Job detail for Senior Geotechnical Engineer

Due to continued growth within CEL, Costain’s in house multi-disciplinary engineering and design team, we have an exciting new opportunity for a Senior Geotechnical Engineer to join our Ground Engineering team and work on some of the UK’s most high-profile infrastructure projects, including HS2 High Voltage Rail Systems, Net Zero Teesside Power and the Northern Endurance Partnership, AMP8 Water frameworks, and the HALEU (High Assay Low Enriched Uranium) project for Urenco.

CEL deliver comprehensive design solutions across a range of UK Infrastructure sectors - Energy, Defence & Nuclear, Water, Rail, Roads and Integrated Transport. We support the full project lifecycle from feasibility to construction, focusing on sustainable, future-ready, and safe-by-design outputs.

As a Senior Geotechnical Engineer, you will be working within the Ground Engineering team to deliver ground engineering solutions for our large pipeline of projects. You will own ground engineering activities and designs from outline design through to construction, producing high-quality reports, specification, and calculations. You will identify deliverables, manage ground risks, and solve live construction problems.

This is a hybrid role. Your office will be in Manchester, office attendance typically up to 3 days per week, with remote working to promote well being and occasional visits to other offices and sites.

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• Produce and check geotechnical calculations and specifications for shallow and deep foundations, retaining walls, and earthworks, while reviewing and guiding the production of BIM/CAD models and drawings.

• Process AGS files, manage geotechnical data, produce digital 2D/3D ground models, and derive soil/rock design parameters for engineering use. Contribute to team initiatives for automating repetitive tasks and calculations. Utilising programming languages such as Python would be advantageous.

• Produce industry-standard and Eurocode 7 compliant reporting such as desktop studies, Ground Investigation Reports (GIRs), and Geotechnical Design Reports (GDRs); plan and scope ground investigations, and scope/interpret laboratory and in-situ test results.

• Collaborate closely with internal engineers, specifically civils & structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers, as well as project managers to coordinate project activities, attend and input into design reviews and design check sessions/meeting (IDCs), and deliver technical presentations.

• Independently manage your own workload to deliver assigned work packages to agreed cost, time, and quality standards, while managing change and resource allocations.

• Respond to site Technical Queries (TQs) for permanent and temporary works designs; guide construction teams by reviewing previous designs and proposing alternative ground and civil engineering solutions.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

Essentials

• UK experience as a Geotechnical Engineer or Engineering Geologist within civil engineering.

• Digitally proficient in undertaking design calculations using industry recognised packages such as GEO5, WALLAP, GEO5, Plaxis 2D/3D, or Oasys packages.

• Experience scoping & analysing field and laboratory data to develop ground models and derive project-specific geotechnical solutions.

• Strong working knowledge of UK regulatory frameworks (e.g. CDM Regulations).

• Good awareness of geotechnical data management and workflow automation.

• Excellent communication and relationship building skills to collaborate across project team.

• Unrestricted right to work in UK, sponsorship is not available with this role.

Desirable

• Multi-sector project experience such as Rail, Water, Energy and Highways.

• Rock mechanics experience.

• Ability to utilise computational design tools and programming languages, such as Grasshopper or Python, for automation and data processing tasks.

• Environmental and sustainability considerations in project work.

Essential

• Degree qualified in Civil Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Geology or Engineering Geology or equivalent experience.
• Chartered status (e.g. CEng or CGeol), or near chartered with equivalent industry experience.

Desirable

• Additional technically focused qualifications / training