Tetra Tech Europe
Principal Engineer - NW / Chorley / Cockermouth
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Are you an experienced engineer ready to take the next step into technical leadership?
Tetra Tech is seeking a Principal Engineer to join our growing nuclear engineering team. This role combines hands-on technical delivery with increasing leadership responsibility, offering the opportunity to work on nationally significant nuclear projects while developing your career towards Chartered Engineer status and beyond.
Purpose & Scope of the Role
As a Principal Engineer, you will deliver high-quality engineering design and analysis across nuclear projects, supporting work from early concept through to detailed design and implementation. You will take ownership of defined technical work packages, ensuring quality, coordination, and delivery within programme expectations. The role combines technical design expertise with increasing responsibility for oversight, mentoring, and collaboration within multidisciplinary project teams. Working in a highly regulated environment, you will ensure that designs meet nuclear, industry, and statutory requirements while maintaining the highest standards of safety, quality, and compliance.
Your Impact in this Position
In this role, you will play a key part in delivering technically robust engineering solutions that support the safe operation and development of nuclear infrastructure. Your work will influence project outcomes through high-quality design, technical assurance, and effective collaboration with project managers, engineers, and clients. You will also contribute to strengthening team capability by supporting the development of junior engineers and promoting continuous improvement across technical processes and standards.
Core Capabilities
Technical Engineering Expertise
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- Deliver engineering design and analysis across complex nuclear projects
- Produce and review calculations, drawings, reports, and specifications to recognised standards
- Apply sound engineering judgement within a highly regulated environment
Project Delivery & Coordination
- Lead defined technical packages of work from concept to completion
- Work closely with project managers to support programme delivery and manage technical risks
- Collaborate effectively across disciplines and project teams
Nuclear Safety & Compliance
- Contribute to safety cases, substantiation, and design justification where required
- Ensure compliance with nuclear regulatory expectations and quality standards
- Maintain high standards of health, safety, and security across all work activities
Technical Leadership & Mentoring
- Provide guidance and technical oversight to junior engineers and technicians
- Support the development of engineering capability within the team
- Encourage knowledge sharing and best practice
Continuous Improvement & Innovation
- Contribute to technical excellence through lessons learned and process improvement
- Promote efficient and robust engineering approaches across projects
- Support the ongoing development of nuclear engineering capability within the organisation
Qualifications, Experience & Skills
You will hold a degree in Civil, Structural, or a related engineering discipline and have strong experience delivering engineering design within the nuclear industry or similarly regulated sectors. You will demonstrate the ability to take ownership of technical outputs and contribute to project delivery within complex engineering environments. Experience supporting safety cases or technical assurance is advantageous. You should also be actively working towards Chartered Engineer status with a recognised professional institution and committed to ongoing professional development.
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Working Environment
This role supports hybrid working, with a combination of office collaboration, remote working, and travel for client or site visits where required. Tetra Tech operates a flexible working environment designed to support work-life balance while maintaining close collaboration within project teams. The position will require eligibility to obtain and maintain UK security clearance, and a full UK driving licence may be required for certain site-based activities.
About Tetra Tech
Tetra Tech is a leading provider of consulting and engineering services working across the full project lifecycle worldwide. We have a wide range of expertise across our teams, providing a global support network with a personalised approach to client relationships to better understand where we can add value. We provide a collaborative environment that supports individual performance, innovation, and creativity.
We support public and private sector clients on local, national, and international projects to deliver sustainable and resilient solutions. Our operations in the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands include more than 6,000 employees who are Leading with Science® to solve our clients’ most complex problems.
In alignment with the Equality Act 2010, we will make reasonable adjustments to support candidates and employees requiring additional arrangements. This could include adaptations to work schedules, training approaches, or the physical workspace. Please inform us if you need any accommodations during the recruitment process or in your day-to-day role.
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