About The Role
Project Design Manager (Place Base Thinking) - Balfour Beatty (@one Alliance)
Location: Hybrid – Peterborough (travel depending on home location)
@one Alliance a ground-breaking collaboration between Anglian Water and seven industry-leading partners: Balfour Beatty, Barhale, Binnies, MMB, MWH Treatment, Skanska and SWECO. Together, we deliver over half of Anglian Water’s capital investment programme.
With AMP8 ahead, we’re gearing up for our biggest challenge yet—and we’re looking for innovative, talented a Project Design Manager to join our Placed Based Thinking (large projects) team.
What you'll be doing
As a
Project Design Manager, you’ll take technical ownership of major infrastructure projects from initial feasibility through to detailed design and handover. You’ll coordinate design delivery across multi-disciplinary teams, ensuring designs are practical, sustainable, and aligned with cost, time, and quality expectations.
You’ll act as a key point of contact across the project lifecycle, working closely with project leaders, engineers, construction teams, and external stakeholders to ensure seamless delivery. It’s a hands-on, highly collaborative role that puts you at the centre of some of the most important infrastructure work happening in the region.
Your Key Responsibilities Will Include
- Leading the design process on major capital projects, from early concept through to detailed technical development and design assurance.
- Ensuring design outputs are fully integrated, meeting the operational, commercial, and environmental objectives of the wider project.
- Acting as Principal Designer under CDM regulations, managing design risk and ensuring that safety is considered at every stage.
- Driving digital design excellence, supporting the use of BIM and 3D modelling to improve coordination, data integration, and project outcomes.
- Challenging and improving technical standards, encouraging innovation and the use of repeatable, low-carbon, and cost-effective solutions.
- Liaising with project leaders and delivery teams to plan and allocate design resources effectively, ensuring all technical aspects remain on track.
- Building strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders, ensuring that designs reflect the needs of operators, contractors, regulators, and the community.
- Championing best practice across quality, health and safety, and performance – both within your own team and the wider Alliance.
- Mentoring junior engineers and designers, creating a positive learning culture and helping others grow their skills and confidence.
- Driving collaboration across disciplines, promoting a one-team mindset and helping to unlock value at every stage of the design process.
Who we're looking for
We’re looking for a confident and technically capable design leader, someone who understands the bigger picture but isn’t afraid to get stuck into the detail when needed. You’ll be calm under pressure, clear in your thinking, and passionate about delivering sustainable infrastructure that makes a genuine difference.
Ideally, You’ll Have
- A degree, HNC or HND in civil engineering or a related discipline
- Proven experience in a design or engineering leadership role within complex infrastructure or water-related projects.
- A working knowledge of CDM 2015 regulations, with prior experience acting as Principal Designer or managing design risk.
- A strong understanding of project delivery in a multi-disciplinary environment, ideally within an alliance or joint venture.
- Experience with digital design tools, BIM workflows, and integrated design processes.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills – able to influence, lead, and work collaboratively at all levels.
- A proactive, solution-focused mindset with a commitment to quality and continuous improvement.
Join a team where your work matters, your ideas count, and your future is bright
Apply today!
Why work for us
Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK’s most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities.
Why join us?
Benefits
As if contributing to and supporting work that makes life better for millions wasn’t rewarding enough, we offer a full range of benefits too. You’ll have the freedom to shape the package that’s right for you and your life. Here are some of our key benefits:
- Smart working, giving you more flexibility such as staggered start and finish times, with up to 40% remote working, where roles allow.
- 25 days paid annual leave (pro rata)
- Family friendly policies which include 28 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave and four weeks full pay for paternity/partners leave
- Pension, share incentive plan, volunteering leave, recognition schemes and much more…
About Us
Balfour Beatty’s Power Transmission & Distribution teams work with regional, national and international electricity network owners and operators to provide technical engineering solutions across the full spectrum of the electricity grid, including overhead lines, cabling, substations and distribution networks.
From scoping and feasibility, to design, construction and on-going maintenance, our in-house experts, flexible resources and industry-leading innovations support customers in the development of some of the UK’s most ambitious power transmission and distribution projects.
Diversity and inclusion
At Balfour Beatty we believe that diversity and inclusion are essential components of any successful, happy workplace. Through our Value Everyone Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan, we are growing our diverse workforce and developing our inclusive culture where everyone is able to thrive and reach their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. To find out how we are making this a reality, visit www.balfourbeatty.com/diversityandinclusion
To help and support us with our desired commitment to create an inclusive culture we are members of WISE, enei, Business Disability Forum and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE). In 2020, we signed the Audeliss and Involve Open Letter to demonstrate our commitment to taking key long term and sustainable actions on Black Inclusion. Balfour Beatty is also a Gold Award holder in the Ministry of Defence 'Employer Recognition Scheme' and actively encourage applications from Armed Forces personnel, veterans and reservists.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to working with people who have disabilities and long-term health conditions to remove barriers for them in obtaining employment. We are also committed to offering applicants with a disability an interview if they meet the minimum requirements for the role. For more info, visit: https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/
We are looking to continually improve our resourcing process and ensure that it is fair and inclusive for all. If you have any feedback on the process, please share this with us at:
[email protected] 
