Lead Civil Design Manager - Water

Job Description

Ready to shape the future of water infrastructure?

Join our dynamic Water team as a Lead Civil Design Manager and work on high-impact projects ranging from potable water and sewage treatment works, covering all stages of design and delivery—from feasibility to construction, operation, maintenance, and asset management.

We’re at the forefront of delivering exceptional water programmes and projects through long-term partnerships with leading clients, including Wessex Water, Thames Water, Welsh Water, Severn Trent Water, Southwest Water, and international contractors.

Local & High-Profile Projects

Our Southwest & Wales team is engaged in some of the UK’s most high-profile, industry-leading infrastructure projects, as well as international programmes. Recent projects include:

• Avonmouth Water Recycling Centre (WRC), Bristol: Major upgrade delivering improved effluent quality to river Avon (£110m).
• Durleigh Water Treatment Centre (WTC), Bridgwater: Wessex Water’s largest AMP6 supply water project. Wessex Water’s first ever project to be delivered to strict BIM Level 2 digital standards.
• Yeovil Pen Mill Water Recycling Centre (WRC), Yeovil: The largest of 14 major WINEP phosphorus-removal schemes executed across the region to meet strict new Environment Agency limits (0.5 mg/l Total Phosphorus).
• Wessex Water primary designer 2025-2030: Ongoing framework delivery as part of the AMP8 commitments.

We also advise national and government clients such as the Environment Agency and DEFRA, providing design guidance and legislative support that keeps us at the forefront of the UK water industry.

Here’s what you’ll do:

• Lead: Drive technical delivery of water, wastewater, and flood infrastructure projects, managing multidisciplinary teams to deliver innovative, value-added solutions throughout the design lifecycle. Lead design review meetings and be the technical interface for the client.
• Manage: Oversee key packages of work from concept to handover, interfacing with AECOM teams, clients, and suppliers to create seamless technical solutions.
• Collaborate: Work closely with clients and AECOM partners to ensure stakeholder buy-in for solutions, contributing to AECOM’s wider technical capability and innovative approach.
• Develop: Perform line manager duties and support the development of junior team members, managing their input to projects and mentoring them.

If you're passionate about innovation and turning bold ideas into reality, AECOM welcomes you. Join our team, where we don’t just deliver infrastructure solutions, we protect human health and the environment. Follow our AECOM Water page on LinkedIn to stay updated on the impactful projects we’re delivering across the UK.

Come & Grow with Us. 

Become part of our dynamic Water business, which boasts around 700 experts across the UK & Ireland. Collaborate with top-tier engineers and consultants to deliver a variety of captivating projects, from small initiatives to large-scale ventures, all the way from concept to completion.

Why Join AECOM?

• Be part of a dynamic team, working alongside industry-leading professionals and thought leaders
• Tackle challenging projects that will have positive impact for many years to come.
• Engage in a collaborative and inclusive work environment.
• Access to continuous learning and development opportunities.
• Enjoy the flexibility to work in a way that fits your lifestyle while supporting a healthy work–life balance.

Qualifications

Ready to push the limits of what’s possible?

Here’s what we’re looking for:

• A degree (or equivalent) in an engineering subject (e.g. civil, electrical, mechanical). 
• Chartered or Incorporated with a relevant institution e.g. ICE, CIWEM or working towards it.
• Relevant experience in a similar role for a water company, consultancy or contractor.
• Hands on experience, designing complex wastewater treatment solutions.
• Experience of undertaking feasibility studies, options appraisal and concept design, and/or outline and detailed design for water company clients and design and build contractors.
• Experience in managing the technical delivery of water and wastewater engineering projects with multi-disciplinary knowledge, ideally including treatment schemes and/or pipeline design. You will also have experience leading multi-disciplinary design teams.

Additional Information

At AECOM, we value everyone's unique contributions and perspectives. We celebrate diversity, including neurodiversity, and believe it enriches our teams. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and abilities so, if you're an applicant with a disability that requires reasonable adjustment to complete the application process, please contact us at [email protected]

At AECOM, we are committed to maintaining a secure and trustworthy recruitment process and take any fraudulent hiring activity seriously. To support this commitment, all newly hired employees are required to attend an in-person Day 1 onboarding at an AECOM office location as a condition of employment.

About AECOM

AECOM is the world’s trusted infrastructure consulting firm, delivering professional services throughout the project lifecycle – from advisory, planning, design and engineering to program and construction management. On projects spanning transportation, buildings, water, new energy and the environment, our public- and private-sector clients trust us to solve their most complex challenges. Our teams are driven by a common purpose to deliver a better world through our unrivaled technical and digital expertise, a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to environmental, social and governance priorities. AECOM is a Fortune 500 firm and its Professional Services business had revenue of $16.1 billion in fiscal year 2025. See how we are delivering sustainable legacies for generations to come at aecom.com and @AECOM.

Freedom to Grow in a World of Opportunity 

You will have the flexibility you need to do your best work with hybrid work options. Whether you’re working from an AECOM office, remote location or at a client site, you will be working in a dynamic environment where your integrity, entrepreneurial spirit and pioneering mindset are championed.

You will help us foster a safe and respectful workplace, where we invite everyone to bring their whole selves to work using their unique talents, backgrounds and expertise to create transformational outcomes for our clients.

AECOM provides a wide array of compensation, benefits and well-being programs to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families. We’re the world’s trusted global infrastructure firm, and we’re in this together – your growth and success are ours too.

Join us, and you’ll get all the benefits of being a part of a global, publicly traded firm – access to industry-leading technology and thinking and transformational work with big impact and work flexibility. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person’s potential, and we’ll help you reach yours.

We are a Disability Confident Employer and will offer an interview to applicants who have a disability or long-term condition, who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role. Please let us know using this email address [email protected]  if you would like to apply through the Disability Confident Interview Scheme.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.