Design Manager - East

About the role

Shape safer, better highways for East Sussex.

We’re hiring a confident, collaborative Design Manager to lead delivery of capital design work across our East Sussex Highways contract—partnering with project teams, designers and key suppliers to drive right‑first‑time outcomes on programme and budget.

• Drive the delivery of the design programme, coordinating multi-disciplinary teams to meet milestones and KPIs.
• Ensure compliance with Construction Design & Management Regulations 2015 and embed safety‑by‑design principles.
• Review designs to confirm they meet current standards, client requirements and are fit for purpose.
• Assess fee proposals from subcontracted design teams for accuracy and sufficiency.
• Monitor financial performance to achieve profit and margin targets.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, suppliers and stakeholders, resolving issues promptly.
• Promote a right‑first‑time approach throughout planning and delivery.
• Ensure adherence to relevant design and environmental legislation, conventions and best practice.
• Confirm designs have been risk assessed for buildability and align with standard designs.

• Extensive experience in design management, ideally within highways and civil engineering.
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to motivate and manage teams effectively.
• Excellent communication and writing skills, confident in presenting to senior stakeholders.
• Commercial awareness and experience in supplier negotiation.
• Strong organisational skills and ability to prioritise workload independently.
• Proficiency in MS Word and Excel.
• Full UK driving licence.

Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK’s most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities.

As if contributing to and supporting work that makes life better for millions wasn’t rewarding enough, we offer a full range of benefits too. You’ll have the freedom to shape the package that’s right for you and your life. Here are some of our key benefits:

• Smart working, giving you more flexibility such as staggered start and finish times, with up to 40% remote working, where roles allow.
• 25 days paid annual leave (pro rata)
• Family friendly policies which include 28 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave and four weeks full pay for paternity/partners leave
• Pension, share incentive plan, volunteering leave, recognition schemes and much more…

Balfour Beatty Living Places works in long‑term partnerships with local authorities to create great places to live, work and play. We actively engage with local people to understand the needs of the communities we work in and shape the places where local economies can thrive and grow. As a leader in sustainable working, diversity, and social value, we use our expertise to bring real, positive change for our customers.

At Balfour Beatty we believe that diversity and inclusion are essential components of any successful, happy workplace. Through our Value Everyone Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan, we are growing our diverse workforce and developing our inclusive culture where everyone is able to thrive and reach their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. To find out how we are making this a reality, visit

To help and support us with our desired commitment to create an inclusive culture we are members of WISE, ENEI, Business Disability Forum and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE). In 2020, we signed the Audeliss and Involve Open Letter to demonstrate our commitment to taking key long‑term and sustainable actions on Black Inclusion. Balfour Beatty is also a Gold Award holder in the Ministry of Defence 'Employer Recognition Scheme' and actively encourages applications from Armed Forces personnel, veterans and reservists.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to working with people who have disabilities and long‑term health conditions to remove barriers for them in obtaining employment. We are also committed to offering applicants with a disability an interview if they meet the minimum requirements for the role. For more info, visit: https://disabil

We are looking to continually improve our resourcing process and ensure that it is fair and inclusive for all. If you have any feedback on the process, please share this with us at: candidate recruit