SVP – Engineering — Project-Development Pipeline

The mandate

A UK infrastructure developer is scaling its engineering function to support design, assurance and bid commitments across its pipeline. Projects currently use different standards, advisers and design baselines, and technical authorities are spread across live development and new opportunities. Assets may later be monetised, so design discipline, documentation and clear ownership directly affect value. The board has created an SVP Engineering role.

The remit covers approximately £26,150 million in projects and operating assets and 650 employees and material partners. The SVP owns engineering strategy, design authority, technical standards, resource allocation, assurance, consultant and supplier engineering, knowledge and talent. Project leaders own delivery and independent safety functions retain formal assurance. The SVP owns engineering feasibility, coherence and the evidence that follows an asset through transfer.

Capacity will be mapped by scarce authority rather than total headcount. Systems integration, geotechnical, safety, environmental, temporary works and commissioning expertise may constrain progress while design teams appear staffed. The SVP will reduce work in progress, reserve capacity for change and defects, and make trade-offs explicit to bid and investment leaders.

Design coherence needs enforceable governance. Common requirements, interfaces and evidence standards will have named authorities. Project exceptions require site or service rationale, lifecycle consequence and expiry. Consultant production does not replace owner acceptance or knowledge retention.

Why this seat is open

This urgent new role has no predecessor. Balance-sheet rotation exposed fragmented design ownership and requires one executive within six to eight weeks. Interim engineering councils maintain live reviews but cannot reset capacity and standards.

What you will own

• Reconcile pipeline commitments with engineering and assurance capacity.
• Establish design authority, standards and exception governance.
• Integrate technical evidence from development through operation and transfer.
• Govern consultants, suppliers, interfaces and design change.
• Build transaction-ready asset information and knowledge retention.
• Develop chief engineers and successors across disciplines.

Project commitments will identify design maturity, interfaces, approvals and evidence required for the next gate. Percentage complete will not substitute for closure of high-consequence assumptions. Bid leaders can choose priorities, but cannot assume scarce authority allocated elsewhere.

Engineering assurance will follow risk and change. Novel design, compressed programmes, complex interfaces and material departures receive deeper review. Independent assurance remains independent, while the SVP ensures findings enter design and project decisions. Repeated waivers will trigger redesign or programme action.

Capacity will be measured by decision demand, not headcount alone. The SVP will model discipline hours, checking capacity, technical-authority availability and consultant dependency against each project gate. Bids that rely on unnamed reviewers or simultaneous access to the same scarce specialist will be resourced, resequenced or declined. Portfolio leaders will receive a visible queue of engineering decisions and the cost of acceleration, allowing commercial urgency to be weighed against design integrity.

Design baselines will retain the reasoning behind material choices. Requirements, interfaces, calculations, models, assurance findings and concessions will have controlled ownership from option selection to commissioning. When standards conflict or a project seeks a departure, the approving engineer will record safety, operability, whole-life cost and transfer implications. Prospective buyers should be able to understand an asset's technical condition without reconstructing it from consultant inboxes.

The consultant model will also change. Frameworks will define deliverables, digital information rights, checking obligations and knowledge transfer, while performance reviews will examine rework and decision quality as well as utilisation. Internal chief engineers will remain accountable for acceptance; outsourced design volume must not create outsourced technical judgement.

Consultant contracts will specify models, calculations, source data, rights, review response and handover. Internal teams must be able to explain and modify the design. Where knowledge sits with one external specialist, the asset is not transaction-ready until access or transfer is secured.

Technical information will retain configuration from development through construction and operation. Material change needs rationale, approval, test and affected assets. Data rooms will distinguish approved, superseded and as-built evidence, preventing investors or operators from relying on obsolete design.

The first 12 months

Within 90 days, the SVP will baseline commitments, bottlenecks and exceptions, assess leadership and contain weak bids. The sponsor will receive a resourced engineering portfolio and defer, simplify or stop recommendations.

By month eight, three priority projects should use common design and assurance gates, two capacity bottlenecks should show shorter queues and selected exceptions should enter convergence. Chief-engineer authority will be explicit.

At year-end, milestone predictability should exceed 90%, late high-impact design changes fall 25% and planned work remain within 10% of verified capacity. Every monetisation candidate must carry controlled technical evidence, with ready succession covering 70% of pivotal engineering authorities.

What the board will measure

• Pipeline commitments matched to technical capacity.
• Clear design authority and fewer unsupported exceptions.
• Transaction-grade engineering evidence.
• Better consultant and knowledge control.
• Strong chief engineers and succession.

The person

You are an SVP Engineering, infrastructure design director or chief engineer with 22–28 years of experience. You have governed at least £15,150 million and 650 employees. Evidence must include a pipeline reduction, a design exception reversed and a transaction where technical evidence changed value or timing.

This onsite London role requires project, consultant, authority and investor travel. You combine professional independence with portfolio and commercial judgement.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is £210,000–280,000 plus annual incentive. Measures include predictability, design quality, capacity discipline, transaction readiness, knowledge and succession. Final calibration will follow the confirmed engineering perimeter.

Confidentiality

The developer, pipeline, designs, advisers and transaction evidence remain confidential. Controlled details follow qualification and an undertaking. London and rounded figures are non-identifying.