Senior Structural Engineer

Location: London (hybrid working: 3 days minimum in the office)
Salary: £40,000 – £55,000 (depending on experience)
Hours: Full-Time 37.5 hours
Employment: Permanent

Who We Are

The Useful Simple Trust (UST) consists of four professional design and consultancy practices: Expedition Engineering, Useful Projects, Useful Studio and Thomas Matthews. We share innovative ideas, space and experience, and collaborate on a range of high-profile projects in the UK and internationally. Our breadth of experience gives us a depth of inter-disciplinary thinking rarely found in the industry.

The company has 80+ talented and committed civil and structural engineers, architects, strategists and designers, sustainability & construction innovation consultants who work side-by-side creating positive outcomes for our changing environment following our key company values Work for Good, More with Less, Restore and Adapt and Get, Set, Zero.

As a Social Enterprise, B-Corp and Employee Benefit Organisation, we do things differently. Our people are highly motivated and committed, in part because our structure and values mean that our combined success is shared equitably. We share part of our profit and re-invest the rest in research, social and environmental projects. We deliver purposeful projects that we believe have a sustainable impact on our clients and the wider human environment.

Expedition Engineering

Expedition is an award-winning engineering consultancy responsible for designing iconic structures such as the Velodrome, the cable car and Chiswick footbridge in London. Recent projects include repair works of existing buildings and footbridges, as well as the new Eden Project in Dundee, Scotland (in progress) which is a brilliant example of regenerative design with a focus on circular economy and low carbon solutions. We work at all scales of project and stages of construction, including early-stage advice on standardisation, modularity and constructability as well as involvement in post-completion phases providing forensic engineering to determine root causes of defects.

What we are looking for

We’re looking for a Senior Chartered Structural Engineer with a minimum of 6 years’ experience. You will be responsible for managing smaller engineering projects, or smaller parts of large engineering projects, and be responsible for the operational activity of small engineering teams on a day-to-day basis. You will monitor projects to make sure that they are achieving the aims set by the Project Director and in line with the Trust ethos, and regularly report to line managers. You will play a key role in supporting the training and development of less experienced colleagues and will develop themselves in line with their development plan.

Project management responsibilities:

1. Supervise and coach junior members of the team.
2. Manage external consultant relationships on a peer-to-peer level and sub-consultants.
3. Ensure on-time project delivery with respect of programme deadlines.

Technical and design responsibilities:

1. Work autonomously and as a part of the team.
2. Offer creative solutions.
3. Design structures (both elemental and holistically) in line with codes of practice across a range of materials (steel, concrete, masonry, and timber), at all RIBA stages.
4. Communicate clearly design intent and technical explanations.
5. Contribute to the delivery of projects and their technical guidance (incl. preparation of full set of calculations for a building control application without supervision).
6. Brief team on work packages, share expertise, mentor and assist junior engineers.
7. Work with the BIM technician team to facilitate the preparation of drawings.
8. Identify and attend events for personal professional development (i.e. CPD).
9. Contribute to practice-wide initiatives and work with other disciplines.

Commercial responsibilities:

1. Prepare fee proposals, define scope of services, and review appointment documents alongside senior colleagues.
2. Develop good working relationships with peers in external companies.
3. Represent the company at the Client meetings and maintain internal and external networks.

We are specifically looking for someone with an innovative mindset, passionate about design, new technologies and new materials. We expect the successful candidate to have technical skills to be able to design from first principles. In addition, we would value a candidate with computational skills and interested in coding and parametric design.

Qualifications, Knowledge and Skills

• Professionally qualified e.g. CEng, MICE or MIStructE.
• Experience in an engineering consultancy environment.
• Good knowledge of all main structural design codes.
• Good knowledge of how projects are designed and constructed.
• Very good knowledge of using analysis software (GSA, SCIA, ETABS etc.).
• Proficient in the use of 3D modelling software such as Rhino and Grasshopper and willing to develop this competence.
• Experience using in-house project management tools (e.g. resourcing, monthly reporting).

Diversity statement

The Trust strives to be a diverse and inclusive place where we can all be ourselves. We are working to change the lack of representation of minority groups and are particularly keen to hear from anyone with relevant skills and experience who feels they are underrepresented in the industry.

We encourage people from culturally diverse backgrounds, women, people with different abilities, LGBTIQ+ community, gender, all age groups, and those with intersectional or multiple diverse characteristics to apply. We know that diversity makes us stronger, and we are committed to creating a working environment that is inclusive and ensures everyone can be heard and valued for their contributions.

What we offer

We believe in investing and growing our people as much as we do our business. We foster talent, equal opportunity, diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing to develop a high performing and sustainable workforce.

The package comprises:

• Significant training time and learning opportunities with our “future skills” development programme.
• Thriving Trust wide social scene including charitable activities and regular team events.
• Professional Memberships.
• Exposure to a variety of business sectors and range of responsibilities developing and delivering challenging projects.
• Flexible and hybrid working including the possibility to work a compressed 9-day fortnight.