Graduate Water Engineer 2024

From helping shape our environment to adapting to deal with the climate emergency, a career at Buro Happold presents the chance to make a difference. This opportunity is to join our Water team, we have two openings, and the successful candidate can be based in either our Bath or Leeds offices.

Join our Water team

We have an exciting opportunity for a talented graduate level engineer to join our Water Group based in either our Bath or Leeds offices with the opportunity for travel across the UK and oversees.

Water is one of our planet’s most precious assets and our engineers ensure that this finite resource is managed in the most sustainable way possible, whether it is at a building, city or regional project scale. We specialise in identifying innovative solutions to ensure maximum, sustainable performance. Practising expertise in cloud-to-coast engineering, we deliver sustainable civil engineering solutions across the globe, from the earliest stages of project feasibility, through to planning and delivery through detailed design and site supervision.

Our projects

The Water Group works at a range of project scales; from individual buildings through to regional strategies; from feasibility studies at project inception to detailed design and site supervision, practising our expertise across the UK and also the Middle East, North and South America, Africa and Asia.

We practise our expertise in the following core areas of the water sector:

• Flood Risk Management
• Water Resource Management
• Coastal and Maritime
• Waterfront development
• River Engineering

Our team has delivered an enviable range of projects of varying scale and complexity. In London, the team has helped to deliver some of the most high profile riverside developments on the Thames including Lots Road Power Station and Battersea Power Station redevelopment. Since 2005 we have been “water” at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, taking responsibility for site wide flood risk management, drainage strategy, water strategy and the waterspace masterplan. Outside of London our engineers have delivered lasting, sustainable transformation of the area around Folkestone Harbour and rehabilitated the River Medlock as part of the regeneration at Mayfield. Sandford Hydro is a fine example of our engineers using their hydraulic expertise to create a renewable energy scheme on the River Thames.

The Water Group works across the globe and is able to create lasting change through climate change adaptation and providing resilience to Cities. The Detroit Future Cities and Nairobi Rivers Restoration are two examples where our engineers have used their skills to identify strategies that can bring lasting change in these cities.

Nowhere is our ability to create change more evident than in the Middle East. The Wadi Hanifah project in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an exciting and challenging environment for water engineers, is a project that has rehabilitated the wadi, provided resilience in terms of flood risk management and transformed the relationship between the cities inhabitants and the natural environment. This project has spawned a host of projects in the region that build on the success of Wadi Hanifah and further establish our reputation as industry leaders in the region.

Key duties

• Undertake water resource and flood risk management assessments.
• Support coastal design including harbour design and beach management.
• Work competently on an independent basis, as well as collaborating within the design team.
• Communicate directly with external stakeholders, such as the Environment Agency, Local Planning Authorities, and design team members.
• Develop numerical modelling skills for hydrology, open channel flows, piped networks, and coastal flushing
• Working with spatial mapping software such as QGIS.
• Prepare concept and design drawings and take responsibility for delivering engineering solutions.

About you

• You will be educated to at least Degree level, with Masters level preferred.
• The members of the Water Group have a range of educational backgrounds. Civil Engineering is a common degree but by no means required. Whatever your degree subject you should be able to demonstrate a passion for a sustainable approach to water.
• You may also have basic CAD and/or GIS skills.
• You will be a self-motivated, have a keen interest in sustainable engineering, an understanding of climate change adaptation and a desire to learn within the context of a strong, highly skilled team.

What's in it for you?

• Broad insight within a team, mentored by a subject matter expert. The opportunity to experience our culture and value, and learn what sets us apart from other organisations. Exposure to a wide range of portfolios, including local community led projects and global large scale clients. The diversity of the projects we work on is one of the many reasons Engineers love to work at Buro Happold.
• A plethora of interesting and challenging projects to stretch your professional skills, a friendly and close knit team, flexible working and a competitive reward package. The opportunity to work on multidisciplinary projects aside a range of specialist engineers and designers both within Buro Happold and our collaborators.
• Opportunity to be supported (or even join) our Young Employee's Forum in your local office, join bi-annual events/trips, and contribute your experience and learnings to the next generation of engineers through various outreach activities.
• Our Graduate Connect program allows our Graduates to learn the fundamentals of design and technology whilst building a base in consulting and professional skills. This is a blended learning programme where participants gain experience against our internal professional and technical frameworks in relation to their specialism.
• We see membership of a professional body and professional registration as crucial to the development of our engineers and offer substantial support to those aspiring to achieve this. We aim to support employees to achieve the highest level of membership and registration their academic background allows.

How long does the process take?

The recruitment timeline can vary depending on the role and team you are applying to. Successful applications are progressed to interview stage within 2-3 months from the closing date of the advert, but it is good to know that the whole process can take up to 6 months. We will endeavour to keep you informed throughout the time that your application is being considered, however, due to the volume of applications received and the size of our team, we are not able to respond to individual requests for status updates.

Interested? Intrigued? Inspired?

This role is for current students or recent graduates for an Autumn 2024 start.

Be you at Buro Happold

Buro Happold is proud to be a practice of a diverse range of professionals. We actively promote inclusivity to enable every individual to reach their full potential, the more inclusive we are the better our work will be.

We are working to change the lack of representation of minority groups in the built environment, and are particularly keen to hear from anyone who feels they are underrepresented in the industry. We have much to learn from one another. Embracing difference allows us to develop the most innovative and elegant solutions.