Head of Site Engineering
Meet the recruiter

Kimberly Watts
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
Head of Site Engineering
We're looking for a Head of Site Engineering to join our STEP Fusion Programme team based in West Burton / hybrid, with programme travel.
Location: West Burton / hybrid, with programme travel
Hours: Full time - 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.
Join ILIOS, the Construction Partner for the UK's STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) fusion programme - a world-leading initiative to design and build a prototype fusion energy power plant at West Burton in Nottinghamshire. As Head of Site Engineering, you'll work across organisational and technical boundaries as the technical controlling mind and system architect for the West Burton site, promoting a best-for-programme approach that integrates design intent with delivery, assurance, digital information, commercial and operational requirements.
What will you be responsible for?
As a Head of Site Engineering, you'll be working within the IPT5 team, supporting them in delivering a coherent, controlled and integrated site and infrastructure architecture. Your day to day will include:
- Acting as the technical controlling mind and recognised site engineering authority, accountable for the fitness for purpose and whole-system integrity of the West Burton site and infrastructure design
- Leading end-to-end technical integration across civil works, structures, utilities, site layout, transport and logistics interfaces, and enabling systems
- Establishing and enforcing proportionate site engineering governance, standards, review arrangements, assurance plans and technical decision records
- Championing safe-by-design and health-by-design principles, ensuring hazards are eliminated or reduced and significant residual risks are communicated
- Building, leading and developing a multidisciplinary site engineering capability, setting clear technical accountabilities and representing IPT5 engineering in governance forums and senior stakeholder engagements
What are we looking for?
This role of Head of Site Engineering is great for you if:
- You hold a degree-level qualification in civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, systems, nuclear or another relevant engineering discipline, and are a Chartered Engineer with an appropriate professional institution
- You have substantial experience acting as a technical authority, chief engineer, system architect or senior engineering leader on a complex, safety-critical programme
- You possess proven systems-thinking and design-integration capability across multidisciplinary infrastructure, site or plant systems, with demonstrable experience of defining and preserving design intent across the project lifecycle
- You bring strong knowledge of engineering governance, technical assurance, verification and validation, design maturity, change control and acceptance evidence, along with experience of regulated major infrastructure, nuclear, energy, defence, rail or comparable high-consequence environments
- You have proven leadership of multi-organisation and matrixed engineering teams, excellent communication skills with the credibility to challenge and influence senior groups, and the ability to obtain and maintain applicable security clearance and site-access requirements
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.
Due to the nature of this role, you will also be required to complete a BPSS Disclosure and Barring Service Check (applicants with convictions will be treated on a case-by-case basis. We do not discriminate based on an applicant's conviction history or the details of any convictions disclosed to us). Some roles may also be subject to further pre-employment checks.
We look forward to seeing your application to #joinkier.
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Location: Retford
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Vacancy ID: 12417
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Background check: BPSS Checks
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Closing date: 25 Sep 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.
