Principal Civil, Structural & Architectural (CS&A) Responsible Engineer (RE)

Whitehaven, Cumbria, United Kingdom (Hybrid)

• Job Identification 102267
• Job Category Engineering
• Posting Date 03/10/2026, 03:24 PM
• Degree Level University
• Locations M22 5TG CA20 1PG (Hybrid)
• Contract Type Permanent
• Driving Required Yes
• Security Clearance Required Yes

As a Civil, Structural & Architectural (CS&A) Responsible Engineer (RE), you will be responsible for the management of CS&A design and engineering aspects of the Programme, meeting the specific needs of the nuclear licensed site requirements.

You will lead and manage the CS&A designers, whether they are Costain Engineering and Design or external consultants or subcontractors with design responsibility. You will be responsible for the design being delivered on time, to budget and technically compliant. All our designs must be safe, sustainable, and efficient to construct.

A key requirement of the role is to ensure that the management systems, including digital processes and systems, are followed to provide assurance to stakeholders that design works are conducted appropriately.

This role is based in Manchester, but it is desirable for candidates to be available to travel to Risley, Warrington and Cumbria up to 2 days per week.

This 15-year contract award will deliver critical utilities infrastructure upgrades at Sellafield's Cumbria decommissioning site. The total value of Sellafield's IDP is worth up to £2.9bn, split into three lots. Costain has been confirmed as Utilities Delivery Partner (Lot 3), worth up to £1bn to the company. The contract consists of an initial term of nine years with an option to extend by a further six years, either in a single extension or multiple smaller extensions.

The IDP will deliver asset care task and project work on the existing site infrastructure as well as introducing new capability to enhance and evolve the Site Infrastructure. Contracts will be placed to deliver continued project and task work from inception, design, construction through to commissioning.

As Utilities Delivery Partner, Costain's role will include the completion of detailed design and all procurement, installation, construction, commissioning and handover activities that form part of the contract delivery.

Utilities involved:

• Steam (LP and HP)
• Water (Wastewater, Raw, Domestic & Demin)
• Compressed air
• Bulk chemical supply

Scopes include refurbishment/replacement of:

• off-site water supply and distribution system including domestic water treatment plant & storage reservoirs
• on-site compressed air generation & distribution system
• on-site bulk chemical storage tanks & associated equipment
• demineralised water treatment and conditioning plant
• Improvements to rail and road tanker off-load facility

Key Responsibilities

Control relationships:

• Establish collaborative working relationships with the client, Costain and external partner design teams, project staff and supply chain.
• Build strong interpersonal connections within the wider Costain CS&A Engineering functions.

Delivery culture:

• Be a visible leader and develop a programme led design delivery culture across the Programme.
• Embed the principles of carbon minimisation into our solutions.
• Embed the principles of Production Thinking / MMC into our design solutions.
• Ensure reporting on design progress and technical risks regularly.
• Ensure that the designs are contributing to improved project quality on our projects.
• Ensure the designs are constructable, follow safe-by-design principles and actively our sustainability goals, including reporting or carbon metrics etc as required.
• Ensuring all applicable national and international codes of practice, legislation and company/client standards and procedures are complied with.

Design and engineering management:

• Set out the CS&A design and engineering needs for the Programme and check they are clearly defined and understood by the wider team.
• Follow and implement the engineering strategy.
• Be accountable for the adherence to the Design Management Plan (DMP) and other controlling documents.
• Contribute to the update and development of Design Management processes in The Costain Way, and other engineering processes, though lessons learned.
• Ensure scope is suitably established in individual Projects and Calloff Contracts to manage liabilities appropriately.
• Implement agreed processes so that the designs we received from designers are quality controlled, technically assured and are of sufficient detail (required level of information and coordination) for the design stage and purpose.
• Support with the delivery plan, with clearly defined outputs (deliverables) at each design stage (plan appropriate design stages and sub design stages to control the design production) and define how design deliverables can be progressively checked and earned value measured.
• Hold the CS&A designers to account for delivering to this engineering delivery plan through reporting and contractual mechanisms.

Design change:

• Oversee the management of CS&A design change to prevent unnecessary or disruptive design change.
• Systematically challenge the need for design change.
• Support the wider programme and project teams to manage contractual correspondence (up and down stream).

Outcome focused: Provide judgment and advice, including bringing in wider Costain expertise as required, to create optimised solutions, and to meet the requirements of the programme and achieve our objectives.

Influence the project / frameworks procurement and construction teams so that they are engaged in the design development and options selection and have appropriate ownership of the designs.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

A background in engineering management in a programme delivery environment is critical, with experience of a manufacturing site beneficial.

• Be an authority in CS&A design.
• Experience of utility infrastructure design.
• Experience of technical management being able to understand and review CS&A design deliverables.
• Experience in implementing and delivering strategic objectives and dealing with change.
• Extensive knowledge of UK legislation and standards.
• Awareness of risk identification, quantification, management and of HSE requirements.
• Extensive experience of setting up and/or operating EDMS and design workflows.
• Experience in leading wider engineering related aspects of projects, such as information management, quality or assurance disciplines.
• Nuclear sector experience preferable, but experience of multiple infrastructure markets/sectors is desirable.
• Experience of developing & implementing procurement and contract strategies for design.

Bachelor's degree / Engineering or management apprenticeship with industry experience

Chartered member of professional institute (MICE, MIStructE or RIBA)

Other secondary professional qualifications and training (e.g. MAPM, MCIarb , MICW etc)

Costain helps to improve people's lives with integrated, leading edge, smart infrastructure solutions across the UK's energy, water, transportation and defence markets. We help our clients improve their business performance by increasing capacity, improving customer service, safeguarding security, enhancing resilience, decarbonising and delivering increased efficiency. Our vision is to be the UK's leading smart infrastructure solutions company. We will achieve this by focusing on blue chip clients whose major spending plans are underpinned by strategic national needs, regulatory commitments, legislation or essential performance requirements. We offer our clients leading edge solutions that are digitally optimised through the following five services which cover the whole lifecycle of their assets: future shaping strategic consultancy; consultancy and advisory; digital technology solutions; asset optimisation and complex programme delivery. Our culture and values underpin everything we do.

We appreciate the time and effort taken when applying for one of our positions but, due to the high volume of responses, we are unable to provide individual feedback on candidates at application phase. We do share individual feedback following an interview.

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that disclose they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer.

It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high volume, seasonal and high peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non disabled people.

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