Senior/Principal Utilities Consultant

We have a newly created Senior or Principal Utilities Consultant role in our rapidly growing Smart Energy and Sustainability team (SES), based in our central Manchester office.

In an ever-advancing, volatile and high-growth sector, you will find that our opportunistic, agile and decisive culture will fully enable you to focus most of your time, energy and expertise on really making a difference.

You’ll be welcomed and integrated warmly into our collaborative and ever-expanding team across the UK and will contribute to developing and delivering exciting, cutting-edge and complex projects. 

We have a true enthusiasm for what we do. If you do too, we’d love to hear from you.

Sounds good? This is Smart Energy & Sustainability

So, what are we about?

This is the elevator pitch. We’re helping clients to unlock cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy and maximise the potential economic and environmental value of their projects, whilst delivering on wider environmental and sustainability principles. Alternatively, here’s the YouTube pitch.

From local authorities to universities, and from masterplan developers to asset managers and investors, we are proud to be shaping the approach that organisations are taking to decarbonisation and a net-zero future.

Our work includes:

• Utilities strategies.
• Net-zero carbon studies at project and master planning levels
• Planning application support documents including energy strategy and environmental assessments
• Climate change studies
• ESG strategy
• Life-Cycle Carbon and Cost Analyses (LCCA)
• Renewable energy development and consultancy
• Carbon management verification

We’re passionate about our subject matter and shaping the UK’s response to the climate emergency – here’s our Divisional Director, Josh Bullard sharing his view.

Our team is a unique blend of engineers and consultants and this means we can deliver a wide range of project inputs for our clients from the earliest inception stages and onwards. 

Most importantly, you’ll find us a lively, good-spirited team, excited about what we’re doing and enjoying each other’s company, and we’ll be sure to give you a warm welcome too.

So, what will you be responsible for?

Expanding upon our existing team of utilities, sustainability and smart energy engineers, you will become an integral part of the delivery team.

The primary role will be to support development proposals by providing an effective external services strategy.This will involveinvestigating if and how the various utility networks will be affected by new connections; providing guidance on risk items, cost, design etc; and working alongside the wider design team to provide a holistic energy strategy.

As part of the team, you will provide technical consultancy at the following work stages:

• Concept Design 
• Master planning
• Planning 
• Post-planning and construction stages

To succeed in this role, you’ll need:

• Significant post-graduate consultancy experience.
• Knowledge and delivery of NRSWA C1 -C4 / RIBA 0-4.
• Tenacious, organised and keen to apply initiative to drive projects forward.

A technical understanding of the following:

• Gas, electric, potable water and telecoms networks, including associated infrastructure (substations, governors, pumping stations etc).
• The opportunities and constraints around utility infrastructure.
• Network capacity.
• Energy demands and supply requirements for a variety of build types.
• Mains diversions.
• Disconnections.
• Easements/Wayleaves/Servitudes.
• Network design.

Additional attributes:

• Strong communication skills (verbal and written).
• Accomplished report writing.
• Enjoy working in a fun, lively office with a great team spirit.
• Background in energy, renewables or related disciplines.
• Knowledge of planning, environmental impact assessments or wider sustainability legislation.

• An ability to apply analytical skills across a range of scale (Buildings, Campus, Cities).
• Experience and working knowledge of the energy market, capacity and grid balancing, demand side response, connection agreements, market business models etc.
• Understanding of Wastewater.
• Understanding of EV Charging.
• Understanding of heat decarbonisation. 
• Experience in fee proposals/bid writing.
• BIM/CAD/Revit experience.

Career Development:

We will support your professional development, aligned to your aspirations, interests and emergent markets, technologies or professional qualifications/memberships.

Ultimately, you're someone who wants to become a key technical advisor (Subject Matter Expert) with a high level of visibility both inside Hydrock and externally within the industry. A credible, networked, thought leader at key industry events and conferences.

You will also have the desire to grow and manage a team focused on strategic sustainability services, intrinsic to our strategic plans.

What's great about Hydrock 'in a nutshell'?

We are a British-owned integrated multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy of over 900 staff in 21 offices across the UK. Our driving motivation is to be a ‘Force for Good’, as it is our aim to improve the quality of people’s lives from our employees to our clients, through to the communities we work in and our planet as a whole through the work we do.  

From the buildings that surround you, the roads and bridges you cross, all related to the infrastructure that we create, we aim to offer the most sustainable possibilities to shape the places, communities and society that we live in through meeting our client’s needs. Through the path we are on to delivering a green future, the result is something that everyone can be proud of. 

Our welcoming and friendly culture is something we are proud of and is supported 9 years in the Top 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Check out some of our incredible projects which have been awarded: 2022 Net Zero Award for Bay Technology Centre, the Integration and Collaborative Working Award for YGG Tan-y-Lan primary school, The Deaf Academy awarded for its Universal Design at the 2022 Civic Trust Awards and Bristol’s iconic waterfront Wapping Wharf Living making a double win at the Bristol Property Awards! 

To top off, here’s our 2022 wrap up video! 

What we can offer you: 

• Inspiring and supportive colleagues 
• Reward for progression and hard work 
• An opportunity to develop your soft skills, as well your technical skills
• Competitive starting salary 
• Excellent health benefits 
• 25 days of holiday (buy/sell up to five days), accrue 1 day extra every 2 years, with bonus holidays too!
• An earlier finish on Friday (4pm!) 
• An opportunity to give back: “Day off for good cause” (on a workday) 
• A huge range of flexible benefits, including climate perks and an EV car leasing scheme 
• Our biggest event of the year: Annual Challenge Day!  

A place to feel included

We champion diversity, equity, and inclusion. As an Equal Opportunities Employer, we commit to supporting our employees and ensure we create a safe environment that nurtures you to perform at your best. Offering our people flexibility is an important factor in achieving this aim.  

We consider all application individually with the required qualifications and knowledge without regard to any of the protected characteristics. We would like to provide everyone with a fair selection, assessment and employment experience so we ask with are made aware of any physical or neurodiverse condition within your application for which appropriate reasonable adjustments can be made by us. 

Looking for the next steps? 

• Once you have completed your application through our careers site, we aim to review and respond to you as soon as your application’s been reviewed. 
• If shortlisted, a member of our Recruitment Team will call you for an initial pre-screen by phone (typically 30 minutes) to help us assess your motivations and interest in the position and Hydrock. 
• If you progress following this telephone pre-screen, you will be invited to attend a formal interview by video conference (Microsoft Teams) or in our offices. 

For the latest updates and news, connect with us on our LinkedIn page!