Senior Designer

Our Developer Services team plays a vital role in enabling growth across the region, ensuring new customers can access life’s essential services for generations to come. From supporting preplanning applications to delivering new connections, the team manages everything from new infrastructure to diversions, abandonments and the adoption or building over of existing sewers. 

What you’ll be doing as a Senior Designer 
Within Mains Design, we create over 100,000km of new mains each year, supporting customers from households to major developers, SLPs and NAVs. As a Temporary Senior Design Estimator, you’ll manage a varied project portfolio, providing technical expertise throughout the lifecycle and delivering safe, cost-effective designs and quotations that balance customer needs with longterm asset performance and compliance. You’ll also play a key role in guiding customers from initial enquiry to quote acceptance, payment and connection, supported by clear communication, proactive updates and strong stakeholder engagement. 

• Prepare accurate designs and quotations for water mains, diversions, abandonments and new connections. 
• Prepare and issue work packages to Project Managers and field teams, ensuring smooth progression into delivery while ensuring asset protection, adherence to CDM requirements, and compliance with Health & Safety legislation. 
• Deliver first-class customer service by acting as a trusted point of contact, responding promptly and professionally to queries, providing proactive project updates, and ensuring the best technical solutions are identified, while maintaining focus on statutory timeframes, SLAs, escalations and complaints to support a smooth end-to-end customer journey. 
• Support colleagues and design teams with technical guidance and problem-solving. 
• Manage workload to meet WaterUK and DMeX requirements, contributing to overall team performance targets 

This is a Hybrid role based in the Clearwater Court office in Reading. 
What you should bring to the role 

• Proven experience in the water industry with a strong record of delivering high-quality technical outputs. 
• Strong technical capability, including proficiency in CAD software (e.g., AutoCAD). 
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage high volumes of work in a fast-paced environment. 
• Strong analytical and PC skills, including confidence with MS Office and technical documentation. 
• A collaborative mindset paired with the ability to work independently. 
• Good understanding of Health & Safety requirements and a customer-focused approach to solution delivery. 

What’s in it for you? 

• Hourly Pay rate: £18.00 - £20.00 per hour depending on skills and experience 
• Location: Hybrid - Reading 
• Length of assignment: 26 weeks
• Required Start date: ASAP
• Hours: 36 hours per week

Please note you will be on assignment at Thames Water via Pertemps

Who are we?
At Thames Water, our purpose is crystal clear - to deliver life’s essential service so our customers, communities and planet can thrive.
 
Water is life’s great leveller. Every living thing needs it, every single day. From people to plants, birds to bees, farms to factories, we all need it to thrive, and we’re committed to taking care of it for us all.
 
But keeping water flowing is becoming harder. From scorching summers to wetter winters, extreme weather affects everything from our pipes to our local rivers. We need to keep millions more kettles boiling, public services operating, washing machines spinning, showers running and more, so every drop is more precious than ever. Are you ready to play your part?

Working at Thames Water
At Thames Water we recognise that people are at the heart of our business. To help us succeed in providing life's essential service, we need a range of skills and capabilities, representative of society throughout our business.

We seek to attract and retain a cultural mix of people who can offer different but complementary attitudes, values, talents, and knowledge. We understand the importance of appreciating and harnessing the unique skills, experiences, background, and differences that each individual brings.

Our over-aching diversity and inclusion aim is to ensure Thames Water is a diverse and inclusive great place to work. We encourage applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process

Find out more about working at Thames Water.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business, meet colleagues and earn some extra money along the way.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.