of complex multi-disciplinary engineering projects, including water major projects.
• Support Business Development by working with relevant Account Leaders and Client Directors to engage with the market, develop new opportunities and help to maintain significant work for this team.
• Team leadership, line management and resource management (noting line management and resource management to be delegated as required) of a large multi-disciplinary engineering team including Design Managers and Project Managers to deliver for a range of clients.
• Help to support and nurture the next generation of engineers, design managers and project managers to create a long-term sustainable team to deliver across the water market, particularly on major water projects.
• Senior Design Manager, Technical Lead or Project Director for delivery of Multi-Disciplinary Engineering projects.

Relevant experience

• Experience of leading large multi-disciplinary engineering teams is essential, including resource management and line management as a preference.
• Significant experience of leading complex, multi-disciplinary engineering projects in the UK and Ireland water market.
• Front-end major projects experience preferred (any sector/market).
• Experience of business development and growing service offerings and teams advantageous.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion 

We put equality, diversity, and inclusion at the heart of our business, seeking to promote fair employment procedures and practices to ensure equal opportunities for all. We encourage individual expression in our workplace and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels they can contribute.

Accessibility

We want you to perform your best at every stage in the recruitment process. If you are disabled or need any support to enable you to apply or attend an interview, please contact us at reasonable.adjustments@mottmac.com and we will talk to you about how we can support you.

Agile working 

Happy to talk Flexible Working and how we can support your responsibilities beyond the workplace.

We offer some fantastic benefits including:

• Pension matched up to 7%   
• Life insurance 
• An annual professional institution subscription   
• Continuous development opportunities – because we want you to thrive  
• Agile/flexible working – because life isn’t 9-5  
• Enhanced parental leave; shared parental leave policies – for parents and care givers  
• Annual bonus scheme  
• Flexible benefits that suit you, including ability to buy/sell annual leave entitlement, cycle to work & interest free season ticket loans 
• Wellbeing support including access to an independent Employer Assistance Scheme, wellbeing champions and access to learning and support resources 
• Access to our Advanced Employee Networks which support our LGBTQ+, gender, race and ethnicity, disability and parents/carers communities 
• The opportunity to make a difference; learn more about our social outcomes

Apply now, or for more information about our application process, click here.