Senior Engineer; Restoration

Posted Wednesday 25 February 2026 at 01:00 | Expires Tuesday 17 March 2026 at 00:59

About the Trust

We're one of the UK’s biggest charities and we care for 2,000 miles of canals, rivers, docks and reservoirs because we believe life is better by water. We're looking for people who support our cause and want to make a difference for future generations. Could this be you?

Along with our waterways we also manage museums, archives and the country's third largest collection of historic buildings, as well as the nature and wildlife that calls our canals home. All of this enables us to provide wellbeing opportunities for millions of people each year.

Contract: Initial 12-month fixed term or secondment contract

Join Our Team:
Senior Engineer (restoration) opportunity

Navigate your future and lock in your career as we keep our canals open and alive.

The Trust owns and manages 2000 miles of waterway, and the vast majority of this is open to navigation and used and enjoyed by many thousands of people on boats every day. A small part of the network is not currently open to navigation, and these sections are generally classed as unrestored. The financial position of the Trust is such that it cannot restore these sections back to a full navigable standard, although their towpaths remain open to walkers and the canals in general provide a habitat for wildlife.

Most unrestored sections of canal have a restoration society associated with them and these societies aspire to restore their section of canal back to a full navigable standard. These societies generally comprise a good number of volunteers, who between them have much knowledge and experience in a wide variety of roles, from engineering to fundraising and ecology to construction. From time to time, they approach the Trust with their restoration plans and in partnership, over the past few decades, several sections of canal have been restored back to a full navigable standard.

This role follows 37 hours, Monday to Friday working pattern. The vacancy will be offered on a remote working basis, with a requirement to attend our main hub spaces as and when required.

Works vary in terms of their scale and scope and some can be quite significant civil engineering projects which require a significant amount of time for the Trust. The challenge of maintaining our already open network means that we do not have the spare resource to provide this support from our existing team and are proposing an alternative way of working.

Going forward restoration societies wanting to deliver restoration on Trust property, which is often undertaken using volunteers, will need to cover the cost of our time. Most of the support required by restoration groups will require an engineer, with their associated costs being recoverable; this is the role that we are now recruiting for.

• Carry out the role of Client under CDM regulations.
• Assess the resources needed to deliver the tasks the Trust needs to deliver.
• Assess the appointment of designers, contractors and other specialists as needed.
• Issue design standards, pre-design information and environmental constraints.
• Advise on design development and construction plans.
• Review Construction Phase Plans.
• Hand over the site, carry out site audits and accept the sites back.

About You

The Senior Engineer (Restoration), in addition to the technical parts of the role described above, will need to be a great communicator and able to establish and maintain relationships with both external parties to help them fulfil their visions, guiding them to deliver achievable plans, and also internal teams to gather support all whilst protecting the interests of the Trust and promoting our position.

This is a full-time role however if the works associated with restoration dwindles then there will be a need to support wider engineering colleagues at the Trust delivering other projects.

Technical Skills

• Chartered Engineer (ICE/MICE) with a degree in Civil Engineering and evidence of ongoing professional development.
• Extensive experience in civil engineering design and construction, ideally within the water environment, including…