Principal Highways Engineer

We have an exciting opportunity for Principal Engineer to join our Civil Infrastructure team in Birmingham. We’ve built a great reputation over the years and now we look to focus on establishing and growing our capability in the West Midlands and beyond. 

About The Team:

We work across a variety of clients from National contractors and developers through to UK Statutory Bodies enabling us to work on diverse and challenging projects. This enables us to deploy best practice and bring the latest ideas to our delivery.

Role Overview & Key Responsibilities:

As a Principal Highways Engineer, you will provide technical leadership and strategic oversight across a range of complex highways and infrastructure projects. You will play a key role in shaping project direction, assuring technical quality, mentoring teams, and supporting business growth.

Core Responsibilities:

• Lead the planning, design, and delivery of highways and transportation schemes from feasibility through to detailed design and construction support.
• Act as a technical authority on highways design, ensuring compliance with relevant standards, legislation, and best practice (e.g. DMRB, Manual for Streets, local authority guidance).
• Oversee and review technical outputs, providing assurance on quality, safety, and constructability.
• Manage and coordinate multidisciplinary design teams, ensuring effective collaboration and integration with wider infrastructure disciplines.
• Provide expert advice to clients, stakeholders, and project teams, contributing to problem-solving and value engineering initiatives.
• Support project management activities, including programme planning, resource management, and risk identification and mitigation.
• Prepare and review technical reports, drawings, specifications, and cost estimates to a high professional standard.

Additional Principal-Level Duties:

• Provide strategic input into project bids, tenders, and fee proposals, including defining scope, methodology, and resourcing.
• Act as a key client interface, building and maintaining strong relationships and representing the business in meetings, workshops, and public consultations.
• Mentor, coach, and develop junior and mid-level engineers, supporting technical progression, professional development, and succession planning.
• Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of highways design standards, processes, and best practice across the business.
• Support business development activities by identifying opportunities, contributing to thought leadership, and promoting the highways capability internally and externally.
• Review and sign off technical deliverables where appropriate, taking accountability for design integrity and risk.
• Provide leadership on health, safety, and wellbeing, embedding a strong safety culture within project teams.
• Stay abreast of industry developments, policy changes, and emerging technologies, advising on their application to current and future projects.

Leadership & Influence:

• Champion collaboration, innovation, and high technical standards across all highways-related activities.
• Act as a role model for professional conduct, ethical practice, and inclusive leadership.
• Support the wider strategic objectives of the business through proactive engagement and continuous improvement.

Qualifications:

• Degree qualified in civil engineering or similar
• Chartered
• Skills with Civils 3D, Infodrainage and utility coordination are advantageous. 

Why Join us?

The friendly and collaborative culture at Stantec is something we are proud of, and we have many other reasons for you to be excited about joining us. We offer a competitive salary, hybrid and flexible working arrangements, industry leading training, great projects and lots more!

To hear what some of our existing UK&I workforce say about life at Stantec, please click on My Stantec Stories

#UKComDev

The Stantec community unites more than 34,000 employees working in over 450 locations across 6 continents. We have been working with our clients and communities in the UK for over 150 years. We plan, design, deliver and manage the development and infrastructure needed to support the creation of sustainable, healthy and prosperous communities. 

Our teams provide effective and relevant solutions, translating our clients’ vision into valued consents, deliverable plans for projects and programmes, and efficient designs for delivery, based on technical excellence and deep market insights. We deal with today’s challenges, but also keep a fairer, better tomorrow in sight, looking at how we deliver clean growth, support radical changes in our economy and meet the needs of future communities. 

Stantec provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for future and current employment and prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, genetic information, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. We prohibit discrimination in decisions concerning recruitment, hiring, referral, promotion, compensation, fringe benefits, job training, terminations or any other condition of employment. Stantec is in compliance with laws and regulations and ensures equitable opportunities in all aspects of employment.

Building an inspired, inclusive work environment that attracts, supports, and develops world-class talent is a crucial key to our success. If you are excited by this role but worry that your experience doesn’t exactly align, we encourage you to apply.

At Stantec we want you to perform your best at every stage of the recruitment process and are committed to ensuring it is accessible to all. If you need any support or require adjustments to be made then please contact [email protected]  and we will talk to you about how we can support you.