Associate-Associate Director | Geotechnical Design Engineer in London

We’re always on the lookout for insightful, talented, and imaginative people to join our practice.

As an Employee Owned Trust, we are committed to the development and success of our staff and maintaining the ethos of the practice.

If you want to be part of a creative, friendly, and dynamic team, then we want to hear from you.

About HTS

We’re always on the lookout for insightful, talented, and imaginative people to join our practice.

As an Employee Owned Trust, we are committed to the development and success of our staff and maintaining the ethos of the practice.

If you want to be part of a creative, friendly, and dynamic team, then we want to hear from you.

Heyne Tillett Steel is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workforce.

About The Role

We are seeking an experienced, technically strong and commercially aware Geotechnical Design Engineer (

Associate to Associate Director level

) to join and help shape our growing in-house Geotechnical Consultancy team.

This is a key role for an engineer with the confidence and capability to lead geotechnical design work with minimal supervision, while helping to establish and expand our formal design services offering.

The successful candidate will play an important part in developing our capability in temporary works design, while also delivering permanent works solutions including pile design and retaining wall design as a core part of the role.

Working within a supportive and collaborative environment, you will be responsible for producing efficient, practical and high quality geotechnical designs for a range of projects, including temporary works, basement excavations, retaining walls, foundations and earth retaining structures for both new build and reuse schemes across multiple sectors.

This role would suit someone who is technically capable, proactive and ambitious, and who is looking to take ownership, contribute to business growth and help build our design services.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and deliver geotechnical design packages with minimal supervision, to a high technical standard.
• Support the development and growth of the company’s formal geotechnical design services.
• Lead the delivery of geotechnical design services across temporary and permanent works, with core requirements in temporary works, retaining wall design and pile foundation design, while helping to shape and expand our wider design offering.
• Review site investigation data, develop ground models and derive appropriate geotechnical design parameters.
• Scope and specify ground investigations, and review contractor or alternative investigation proposals.
• Undertake ground movement and soil structure interaction assessments, including but not limited to:
• Thames Water asset assessments
• Tunnel and third party asset assessments, including BT, London Underground, Crossrail and Royal Mail assets
• Liaise closely with internal teams, clients, contractors and other stakeholders to develop practical and innovative design solutions.
• Manage project budgets, resources and programme deadlines effectively.
• Ensure designs and technical outputs are compliant with relevant standards, codes of practice and health and safety requirements.
• Provide technical guidance and support to junior engineers where required.
• Contribute to quality assurance, technical improvement and the continual development of internal design procedures and standards.
• Sign off on technical deliverables, including interpretative reports, complex design calculations, specifications, and construction drawings.

Requirements

• Minimum 10-15 years’ experience in geotechnical engineering, with strong experience in design.
• Demonstrable experience delivering geotechnical design work independently and confidently.
• Strong understanding of soil mechanics, geotechnical engineering principles and geotechnical risk assessment.
• Experience in the planning and scoping of ground investigations and interpretation of geotechnical data.
• Proven experience in temporary works and/or permanent works geotechnical design, particularly retaining walls and piled foundations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce clear, high quality technical reports and design documents in accordance with Eurocode 7.
• Good working knowledge of UK geotechnical practice, with strong familiarity with London ground conditions and ground investigation practice.
• Able to manage multiple projects and competing priorities effectively.
• Strong problem solving skills and the ability to work collaboratively in a multidisciplinary environment.
• Commercial awareness and a sound understanding of project delivery and project management.
• Confident communicator, able to explain engineering concepts clearly to clients, colleagues and site teams.
• A proactive and self sufficient approach, with the confidence to take ownership of design work and decision making.
• Commitment to technical excellence, continuous improvement and sustainable design, including reducing embodied carbon where practicable.
• Strategic Contribution

This role is not only a delivery position, but also an opportunity to help shape and grow our geotechnical design capability.

We are looking for someone who can bring technical leadership, confidence and initiative, and who is motivated by the opportunity to establish robust design processes, support business development and help expand our service offering in temporary and permanent works design.

Experience in the following would be advantageous

• Extensive experience in independent checking of temporary and permanent works.
• Expert proficiency, or the ability to direct teams, in the use of Oasys software (PILE, ALP, ADSEC, PDISP, XDISP, SLOPE), WALLAP, and PLAXIS 2D/3D.
• A track record of thought leadership, such as published papers, presentations, or participation in industry committees.
• Capable of driving digital engineering, coding, or automation (e. g., Python, Excel VBA) to streamline design processes.

Qualifications

• BEng or MEng in Geotechnical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Engineering Geology or similar.
• MSc in Geotechnical Engineering or a related field would be desirable, but not essential.
• Chartered status.
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