Design Manager
Meet the recruiter

Charlotte Voller
Benefits
Life assurance
Private medical insurance
Additional holiday purchase opportunities
Matched pension scheme up to 7.5%
Enhanced family leave & policies
Share plan schemes
Free health & wellbeing services
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Green car scheme
Design Manager
We're looking for a Design Manager to join our Southern Water framework
Location: Can be based in either Falmer, Brighton / Chatham, Kent / Chichester, West Sussex
Hours: 40 hours per week - some flexibility on hours available if desired, just let us know when you speak to us.
We are unable to offer certificates of sponsorship to any candidates in this role.
Kier has been appointed by Southern Water Services to their £3.1bn Strategic Development Partnership Framework for Asset Management Period 8 (AMP8). This is an exciting opportunity to lead and manage engineering design delivery across a portfolio of major water and wastewater projects. You'll be working on projects that increase capacity at treatment sites and improve water safety, quality, recycling, and resilience for the 2.5 million households and communities served by Southern Water.
What will you be responsible for?
As a Design Manager, you'll be working within the Southern Water team, supporting them in delivering innovative engineering solutions across water and wastewater projects.
Your day to day will include:
- Leading and managing engineering design delivery for assigned projects, ensuring technical excellence and economic efficiency
- Providing line management support to Assistant Design Managers, including professional development and mentoring
- Overseeing the engineering assurance process for designs, working collaboratively with partners from outline through to construction
- Developing and managing Engineering Project Plans, encompassing scope, schedule, cost, risk, and resources
- Ensuring compliance with CDM Regulations and fostering a culture of health, safety, and wellbeing across your team
What are we looking for?
This role of Design Manager is great for you if you hold:
- Chartered Engineer status with a degree level qualification (or equivalent) in an engineering discipline
- Significant, proven relevant experience in engineering design, construction and management along with knowledge of water and wastewater treatment processes
- Experience of driving innovation and optimisation of plant and processes
- Experience of managing and driving a multi-discipline technical/ engineering team with a proven track record of driving sustainable performance against challenging business targets
- Excellent communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical concepts into more readily understood information suitable for a wider business audience
- Experience working on multiple deliverables to project deadlines
- Experience in the application of quality procedures and document control in engineering design
- Full driving licence
We're all about finding potential here at Kier, and transferrable skills are always welcome! So, even if you don't tick every box, please apply and we can have a chat.
Rewards and benefits
We're proud to be able to offer our brilliant people a wide variety of benefits that you can tailor to your needs. You can see more information of benefits here.
Diversity and inclusion
Making Kier a diverse and inclusive place to work is a huge priority for us. We're proud of the steps we've taken so far, but we know we must always do more. Our employees are key in shaping Kier's diversity and inclusion initiatives and our people have made a huge impact on how we work, by using their experiences to shape our policies. You can see our D&I action plan here. As a Disability Confident employer, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this role will be offered an interview.
We look forward to seeing your application to #joinkier.
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Location: Falmer. Chatham. Chichester
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Vacancy ID: 12743
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Background check: None
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Closing date: 19 Oct 2026
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Contract type: Permanent
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Working hours: Full Time
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Flexible working: Yes
Flexible working could include part time, job share, condensed hours, or flexible start/end times.
