Senior Fire Engineer in Manchester

Greater Manchester has one of the densest concentrations of post-war and early-2000s residential tower stock outside London, and a fair proportion of it is now mid-remediation or queued up waiting for it.

Our client, a major UK contractor with an established in-house design and engineering function, has built a genuine northern remediation pipeline off the back of that, and they're looking for a Senior Fire Engineer to take real ownership of it rather than fly in from a regional office once a fortnight.

The work is heavily facade-led. Cavity barriers that were never installed correctly the first time. Insulation and membrane build-ups that don't match the original as-built drawings. Fire stopping details that looked fine on paper and turned out to be a different story sixteen storeys up. If you've spent years in consultancy assessing these systems from a desk and occasionally getting up a scaffold to check your own work, this is the version where the scaffold visit isn't the exception, it's most weeks.

THE ROLE

You'll take ownership of a portfolio of existing HRBs across Greater Manchester and the wider North West, working under the Head of Fire Engineering, with a small regional team building out around you. The role sits genuinely between technical authorship and construction delivery: you'll write the retrospective strategy, then you'll be the one checking the installed cavity barriers against it a few months later. There's also real appetite here to build a proper northern presence for the in-house function, so there's scope to shape how the team grows, not just fill a seat in it.

WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING

• Leading retrospective fire strategy work for existing higher-risk residential buildings, using PAS 9980 methodology, site evidence and as-built record review
• Directing external wall fire assessments across a facade remediation programme, covering cladding systems, cavity barriers, fire stopping, insulation and membrane interfaces
• Running construction-stage QA inspections on remediation contracts, verifying installed passive fire protection against approved design and manufacturer system requirements
• Reviewing contractor submissions, product substitutions and site queries as remediation works progress
• Owning Building Safety Case documentation and Golden Thread records for your allocated buildings
• Engaging with Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and local Building Control on live schemes
• Supporting Building Safety Regulator gateway processes for occupied HRBs within the portfolio
• Mentoring Fire Engineers within the growing regional team and contributing to internal technical guidance

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• Degree in Fire Engineering or a closely related discipline, with CEng or IEng registration or clear progress toward it
• Consultancy or specialist advisory background with genuine hands-on exposure to retrospective fire strategies, EWS1-related assessments or PAS 9980 work
• Strong working knowledge of BS 9999, BS 9991, BS 7974, Approved Document B and the Building Safety Act as applied to occupied HRBs
• Real depth in passive fire protection systems, particularly external wall build-ups, cavity barriers, fire stopping and their interfaces
• Willingness to be on site regularly, not just on paper, including QA inspection work during construction stage
• Confident engaging directly with Fire and Rescue Services, Building Control and BSR caseworkers
• Full UK driving licence and willingness to travel across the North West

WHAT'S ON OFFER

• £70,000 to £85,000 depending on experience, plus car allowance
• A genuine regional portfolio to own, with the autonomy that comes from being some distance from head office
• Direct involvement in shaping a growing northern team, including who joins it
• Chartership support and a real CPD budget
• Hybrid working built around site presence rather than office attendance
• A defined route toward Head of Fire Engineering as the function expands across the North