Job Description

Roles available across multiple UK offices · Hybrid working available - the work dictates location · Initial [6 month] contract, outside IR35, market day rate, UK limited company contractors only.

Our client is a well-established multidisciplinary professional services consultancy working across major UK building and infrastructure sectors, and we're bringing in an experienced Principal Engineer on a contract basis to lead civil and structural design delivery across a portfolio of projects.

About the contract

We need someone who can pick up ownership of project delivery from day one and run with it. You'll have full autonomy over how the work gets delivered: this is an outcomes-based engagement.

What you'll be doing

* Leading civil and structural design delivery across a single large project, or several smaller ones — collaborating with our Associate Director on programme direction, while retaining full control over delivery method

* Preparing tenders and fee proposals across a range of project sizes

* Running technical design reviews and acting as a go-to technical authority for the wider team

* Providing technical leadership and guidance to graduates and engineers on the team

* Championing a strong safety culture and a right-first-time approach to delivery

* Bringing current thinking on innovation and sustainable design practice

What we're looking for

* Chartered Civil or Structural Engineer (CEng MICE / MIStructE), typically 3+ years post-chartership

* A strong track record of leading design delivery independently, with minimal oversight

* Broad technical knowledge across some of: building structures, drainage & external works, foundations & substructures, earthworks & site investigation, minor roads & bridges — plus any specialist sector experience (rail, defence, highways, nuclear, life sciences, contaminated land, etc.)

* Comfortable operating within multi-discipline, integrated design teams

* Engaged via your own limited company (PSC) or umbrella — outside IR35 status confirmed

* CSCS card, and eligibility for UK security clearance (SC)

* Full, clean UK driving licence

* Own professional indemnity insurance

The kind of person who thrives here

* Genuinely comfortable working autonomously — you decide how the work gets done, we care about the outcome

* Confident communicator, comfortable owning client relationships

* Commercially minded, with strong programme and change-control instincts

* Open to new ways of working, and keen to challenge "how it's always been done"

Interested? Get in touch for a no-obligation conversation about the contract, rate, and timeline