Principal Designer in Colchester

About The Role

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, fun and respectful environment where you are encouraged to thrive.

Where will you be working?

We help our clients safeguard the water supply, improve environmental performance and manage demand for future generations. We enhance and extend asset life, ensuring compliance with water quality and environmental standards. We’re problem solvers with over 140 years of combined experience in engineering and infrastructure. This role will be within our water and wastewater capital project delivery team. Our teams deliver large-scale capital programmes aimed at keeping water infrastructure resilient for the long-term while protecting the environment.

What will you be doing?

We are seeking an experienced Principal Designer to lead and coordinate health, safety, and design risk management activities across a diverse portfolio of Clean Water, Wastewater, MEICA, and Civil Engineering projects. As Principal Designer, you will ensure compliance with CDM 2015 Regulations throughout all project phases, including Tender, Feasibility, Outline Design, Detailed Design, Construction, Handover, and Completion. You will work closely with clients, design teams, contractors, and stakeholders to embed safe design principles and promote best practice throughout the project lifecycle.

• Lead and manage the Principal Designer function across multiple projects.
• Ensure compliance with CDM 2015 Regulations and associated health and safety requirements.
• Review and coordinate Pre-Construction Information (PCI), identifying gaps and recommending additional surveys where required.
• Facilitate collaboration between clients, designers, contractors, and other stakeholders throughout the pre-construction phase.
• Attend and lead design reviews, risk workshops, assurance checks, and audits.
• Ensure designers fulfil their CDM duties and apply the Principles of Prevention.
• Support design change management and construction phase coordination.
• Collaborate with Principal Contractors to ensure effective communication of health and safety information.
• Agree and coordinate Health & Safety File requirements and project handover documentation.
• Drive continuous improvement in design processes and standards.

What you’ll bring

• Extensive knowledge and practical experience of CDM 2015 Regulations and their application across the project lifecycle.
• Proven experience performing the Principal Designer role within infrastructure, water, utilities, civil engineering, or construction environments.
• Strong understanding of design risk management, hazard identification, and the application of the Principles of Prevention.
• Experience coordinating and influencing multidisciplinary design teams during the pre-construction phase.
• Ability to identify, assess, and mitigate complex design and construction risks while driving safe design solutions.
• Sound knowledge of construction methods, engineering principles, project delivery processes, and Pre-Construction Information (PCI) requirements.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build effective relationships with clients, contractors, designers, and project teams.
• Strong communication, presentation, and facilitation skills, with experience leading design reviews, workshops, and risk management meetings.
• Experience conducting assurance reviews, audits, and compliance checks to ensure adherence to CDM and project requirements.
• A proactive and collaborative leader with strong problem-solving skills, a commitment to continuous improvement, and the ability to manage multiple priorities while delivering successful project outcomes.

What’s in it for you?

We offer a range of benefits designed to support your life in and out of work, some of which include:

• Contributory pension scheme
• Online GP service, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• Employee assistance programme
• My Rewards portal, access to 1000s of retail discounts
• Life assurance
• 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!

In addition, this role offers:

• 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
• Private health care single cover
• Health Care Cash Plan, giving you the ability to claim back medical expenses for things like dental, eyecare and physiotherapy and much more!
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Discretionary bonus scheme

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 veterans. Our ENABLE inclusion networks bring together people who have a shared passion, to help 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. Whether you’re a trainee, apprentice or graduate, or progressing through your career, our people benefit from industry recognised programmes, training and development. It’s an exceptional time to be a part of M Group.

Please note: Occasionally, job adverts might be closed before the stated closing date. Do apply as soon as possible to ensure your application is considered. For certain roles, successful candidates will be subject to 3rd party background checks as part of the hiring process. Some roles require drug and alcohol testing as part of induction and onboarding.