M&E Technical Director

M&E Technical Director

If you have outgrown leading design on individual schemes and want the scope to shape how an entire business approaches technical delivery, this is that opportunity.

You are capable of more than reviewing drawings, attending coordination meetings, and stepping in when design risk starts to show itself on site. You want to influence strategy earlier, improve standards across multiple projects, and lead a design function in a way that strengthens delivery, commercial performance, and client confidence.

This is not a project-only design role. It is a senior leadership position with responsibility for how design is governed across the wider business. You will sit across bid stage, feasibility, consultant engagement, technical assurance, coordination, compliance, buildability, commissioning readiness, and handover support, helping ensure projects are properly set up before delivery teams are asked to carry the consequences.

While the role is rooted in M&E, the best people in this space understand that design does not sit in a vacuum. Services decisions affect programme, procurement, architecture, structure, specialist packages, commissioning, and handover. You will be leading through those interfaces, bringing technical clarity and commercial awareness to complex projects where coordination matters as much as engineering quality.

You will help shape how the business designs work, not just how it reviews it.

You will set the design tone.

Your focus will be split between leading design strategy on key projects and building a stronger, more consistent design function across the company. That means better briefs, clearer responsibilities, stronger consultant management, tighter technical assurance, and a more disciplined approach to risk, compliance, and delivery.

What you’ll do

Lead the design function across the business, setting standards for governance, technical assurance, coordination, compliance, and design deliverables from bid stage through to handover.

Support major bids and early-stage opportunities with design strategy, feasibility input, option appraisals, and technical leadership that helps the business win work on the right basis.

Shape how consultants and specialist designers are engaged, with clear scopes, deliverables, fees, responsibilities, and programme expectations.

Oversee design development across live projects, making sure outputs are coordinated, compliant, buildable, and aligned with cost, programme, procurement, and commissioning strategy.

Drive a proactive approach to design risk, identifying issues early, establishing mitigation plans, and making sure compliance pathways are understood rather than assumed.

Lead value engineering and buildability reviews in a way that improves project outcomes without eroding system performance or long-term asset quality.

Work closely with pre-construction, commercial, operational, commissioning, and delivery teams so that design decisions are made with the full project picture in mind.

Provide leadership to the design team, setting objectives, improving consistency, developing capability, and creating a stronger platform for growth across the function.

Act as a senior technical voice with clients, consultants, and internal stakeholders, bringing confidence and clarity on complex schemes.

What you’ll need

You have already operated in a senior design leadership role, whether as a Design Director, Head of Design, Technical Director, Head of Engineering, or a comparable position within a contractor, consultant, or developer environment.

You understand MEP design in technically demanding sectors such as commercial, healthcare, mission-critical, or other complex environments where programme, compliance, resilience, and coordination all carry serious weight.

You are comfortable leading through RIBA Stages 1 to 6 and understand how design decisions affect procurement, cost, buildability, commissioning, and handover.

You know the UK regulatory and technical landscape, including Building Regulations, CIBSE guidance, British Standards, HTMs where relevant, SFG20, and water hygiene requirements.

You are credible managing consultants, specialist partners, and internal delivery teams, with the judgement to challenge where necessary and the maturity to bring people with you.

You combine technical strength with commercial awareness. You understand that good design is not just compliant and coordinated. It also needs to support delivery, protect margin, reduce risk, and give the client confidence.

About the opportunity

This is a chance to take on a broader remit than a typical project-focused design role. The business needs someone who can improve how design is led across live work, future work, and the systems underneath both. You will have the scope to influence standards, shape teams, support growth, and leave a visible mark on how the company delivers technically complex projects.

Interested?

Send your CV in confidence and we’ll talk you through the business, the team structure, and the wider scope of the role in more detail.