Design Manager - Civils & Geo - Prisons

Design Manager (Civils & Geotechnical) – Prisons

📍 Location: Manchester

We're looking for an experienced Design Manager (Civils & Geo) to join our team, working on complex prison and secure infrastructure projects. This is a senior role with real influence shaping design from early concept through to construction, handover and aftercare.

You'll be responsible for managing design information, coordinating designers, and ensuring solutions are safe, buildable, compliant, and aligned with programme and commercial requirements.

 What you'll be doing

• Lead and manage the design process from concept to handover
• Review and coordinate design information to ensure quality, compliance, buildability and safety
• Appoint, manage and challenge designers to deliver the right outcomes
• Set and manage design programmes, dependencies and reporting
• Chair and contribute to design reviews with multiple stakeholders
• Identify and manage design risks, opportunities and change
• Ensure full statutory compliance and external assurance
• Support construction teams with technical queries and quality assurance
• Play an active role in continuous improvement, lessons learned and innovation

About you

• Chartered with a relevant professional body (or working towards)
• Degree-qualified in Civil, Structural, Geotechnical or related engineering discipline
• 5+ years' experience managing design on complex construction projects
• Experience across different procurement routes and project stages
• Confident managing design end-to-end, including contractor-led environments
• Comfortable working with multiple stakeholders and challenging where needed
• Strong understanding of risk, governance and design assurance

We also take care of our people! Our competitive package includes:

• Base salary + car/travel allowance
• Access to PMI
• Enhanced pension and parental leave schemes
• Life, dental, and critical illness insurance
• Income protection
• 33 days' holiday (including bank holidays!)
• Professional development opportunities

 About Us
Laing O'Rourke are an international engineering and construction company delivering state-of-the-art infrastructure and buildings projects for clients in the UK, Middle East and Australia.

Certainty, reliability, quality – this is what our clients want. And at Laing O'Rourke, we have more than 150 years of experience delivering it. Laing O'Rourke's story is one of energy, passion, ambition, people and teamwork. We harness the power of our experience, stretching back over a century and a half to deliver certainty for our clients.

As part of the Disability Confident scheme, we would like to enable access to candidates with long term conditions and disabilities through the ‘Offer an interview scheme'. This supports applicants that meet the essential criteria by offering an interview for the advertised position. Please let us know if you would like to opt in to this scheme and let us know if you require any adjustments for the interview process.

We want to ensure our recruitment process is accessible to all. If you need the application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please email resourcingteam@laingorourke.com

We know a CV can only tell part of the story – we'd love to hear more about you and what you bring. Please email your interest to Gbristow@laingorourke.com 

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