82754- Design Lead
This Design Lead will report to the Design Manager SPN and will work within Capital Programme based in our Crawley office. You will be a permanent employee.
You will attract a salary of £99,127 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:11/08/2026.
We also provide the following additional benefits
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23 Days Annual Leave plus bank holidays.
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Reservist Leave – Additional 18 days full pay and 22 unpaid
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Personal Pension Plan – Personal contribution rates of 4% or 5% (UK Power Networks will make a corresponding contribution of 8% or 10%)
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Tenancy Loan Deposit Scheme, Season Ticket Loan
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Tax efficient benefits: Cycle to Work, Home & Tech, and Green Car Leasing Schemes
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Occupational Health support
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Switched On – scheme providing discount on hundreds of retailers' products
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Discounted gym membership
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Employee Assistance Programme
As the Design Lead you will undertake technical Leadership of a team developing designs to support projects and sub-programmes, for major connections, from design brief/scope for the conceptual design phase through to completion of the technical design and assurance of as built records and delivery of the health and safety file. The position holder shall have line management responsibility for the civil and electrical designers, CAD technicians and design coordinators, and the management of external designers and specialists. The position holder shall work in conjunction with other Design Leads/Managers supporting the delivery of the capital programme (APP and Major Connections) and the protection team based in Newington House.
The position of Design Lead is key in the delivery of designs which underpin the successful delivery of APP and Major Connections projects, which is strategically important in meeting the regulatory outputs at a cost which out performs the regulatory settlement.
Dimensions
Payroll costs: £1.2m
Annual Works Costs: £30m
Department budget: £2m
Staff: 12 + 10 external designers
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
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Responsible for day to day management of Electrical and Civil Designers, ensuring designs produced comply with standards, Design Freeze is achieved through design review, CDM compliance maintained, and supporting the DNO investment delivery team
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Defining design scope deliverables, and agreeing delivery programme and cost with the Project Manager
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Accountable for the delivery of 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.
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Accountable for the preparation of resource plans to support sub-programme portfolio of the relevant Capital Programme workstream and accountable for the making the decision to insource or outsource the design delivery.
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Be a point of reference for senior managers and sub-programme managers on technical aspects of designs for the relevant sub-programme. Will have the relevant technical authority to make the appropriate technical decisions within the sub-programme.
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Ensure that designs achieve the mandated outputs whilst being rigorously challenged to assure technical requirements are achieved efficiently, responsible for the design estimation cost, quality of design is assured and contribute to the out-performance of the regulatory determination or agreed Connections quotation,
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Will have line management responsibilities for internal staff eg responsible for setting individual performance targets for the design team within the overall performance targets for engineering design, handling daily HR issues for the team, authorising leave, timesheets and expenses. In addition will have accountability for the daily management of external designers seconded to the design team from external agencies.
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Will be accountable for the preparation of works information pertinent to the Professional Services Contracts for external design partners (Time Charge and Work Package Orders), the raising and receiving design related "Early Warnings", "Compensation Events" and the resultant change control processes.
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Provision of as built information, Health and Safety file and key contributor to the technical closure of projects and sub-programmes
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Will discharge the obligations or nominate Principal Designer under CDM 2015 regulations.
Nature and Scope
The design team shall support the investment delivery function of Capital Programme and Procurement. A number of teams shall be structured on a workstream basis to support the delivery of the Capital Investment Programme and / or associated Major Connections which form the sub-programmes. The post holder will be responsible for the sub-programme design team assuring the appropriate mix of competencies necessary to support the delivery of designs to support the workstream. Where appropriate the Design Lead shall cooperate with other Design Leads and the Protection Design Manager, in the management and allocation of specialist resources across workstreams, making the necessary resourcing decisions to optimise their utilisation for the efficient delivery across the Capital Programme portfolio. The post holder shall functionally report to the SPN Design Manager within the Engineering function and shall work closely with the relevant delivery managers responding to the schedule demands of the programme.
The Design Lead, shall be accountable for the delivery of the design to quality/time and cost, for projects and sub-programme and making the appropriate decisions on resourcing (internal / external resources) and work package scopes. The Design Lead shall work closely with the relevant Design Manager, Portfolio Manager and delivery 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.
The Design Lead will 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 innovative solutions that enable the project / sub-programme to outperform against the regulatory submission (Totex) or the Connections Customer.
The Design Lead shall be responsible for ensuring that all designs are completed is in accordance with the CDM 2015 regulations, are accurate, on time and budget and that the appropriate design reviews and QA processes are adhered to.
Where appropriate they shall develop the necessary reporting and assurance process necessary to discharge the obligations of this role.
Skill Qualifications and Experience
Essential
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Experience in main stream engineering construction including electrical networks and experience of design coordination processes.
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Experience of managing teams of engineers in a similar large capital programme environment (including setting performance targets and appraisals)
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Technical qualifications – relevant technical degree.
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Analytical and decision making skills
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A good safety ethos with a sound understanding of Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations and their application.
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Ability to work unsupervised, set and comply with own targets and those of their team, and identify and implement innovative cost saving solutions.
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Develop Quality Assurance procedures and company design standards as required and ensure that team adhere to appropriate policies at all times.
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Proficient in the use of Microsoft desktop applications including Teams Word, Excel, , PowerPoint, P6, ProjectWise, & Autodesk construction cloud.(training may be provided where required)
Desirable
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Experience of managing teams of engineers in a similar large capital programme environment (including setting performance targets and appraisals)
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Chartered Engineer or working towards
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Hold, IOSH Working Safely or higher equivalent qualification
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.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. Where applicable, this role is subject to safer recruitment processes and robust pre‑employment checks
If you have any queries in connection to this vacancy or your application, please contact us at [email protected] quoting the vacancy reference number and a member of the team will get in touch with you as soon as possible.
