Design Lead

Reference: 82793 | Location: Bidder Street, London (near Canning Town) | Contract: Permanent | Salary: £99,127 plus Inner London Allowance and 3% bonus | Closing date: 11 August 2026

As the Design Lead you will undertake the technical lead on designs that underpin major connections and capital investment projects across London. Reporting to the LPN Design Manager, you will lead a multidisciplinary team and influence programmes that support the safe, efficient and successful delivery of strategically important electricity network infrastructure. Following the six-month probationary period, blended working is available with three days in the office and two days remotely.

You will provide technical leadership from the initial design brief and conceptual phase through detailed design, assurance of as-built records and delivery of the health and safety file. You will manage civil and electrical designers, CAD technicians and design coordinators, alongside external designers and specialists, while collaborating with other Design Leads, Design Managers and the Protection team at Newington House. The role includes responsibility for approximately 12 employees and 10 external designers, supporting around £30 million of annual works, a £2 million departmental budget and £1.2 million in payroll costs.

You will work across UK Power Networks directorates and with customers and stakeholders including National Grid, TfL, Network Rail, connection customers and major developers. You will agree deliverables and timescales, ensure design information supports compliance with the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, and discharge or nominate the Principal Designer duty-holder responsibilities.

Your responsibilities will include the day-to-day management of Electrical and Civil Designers; ensuring designs meet standards, achieve Design Freeze through review and maintain CDM compliance; defining design scope and deliverables; agreeing programmes and costs with Project Managers; and delivering designs to the required time, quality and cost while maintaining appropriate reporting and tracking.

You will prepare resource plans for the relevant Capital Programme workstream, decide whether design delivery should be insourced or outsourced, allocate specialist resources across workstreams and prioritise activity to meet programme and stakeholder obligations. As a technical authority, you will advise senior and sub-programme managers, challenge designs to ensure mandated outputs are achieved efficiently, oversee design estimates and quality assurance, and drive value engineering and innovative solutions that contribute to regulatory or customer outperformance.

Your line-management duties will include setting individual and team performance targets, handling day-to-day HR matters, authorising leave, timesheets and expenses, and managing externally seconded designers. You will prepare works information for Professional Services Contracts, including Time Charge and Work Package Orders, and manage design-related Early Warnings, Compensation Events and associated change control. You will also provide as-built information and the health and safety file, contribute to technical project and sub-programme closure, and ensure designs are accurate, completed on time and within budget, with appropriate reviews, quality assurance, reporting and assurance processes.

You will bring experience in mainstream engineering construction, including electrical networks and ideally design coordination, together with a relevant technical degree and Chartered Engineer status or progress towards it.

If you are ready to lead a skilled design team and help deliver safe, innovative and cost-effective infrastructure for UK Power Networks' Capital Programme, apply by 11 August 2026