Senior Drainage Engineer - Transport
Senior Drainage Engineer – Transport
Location: Galway, Dublin, Cork
Join Us in Engineering Resilient Infrastructure for a Sustainable Future:
At Tetra Tech, we’re shaping the next generation of transport infrastructure across Ireland and the UK. As a Senior Drainage Engineer, you’ll play a pivotal role in delivering innovative, standards-led drainage solutions that enhance resilience and sustainability. From leading complex design packages to integrating cutting-edge digital workflows and climate adaptation strategies, this is your opportunity to influence major projects, mentor emerging talent, and drive excellence in multidisciplinary collaboration. If you’re passionate about technical leadership and making a lasting impact on the future of transport, we’d love to hear from you.
Purpose & Scope of the Role:
The Senior Drainage Engineer provides technical leadership within the Transport and Civils Drainage team, taking responsibility for the end-to-end delivery of drainage design across a diverse portfolio of projects in Ireland and the UK. This role ensures that designs, calculations, models, and documentation meet programme, technical, and quality requirements, align with Irish and UK standards, and satisfy client expectations. You will lead drainage workstreams, coordinate with project managers, discipline leads, clients, and regulators, and resolve technical interfaces to deliver resilient, constructible, and cost-effective solutions. The position also includes mentoring junior engineers, contributing to resource planning, and producing high-quality design packages, reports, and integrated 3D models that support approvals and consents.
Your Impact in This Position:
In this role, you will lead and deliver drainage design packages on live civil and transport projects, stabilising and accelerating delivery while contributing to climate adaptation strategies for the Irish national road network. You will integrate emerging technologies, including AI, to improve efficiency and design assurance. Over time, you will take ownership of new projects through the full lifecycle—from inception and option development to detailed design, construction support, and handover—while embedding the latest standards and innovations in drainage design. Longer term, you will have the opportunity to progress into senior leadership, shaping strategy, strengthening client relationships, and contributing to a sustained track record of successfully delivered programmes across Tetra Tech.
Core Capabilities:
Standards-led Drainage Design Expertise:
Success requires detailed, practical command of Irish and UK drainage design standards, including TII and GDRCP in Ireland and DMRB, Sewers for Adoption and CIRIA guidance in the UK. The Senior Drainage Engineer applies these frameworks consistently to produce compliant designs and calculations, interpret and justify departures where necessary, and secure the approvals and consents required by project-specific scopes and employer’s requirements. This capability includes selecting appropriate design methods, documenting assumptions and boundary conditions, demonstrating hydraulic performance, flood risk and attenuation strategies, and evidencing constructability and maintenance access, all while balancing safety, resilience and whole-life cost.
3D Modelling and Digital Delivery Excellence:
The role demands the ability to prepare high-quality 3D models aligned to current BIM standards, with data-rich content that supports clash detection, coordination and digital review. The Senior Drainage Engineer structures models to integrate seamlessly within federated project models, manages discipline interfaces, and uses model-based workflows to drive accuracy in quantities, spatial checks and construction sequencing. Competence includes establishing modelling standards, controlling versioning and metadata, undertaking rigorous clash and rule-based checks, and converting model insights into actionable design decisions and clear visual communication for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Multidisciplinary Integration and Interface Resolution:
Effective delivery depends on understanding how drainage design responsibilities fit within the wider multidisciplinary context. The Senior Drainage Engineer collaborates closely with highways, structures, geotechnical, environmental, utilities and construction teams, identifies interdependencies early, and leads interdisciplinary checks and reviews to resolve interfaces and conflicts. This capability includes coordinating inputs to align drainage elements with the wider project context, ensuring hydraulic and spatial assumptions are consistent across disciplines, capturing and mitigating design risks, and maintaining traceability of decisions through design assurance processes that hold up under client and peer scrutiny.
Technical Communication and Stakeholder Influence:
The role requires excellent written and verbal communication to convey technical intent clearly and succinctly to team members, design coordinators, project managers, clients and regulators. The Senior Drainage Engineer produces reports, presentations, drawings and commentary that are logically structured, evidence-based and accessible, chairs and contributes to technical meetings, and handles challenge constructively, explaining limitations and opportunities in a manner that builds trust and secures buy-in. They tailor communication to suit their audience’s technical background, articulate the implications of decisions across constructability, safety, operability and cost, and ensure that technical narratives support timely approvals and programme momentum
Mentoring and Capability Building:
The position carries responsibility for developing junior engineers to deliver work to the quality standards expected by the company. The Senior Drainage Engineer plans and distributes workloads appropriately, undertakes technical and compliance checks on deliverables, provides structured feedback, and contributes to training plans aligned to individual goals and sector strategy. This capability includes establishing good design habits, reinforcing standards and quality processes, encouraging the effective use of digital tools and emerging technologies, and fostering a culture of accountability, curiosity and continuous improvement that raises delivery quality and pace across the team.
Qualifications & Experience:
Required:
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Level 8 Honours Degree in Civil Engineering or a closely related discipline.
Minimum of eight years’ experience in drainage design and multidisciplinary project delivery.
Proven knowledge and application of Irish and UK standards (TII, GDRCP, DMRB, Sewers for Adoption, CIRIA).
Strong competence in 3D modelling and BIM workflows.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated experience in mentoring and technical leadership.
Desirable: Chartered Engineer status (CEng MICE or equivalent), training in climate adaptation, hydrology expertise, and experience with Tier 1 contractors and national authorities.
Working Environment
This role is based in Galway, Cork, Dublin or Kilkenny, with hybrid working and agile office arrangements offered as standard. Office attendance will be balanced to meet project and client needs, while supporting flexible working for work‑life balance. Travel to client sites, planning authority meetings and project locations across Ireland will be required on an occasional basis.
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Why join Tetra Tech?
Tetra Tech is a leading provider of consulting and engineering services working across the full project lifecycle worldwide. We have a wide range of expertise across our teams, providing a global support network with a personalised approach to client relationships to better understand where we can add value. We provide a collaborative environment that supports individual performance, innovation, and creativity.
We support public and private sector clients on local, national, and international projects to deliver sustainable and resilient solutions. Our operations in the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands include more than 6,000 employees who are Leading with Science® to solve our clients’ most complex problems.
In alignment with the Equality Act 2010, we will make reasonable adjustments to support candidates and employees requiring additional arrangements. This could include adaptations to work schedules, training approaches, or the physical workspace. Please inform us if you need any accommodations during the recruitment process or in your day-to-day role.
Recruitment Agencies
We have a Preferred Supplier List of trusted partners to assist us when required and do not acknowledge any speculative CVs or unsolicited candidate introductions from agencies not on this list and any submitted will be taken as a gift. Please refer to the careers page on our website if you require any further information.
