Job Description:

Lead Project Engineer (Engineering Lead) Washwood Heath Depot

Location:        Birmingham & Washwood Heath | Hybrid working (3 days office/site)

Salary:            £85,000 – £92,000 (potentially to £101,500k with approvals) + 12% Pen

Project            HS2’s Washwood Heath Train Care Depot

Role Overview

Are you a senior engineering leader or engineering manager with strong systems engineering capability or experience delivering major multi-disciplinary rail infrastructure, such as depots, rail maintenance facilities, or stations?  Candidates are welcomed from client organisations, contractors, train manufacturers, or engineering consultancies.

We are supporting High Speed Two with the appointment of a Lead Project Engineer / Engineering Manager to play a central leadership role in the delivery of a major new railway depot at Washwood Heath, Birmingham.

The Washwood Heath Depot, £858m represents the largest and most complex rail system facilities (Depot) ever delivered in the UK. It will form the operational and testing heart of the HS2 network and is being delivered as a distinct 8-year programme, comprising approximately 2–3 years of design followed by 5 years of construction, testing, and commissioning, with contract award just been announced – JV Taylor Woodrow Infrastructure & Aureos Rail.

The depot includes a diverse and technically complex range of assets, including:

• Maintenance Building
• Cleaners’ and Drivers’ Facilities
• Stabling Yard
• Office Accommodation and Staff Welfare Facilities

The Role

Working directly for HS2, you will act as the technical lead and single point of technical accountability for the successful delivery partner. You will guide the depot through its entire lifecycle, from detailed design through construction, testing, commissioning, and into operational readiness.

The post holder will lead technical assurance, system integration, and interface management across multiple railway systems and engineering disciplines, ensuring delivery in line with contractual, statutory, safety, and performance requirements.

Key Challenges

• System Integration: Integrating complex rail systems including signalling and control, power and electrification, track and civils, communications & data, and depot-specific systems. This includes managing transitions between ATO (Automatic Train Operation) and conventional signalling environments.
• Interface Management: Coordinating and assuring interfaces across multiple delivery contracts and neighbouring assets within a highly complex delivery environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead technical assurance and integration of railway systems across the depot programme
• Ensure designs and construction meet contractual, statutory, and technical requirements
• Manage engineering risks, issues, interfaces, and changes
• Act as the technical authority and provide guidance on design solutions
• Fulfil duties as CDM Principal Designer (2015) Representative
• Support programme reporting, risk mitigation, and coordination with commercial teams
• Ensure smooth integration across multiple rail systems contracts- including signalling, control centres, power and electrification (OHL), M&E, BMS, and communications systems (scada).

Candidate Profile

You will be a qualified senior engineering leader with significant experience delivering major multi-disciplinary rail systems projects. Experience may include depots, stations, new railway infrastructure, or major remodelling works.  Candidates are welcomed from client organisations, contractors, train manufacturers, or engineering consultancies.

Experience and attributes include:

• Strong understanding of railway systems, including signalling, control centres, power and electrification (OHL), M&E, BMS, and communications systems
• Proven Design & Build delivery experience ideally on Rail Depots or similar large rail buildings (Stations, Train Care facilities, Depots)
• Solid knowledge of CDM Regulations 2015 and Principal Designer responsibilities
• A track record of solving complex engineering problems while balancing commercial and programme considerations
• Strong leadership capability with excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills
• Ability to operate confidently in a complex, high-profile, multi-stakeholder environment