Head of Mechanical & Electrical

We are excited to announce a leadership opportunity for a Head of Mechanical & Electrical to join CEL - Costain’s in-house Engineering & Design Services team, this role will oversee and lead the Mechanical, Electrical, Piping, and Control & Instrumentation disciplines supporting secured frameworks and confirmed demand, leveraging Costain’s robust pipeline of work across various sectors. 

As we pursue our strategic growth ambitions to become an engineering-led business, this role will lead the mechanical, piping, electrical, and C&I engineering disciplines within Costain’s in-house Engineering Services team. 

This high profile leadership position requires a proven technical background and experience in managing large design teams. The ideal applicant will have a proven track record of delivering complex projects from a design perspective and should possess experience with major engineering design consultants to understand pricing and professional services management.

Candidates should have experience of managing and growing large teams, reviewing technical compliance, finding alternative technical solutions in buildings and detail design across all Mechanical, Electrical, Piping, and Control & Instrumentation disciplines, including transmission if possible.

The base office will be located at Aviator Way, Manchester for those in the North or St Mary’s Axe, London for those in the South. This is a hybrid role with a flexible approach to home working to promote wellbeing. 

You will be responsible for managing a multi-disciplinary engineering team delivering engineering and design services across a range of complex projects within the UK Energy, Water, Nuclear, Defence and Transportation sectors. 

You will work closely with our other engineering disciplines and sector facing teams throughout the project lifecycle from tendering and preconstruction through to construction and handover. 

The role will report directly to the Group Director of Engineering Services and offers a hybrid working arrangement predominantly based in London or Manchester with an occasional requirement to travel to project locations throughout the UK depending on contract needs.

At Costain, we believe diverse perspectives drive innovation. If you’re passionate about making a positive impact and think you can bring value to our team, we’d love to hear from you—even if you don’t tick every box. Your unique skills and experiences could be exactly what we need. 

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Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary Engineering Services contact for Costain’s Mechanical, Piping, Electrical and C&I disciplines, liaising with other Engineering Services teams, Costain sector project delivery teams, group functions as well as external supply chain partners.
• Effectively communicate with key project stakeholders on design progress, challenges, risks and outcomes to ensure alignment and manage expectations.
• Must accurately forecast future team resource needs, ensuring effective utilisation of design resources and recruitment to meet demand. Expected to ensure the collective team skillsets and deployed resources accurately align with current and future project demands and complexity.
• Responsible for leading the successful delivery of mechanical, piping, electrical, controls & instrumentation engineering services across all contracts, ensuring scope and service requirements, budgets and programmes are clearly defined and adhered to. Will be responsible for ensuring the smooth transition between design phases, monitoring progress against budget and programme, and clear reporting of this to senior management, sectors and clients. 
• Must ensure the delivery of technically compliant and quality-controlled designs which meet scope requirements, ensuring all the necessary technical and regulatory assurance activities have been undertaken across the program lifecycle. This may include validation processes, testing and best practice to maintain design or product integrity. Expected to proactively assist in resolving complex technical and delivery issues where identified.

• Collaborate strategically with Costain’s Sectors in the pursuit of relevant opportunities as an engineering subject matter expert, developing best in class value propositions and winning bids to secure a strong future pipeline of work aligned with Costain’s growth ambitions. 

• Facilitate the capturing and clear communication of technical risks and opportunities to all stakeholders. Oversee the effective management of design change, applying a systematic challenge to minimise unnecessary scope variation. Act as a visible leader in developing a design delivery culture that emphasises ownership and accountability. Embed a structured approach to lessons learned and apply continuous improvement principles to all aspects of engineering services.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

Essential 

• A background in managing the delivery of multi-disciplinary engineering teams on complex infrastructure projects across the programme lifecycle 

• Experience in successfully managing the delivery of complex engineering scopes to budget and programme

• Demonstratable experience in effective change management and leading value engineering exercises

• A background in managing engineering teams, responsible for managing workload, resource demand and skillsets

• Significant engineering design experience within a relevant engineering discipline

• Experience with managing 3rd party designers / sub-contractors, including technical approvals, compliance with customer specifications and resource competency etc 

• Experienced technical manager capable of reviewing technical quality and compliance of design deliverables; understanding of key technical concepts across a range of engineering design disciplines (e.g. civil, mechanical, electrical, piping, instrument)

• Demonstratable record of promoting safety in design, lean design concepts, sustainable practices or digital innovations

Desirable

• Experience setting up, leading or operating other aspects of project engineering delivery such as design workflows, information management systems, quality controls 

Essential

• Chartered Engineer (ICE, iMechE, iStructE, IET, CIOB, CIHT, other)