Project Development Engineer

About us

At National Grid, we light up the world by harnessing the unique strengths of our people. Join us as a Project Development Engineer to be part of a team that's driving forward the energy transition, creating a brighter, more sustainable future for all. Unleash your superpower and bring energy to life.

National Grid is hiring a Project Development Engineer - This role requires a hybrid working approach with a mix of home, site and office working. You'll be flexible to travelling to office approximately twice per month and project sites as required.

Job Purpose

As an authorised Engineer and accomplished Project Manager, lead a multi-disciplined investment team at the pre-construction stages covering the project setup, option selection, development, sanction, tender and contract award of multi-driver interventions.

Undertake feasibility assessments, optioneering, and engineering preconstruction activities to create comprehensive ‘site intents’. These will be further developed to justify either customer connection projects or strategic intervention works, ensuring alignment with our Network Development plans and Design Principles.

Lead and support the preparation of regulatory submissions to secure capital funding, while championing optimal solutions that deliver long-term value for consumers.

What You'll Do

• Lead the investment process for multi-driver or shared-driver load and non-load investments, as well as complex customer connection projects, during development and pre-construction phases.
• Establish investment drivers.
• Develop and cost multiple investment options, producing initial proposals
• Prepare costed delivery programme options for discussion with customers to ensure best-fit solutions aligned with their requirements.
• Challenge and review the investment Needs Case, interfacing with Customer Connections, Network Development, and Asset Operations to validate drivers and asset health concerns.
• Produce regulatory submission documents with full optioneering and robust cost-benefit analysis for regulatory scrutiny to secure investment funding.
• Appoint and lead scheme teams, owning the Stakeholder Management Plan, identifying internal and external stakeholders, and maintaining evidence logs.
• Drive customer and stakeholder satisfaction through proactive engagement and timely resolution of issues, including ownership of Quality of Connections Incentive feedback.
• Develop the optimum in compliance with CDM Regulations and SHESQ considerations, documenting residual design issues, hazards and risks.
• Undertake site and condition assessments, supporting consenting, type registration, cost estimation, programme risk mitigation and innovation activities to enable successful delivery.
• Assess and lead Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) or support Early Contractor Involvement activities where required, managing budgets and resolving contractual issues promptly.
• Work closely with Delivery Project Managers to develop Contract Scope and Project Risk Registers, tracking driver uncertainty.
• Collaborate with Land and Consents teams, initiating siting studies and feasibility reviews for infrastructure rebuilds.
• Monitor and control investments, providing accurate financial forecasts for regulatory reporting, business planning and capital planning.
• Produce all required project documentation, ensuring governance, lessons learned and best practice are embedded throughout.
• Act as Client’s Delegated Representative and, where appropriate and where appropriate the Principal Designer Representative under CDM Regulations.
• Ensure timely submission of system outage and resource requests to enable optimised plan build.
• Maintain high-quality core data for pre-construction phases and integrate lessons learned from completed and in-flight projects.
• Identify and implement innovation opportunities in collaboration with the Innovation team.

About You

Interpersonal, Supervisory or Management

• Customer and stakeholder-centric approach to delivering high-quality outputs.
• Demonstrable experience of leading cross-functional teams and managing diverse stakeholders effectively.
• Proficient business writing and communication skills, with the ability to convey complex information clearly.
• Strong problem-solving capability and an appetite for continuous improvement.
• Good influencing and negotiating skills to drive positive outcomes.
• Proficient understanding and working knowledge of business processes and governance.

Technical or Specialist

• Proficient technical knowledge of the Electricity Transmission System, including primary transmission assets.
• Strong understanding of RIIO mechanisms and how National Grid delivers revenue under current and future regulatory frameworks.
• Knowledge of business processes and governance relevant to investment and delivery activities.
• Proficient application of CDM Regulations, with working knowledge of Safety and Environmental legislation, practices and policies.
• Project management expertise, including effective management of time, cost, safety and risk.
• Proficient in Contract Management with demonstrated commercial acumen.

Qualifications

Essentials

• Accomplished in managing internal / external stakeholder relationships
• CDM, Health & Safety and Environmental legislation proficiency
• BP142 Authorisation, or experience required to complete within 12 months (for new entry)
• National Grid Code of Conduct, business separation and other compliance training

Desirable 

• Registered member of a relevant professional body whilst working and training towards full chartered status is desirable
• NEBOSH General & Construction Certificate
• IOSH Environmental

What You'll Get

A competitive salary between £54,000  – £68,000 dependent on capability

You will also receive a company car, an established market supplement of £4,500, and an annual performance bonus

As well as your base salary, you will receive a bonus based on personal and company performance and a competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%. You will also have access to a number of flexible benefits such as a share incentive plan, salary sacrifice car and technology schemes, support via employee assistance lines and matched charity giving to name a few.

More Information

National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) is at the heart of energy in the UK. The electricity we provide gets the nation to work, powers schools and brings energy to life. Our energy network connects the nation, so it’s essential that it’s continually evolving, advancing and improving.

In NGET we are passionate about both operating our network safely and providing highly reliable quality of supply for our customers. At the heart of achieving these outcomes is the effective control and operation of our network.

To find out more about us, please follow the link below:

https://www.nationalgrid.com/electricity-transmission/