Graduate Design Engineer

Job Title: Graduate Design Engineer

Location: Bristol

Business Area: Kier Professional Services

Salary: £28,500 + £3,800 car allowance or company car equivalent*

We are Kier, a leading provider of infrastructure services, construction and property developments. Our purpose is to sustainably deliver infrastructure which is vital to the UK. We are committed to delivering for communities and leaving lasting legacies through our work.

Our Kier Professional Services (KPS) team are recruiting Graduate Design Engineers. We are looking for dedicated Masters-level (preferred) civil, structural and geotechnical engineering graduates to join our teams throughout the UK.

At the core of our project delivery is technical excellence, utilising the latest building methods, innovations and technology to ensure we offer the best value for our clients.

KPS are our in-house team of consulting engineers, providing permanent and temporary designs and technical support to our Construction, Highways, Infrastructure, Property and Utilities businesses. As our centre of technical excellence, KPS are behind many of our innovation successes, adding value for our colleagues and clients every day.

The opportunity.

Working for KPS, you will have exclusive access to our industry-leading portfolio of current and upcoming projects across the built environment. KPS support around 500 Kier projects each year, undertaking thousands of designs and providing a wide range of technical advice and related services.

KPS operate as a single, integrated, multi-disciplinary team, providing holistic solutions to the challenges they are presented with. Senior engineers act as both technical and project management lead for the projects they deliver, and most engineers operate across the majority of sectors and specialisms (although we have room for specialists, too!). As a Graduate Design Engineer, you will have access to an unrivalled variety of work, the opportunity to discover the things you are best at, and the chance to develop both your technical and management skills.

You will contribute to the delivery of a wide range of civil and structural designs and related services, providing solutions which are safe and buildable. This will include:

• Permanent designs for buildings, highways, infrastructure property and utility services, as part of an integrated design and construct offering.
• Temporary Works design and checking, above and below ground in all materials, integrated with the permanent design as applicable.
• Tender and bid-winning support including outline design schemes, feasibility studies, production and evaluation of concepts; focussed on buildability, efficiency and innovation; enabling cost estimates to be developed.
• Delivery of alternative solutions and value engineering, enhancing Kier’s competitive position.
• Technical assessment and review of 3rd Party designs, ensuring compliance with the brief to meet client and Kier expectations.
• Resolution of technical project, construction and design issues, incidents, defects and failures; incident investigation, examining causes of failure, rectification analysis, review, advice and redesign.

We are committed to attracting, retaining and progressing talent within Kier, with a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve.

As a Graduate Engineer with KPS, you will be:

• Enrolled onto our award-winning two-year Graduate Development Programme as well as KPS’s own bespoke technical development programme, providing an industry-leading 100 days of training during your first four years.
• Assigned a Chartered Engineer as a mentor, to guide and support you in achieving Professional Qualification with one of the UK’s engineering institutions as soon as possible. They will find opportunities for you to broaden your experience and skills through visits and secondments to site.
• Afforded the opportunity to progress your career via KPS’s unique Promotion on Merit process, which allows you to progress your career as soon as you are able to demonstrate the requirements of the next role.

A little later on, all of our senior employees are given the opportunity to complete a 13-month Management Development Programme, leading to Chartered Manager qualification with the Chartered Management Institute.

KPS are committed to offering flexible working, offering full-time and alternative employment opportunities. In accordance with our Agile Working policy, you will be able to agree a personalised weekly pattern of work with your line manager (including up to 2 days working from home, if desirable), focussed on maximising your potential both inside and outside of work. KPS recognise the benefits of hybrid working, but also the collaboration and personal development that come with being in a shared space together.

We recognise that there may be restrictions on the locations in which you are able to work. However, within the limits of the flexibility you can offer, we will carefully consider placing you in the location that we believe will best enable you to start developing your career. There are opportunities to relocate between KPS teams as you progress.

What we need from you.

For this role, you’ll have completed, or be about to complete, an Engineering Council accredited degree (Masters preferred) in civil, structural or geotechnical engineering. Ideally, you will have achieved, or be predicted to achieve, a 2i or above.

Engineering is at the heart of what KPS do, so it is critical that you have strong mathematical and analytical skills and a practical problem-solving mindset. And as well as demonstrating our core values – collaborative, trusted and focussed – we will look for you to demonstrate that you are self-motivated, hard-working, willing to learn, punctual, organised and committed.

During the interview process, we will be looking to identify your development potential as much as what you already know. We will help you develop all the other skills you need to succeed in the role, and look forward to supporting you on your career journey.

It is desirable that you have a full UK driving licence, enabling you to maximise your opportunities for training and site visits.

At Kier, we’re proud to be able to offer our fantastic employees a wide variety of benefits that you can tailor to your needs.

In addition to an industry-leading salary and car / allowance, you will get:

• 26 days holiday plus 8 days statutory public holiday, including opportunities to buy/sell leave
• enrolment in a fantastic matched pension scheme
• opportunities to share in the success you help to create by investing in Kier through our Sharesave and Share Incentive Plans
• 24/7 virtual GP service for you and your family, plus access to a wide range of other health and wellbeing advice
• the chance to purchase an electric vehicle and/or bicycle via salary sacrifice through Kier’s Green Car Scheme or the UK Government’s Cycle to Work scheme
• a huge range of deals and discounts at many of your favourite brands
• and much, much more!

We have new and enhanced family friendly policies, including eight weeks paternity leave, 26 weeks maternity leave, pregnancy loss leave, surrogacy leave, and menopause guidance. Find out more here about the great rewards and benefits we offer our employees.

Kier is committed to creating supportive and inclusive opportunities for all our applicants and employees.

We appreciate applicants from all backgrounds and we specifically encourage those from underrepresented communities to apply. Take a look here to learn more about our commitments to diversity and inclusion. If you require any reasonable adjustments during any part of the application process, please let us know so we can discuss and arrange these by emailing InclusiveRecruitment@kier.co.uk.

• full driving licence required for this benefit