Location
Manchester, predominantly home-based with attendance required for site visits, design reviews and client meetings, often within the Northwest region (Manchester/Cheshire) circa 2-3 days per week.

Hours
Full Time

Salary
Negotiable

About the Role
Fabulous opportunity for a Principal Process Engineer to join the Costain Asset Optimisation Team, providing wastewater process engineering consultancy to support clients across the UK in maximising asset performance and programme delivery. You will be part of an agile technical team working within capital delivery frameworks and alongside operational teams to develop innovative, practical, and digital process solutions. The team delivers optimisation studies at feasibility, concept, optioneering, and preliminary design stages to mitigate risk, return sites to compliance, or enable low or no build solutions.

As a Principal Process Engineer, you will provide strategic support to water sector frameworks to define and shape projects and programmes. You will manage the execution of asset optimisation projects and lead teams to propose, develop, and define process optimisation solutions. This role specifically requires experience with large activated sludge plant design and/or membrane treatment processes.

This position offers a predominantly home-based working arrangement with regular site and client engagement, ideally suited to candidates based in the Northwest to support the Northern team.

Experience
- Significant UK experience in the design, operation, and optimisation of wastewater treatment plants.
- Experience with large activated sludge plant design and/or membrane treatment processes.
- Knowledge of the UK water utility asset life cycle process.
- Project management experience.
- Background in engineering consultancy or contracting design environment as well as operational utility experience.
- Ability to independently drive teams and projects.
- Proactive, self-motivated, and solutions biased.
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to collaborate and influence senior colleagues.

About you
- Strategic thinker with technical thought leadership and consultancy skills.
- Experience leading teams in process optimisation studies with accountability for quality, budget, and schedule.
- Collaborative approach working with business development, marketing, and work winning functions.
- Committed to mentoring and developing junior engineers.
- Commercially aware with business development skills.
- Knowledge of the UK Regulatory environment is desirable.
- Experience across the full project lifecycle including scoping, outline design, detailed design, construction support, commissioning, and handover is advantageous.
- Proven background in process engineering definition including mass balance development, data analysis, design calculations, technology selection, major equipment and package datasheet specification, process flow diagrams, process control philosophies, and P&ID’s is desirable.

Qualifications
- Essential: Degree qualification in a process related discipline.
- Desirable: Chartered Engineer status and membership of a relevant engineering institution such as CIWEM or IChemE.
- Post Graduate Qualification is advantageous.