Costain Group
Principal Design Manager
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Costain are working with Thames Water on a variety of water and wastewater projects and have fantastic opportunities for individuals to join our growing AMP8 delivery team, working predominantly across the Thames Valley and Thames South regions. There is a mix of projects ranging from smaller capital maintenance to large civil new build schemes.
For the Costain Thames Water Framework we have an exciting opportunity for the Principal Design Manager to lead on design management for a number of high value, programme critical projects. For Costain design manager is the delivery of the right design from our internal or external and supplier designers in a mutually beneficial way to deliver the best solutions for our clients, whilst identifying and mitigating risks.
It is a form of technical project management and the right design is that which is in line with programme and budget, delivers on our SHE objectives and is a key enabler for us to provide technology-led smart infrastructure solutions for our clients.
The role of a principal design manager is fundamental in achieving this and is expected to manage the design across multiple projects or even multiple frameworks. A principal design manager is expected to be a leader in their field or area of expertise and may be required to provide insight and guidance to the wider business or sectors.
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
As principal design manager, you will be responsible for a design management team which includes design managers and other related disciplines at all levels, but may also be required to oversee and be accountable for other functions within frameworks.
A principal design manager is expected to have capability in line managing people, but also exert influence over others not directly under their management. Principal design managers may also be required to influence other leaders, including senior leaders in Costain and our supply chain in matters related to design and design management.
Key Responsibilities
- Establish collaborative working relationships with the client, design teams, construction staff and supply chain.
- Oversee all design and engineering related management on behalf of the Contract Leader (on your project).
- Be accountable for the robust appointment of the designers and the production and 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, through lessons learned.
- Develop a programme led design delivery culture on your project, with detailed integrated design programmes, short interval control methods and progress metrics as part of a weekly/monthly drumbeat.
- Ensure reporting on design progress and technical risks regularly.
- Establish an engineering 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.
- Implement sufficient processes so that the designs we received from our designers are quality controlled, technically assured and are of sufficient detail (required level of information and coordination) for the design stage and purpose.
- Manage design change and influence our clients and projects teams to prevent unnecessary or disruptive design change.
- Ensure the designs are constructable, follow safe-by-design principles and active our sustainability goals, including reporting or carbon metrics etc as required.
- Provide judgment and advice, including bringing in wider Costain expertise as required, to create optimised solutions, and to meet the requirements of the project and achieve our commercial aims.
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Knowledge, Skills, and Experience
Essential:
- Significant post-graduate design, engineering or management experience in infrastructure or related industry with demonstrable track record of achievement.
- Be an authority in multiple design and construction process models (e.g. plan of work).
- Practical approach, logical thought process and a methodical way of working.
- A creative and innovative approach to problem-solving.
- Be a thought leader in the field of design and design management, with the ability to ‘horizon scan’ for new ideas or technologies that will influence our industry.
- Extensive experience of setting up and/or running design and assurance process on large projects or frameworks.
- Extensive experience of technical management being able to understand and review design deliverables and able to demonstrate the ability to collate information and prepare reports. Ability to understand technical concepts and detail across a range of disciplines (e.g. structural, mechanical and electrical engineering); this is not however likely to part of their daily workload.
- Extensive experience of drafting effective contractual correspondence and the facilitation of collaborative solutions.
- Experience of developing & implementing procurement and contract strategies for design.
- Negotiating and team-working skills with the ability to motivate and lead a team.
- Strong analytical skills.
- Demonstrable legal, contractual and detailed construction knowledge.
- Experience in implementing and delivering strategic objectives and dealing with change.
- Confidence and ability to assert influence.
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Desirable
- 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.
- Competency to discharge the Principal Designer Role under the CDM regulations, on behalf of Costain.
Qualifications
Essential
- Bachelor’s degree / Engineering or management apprenticeship with industry experience.
- Master’s / post graduate degree (preferred).
- Chartered member of professional institute (MICE/IMechE/MCIOB etc).
- Project Management training / skills.
Desirable
- Other secondary professional qualifications and training (e.g. MAPM, MCIarb, MICW etc).
- Experience of multiple infrastructure markets/sectors.
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.
Costain 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.
For more details please go to the Disability Confident website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign
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