Design Lead

81799 - Design Lead – (Connection OHL/Cable Diversions Portfolio)

This Design Lead – (Connection OHL/Cable Diversions Portfolio) will report to the EPN Design Manager and will work within Capital Programme and Procurement – Engineering Design based in our Bury St Edmonds office. You will be a permanent employee.

You will attract a salary of £94,904 plus car and a bonus of 3%. This role can also offer blended working after probationary period (6 months) - 3 days in the office and 2 remote

Close Date: 06/01/2026

We also provide the following additional benefits

• 25 Days Annual Leave plus bank holidays.
• Reservist Leave – Additional 18 days full pay and 22 unpaid
• Personal Pension Plan – Personal contribution rates of 4% or 5% (UK Power Networks will make a corresponding contribution of 8% or 10%)
• Tenancy Loan Deposit Scheme, Season Ticket Loan
• Tax efficient benefits: Cycle to Work, Home & Tech, and Green Car Leasing Schemes
• Occupational Health support
• Switched On – scheme providing discount on hundreds of retailers' products
• Discounted gym membership
• Employee Assistance Programme

Job Purpose

You will lead a team developing designs to support projects and sub-programmes. The designs will span from the conceptual design phase, starting with the design brief/scope, through to completion of the technical design. Additionally, the team will assure as-built records and deliver the health and safety file for the OHL and Cable Diversions portfolio. You will have line management responsibility for the civil, electrical, cable and OHL designers, CAD technicians and design coordinators, and the management of external designers and specialists. You will work with other Design Leads/Managers supporting the delivery of the capital programme (Connections) and the protection team.

The position of Design Lead is important in the delivery of designs which underpin the delivery of Connections, which is important in meeting the regulatory outputs at a cost which outperforms the regulatory settlement.

You will work across UKPN directorates and external customers (National Grid / TfL / Network Rail, Connection Customers and Major Developers) satisfying stakeholder requirements, negotiating delivery timescales and agreeing deliverables. The post holder shall ensure the necessary information is available as part of the design process for compliance with the 2015 CDM regulations and specifically the Duty Holder requirements of Principal Designer (CDM 2015).

Principal Accountabilities

• Manage daily Electrical, Civil, Cable and OHL Designers, ensuring you produce designs that comply with standards. Achieve Design Freeze through design review and assurance, maintain CDM compliance, and support the delivery team.
• Define design scope deliverables, and agreeing delivery programme and cost with the Project Manager
• Deliver the designs to agreed programme, quality and cost in compliance with UKPN standards and CDM regulations and the appropriate reporting and tracking of these activities.
• Prepare resource plans to support sub-programme portfolio of the relevant Capital Programme workstream and accountable for making the decision to insource or outsource the design delivery to external parties.
• Be a point of reference for senior managers, programme and project managers on technical aspects of designs for the relevant portfolio of projects. Will have the relevant technical authority to make the appropriate technical decisions.
• Ensure that designs achieve the mandated outputs whilst being rigorously challenged to assure technical requirements are achieved.
• Be responsible for the design estimation cost, ensure quality of design is assured and contribute to the out-performance of the regulatory determination or agreed Connections quotation.
• Responsible for internal staff e.g. responsible for setting individual performance targets for the design team within the performance targets for engineering design, handling daily HR issues for the team, authorising leave, timesheets and expenses.
• Accountable for the daily management of designers seconded to the design team from external agencies.
• Accountable for the preparation of works information pertinent for external design partners (Time Charge and Work Package Orders), the raising and receiving design related "Early Warnings", "Compensation Events", "Technical Queries" and the resultant change control processes.
• Provision of as built information, Health and Safety file and key contributor to the technical closure of projects and sub-programmes
• Will discharge the obligations or nominate Principal Designer under CDM 2015 regulations.

Nature and Scope

You will deliver designs to quality/time and cost, for projects and programmes and making the appropriate decisions and recommendations on resourcing (internal / external resources) and work package scopes. You will work closely with the relevant Design Manager, Portfolio Manager and Project Managers to ensure internal and external stakeholder obligations are met and where necessary make the appropriate decisions regarding prioritisation of resources to meet these obligations.

Ensure designs receive the appropriate level of technical and financial challenge (design reviews / cost estimation / value engineering interventions), shall foster the development and implementation of solutions that promote outperformance against the budget.

Accountable for ensuring that all designs are completed in accordance with the CDM 2015 regulations, are accurate, on time and budget and that the appropriate design reviews and QA processes are followed.

You shall develop the necessary reporting and assurance process necessary to discharge the obligations of this role.

Skill Qualifications and Experience

• Experience in mainstream engineering construction including electrical networks and experience of design coordination processes.
• Experience in OHL (up to 132kV), Cables (up to 132kV) and Tower design
• Experience managing teams of engineers in a similar large capital programme environment (including setting performance targets and appraisals)
• Chartered Engineer or working towards
• Technical qualifications – relevant technical degree.
• Analytical and decision-making skills
• Hold, IOSH Working Safely or higher equivalent qualification
• A good safety ethos with a sound understanding of Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations and their application.
• Work unsupervised, set and comply with own targets and those of your team, and identify and implement solutions.
• Develop Quality Assurance procedures and company design standards and ensure that team always follow appropriate policies.
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft desktop applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, P6, Autodesk Construction Cloud, & SharePoint.(training may be provided where required)

Health & Safety Responsibilities:

Managers and supervisors carry both legal and company responsibilities for ensuring the health and safety of their employees, those under their control and those who might be affected by the work undertaken, i.e. public, visitors and employees of other organisations. This includes briefing individuals working for them and ensuring there is the necessary understanding, competence and application of requirements to work safely and without harming the environment.

Employees will ensure they understand the health and safety risks involved in their work activities and their responsibility to apply the controls needed to manage those risks to acceptable levels. Similarly where work activities can have an adverse impact upon the environment, and where there are legal requirements, employees will understand those impacts and the controls they must ensure are applied.

If in doubt ask!

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

If you have any queries in connection to this vacancy or your application, please contact us at careers@ukpowernetworks.co.uk quoting the vacancy reference number and a member of the team will get in touch with you as soon as possible.