Location
London

Hours
Full Time

Salary
Negotiable

About the Role
Arcadis is the world's leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets. With over 34,000 people across more than 30 countries, we are dedicated to improving quality of life by solving complex challenges together.

The Principal Fire Engineer will undertake Fire Safety Engineering work, supporting design projects both within and outside the UK. This role primarily involves consultancy-based desktop reviews during the initial design stages and supporting the fire safety discipline within Arcadis. While the focus is predominantly on the building sector, there will be opportunities to support other sectors such as rail projects, reflecting Arcadis' multidisciplinary nature and broad service offering.

Key responsibilities include fire engineering design across various sectors, supporting project delivery within time and cost budgets, and collaborating with clients, architects, project managers, contractors, subcontractors, and authorities to provide practical and compliant fire engineering advice and solutions. The role involves developing Fire Safety Strategy reports for new and existing buildings, conducting Means of Escape analysis including evacuation time calculations and escape route assessments, and maintaining up-to-date knowledge of UK Fire Safety Regulations and Standards such as Approved Document B, BS 9999, BS 7974, BS 9991, BB100, and HTM 05.

The role also requires understanding fire safety legislation and standards relevant to rail projects, including London Underground and Network Rail standards, and applying risk-based interpretations of these documents alongside international codes such as NFPA standards. Additional duties include third-party review and design verification, attending internal and external design team meetings, supporting Fire Risk Assessment report development, leading fire projects and teams, assisting in bidding and fee proposal development, and mentoring junior staff and graduates.

This position offers clear progression and career development opportunities towards senior leadership and director roles within Arcadis.

Experience
Recent demonstrable experience working in a range of sectors within a technical fire safety engineering environment. Proven application of fire safety engineering skills in a client-focused setting. Experience writing reports and presentations, and managing client and internal communications. Experience working in medium to large multidisciplinary environments. Confidence in building strong relationships with clients and internal stakeholders. Membership or working towards membership of relevant professional institutions such as IFE, CABE, RICS, IET, CIOB. Chartered Engineer (CEng) status or working towards it.

About you
Robust problem-solving skills with accountability for assigned work. Ability to collaborate effectively across teams and with external clients. Motivated to mentor and develop junior staff. Adaptable to working across different sectors and projects. Committed to continuous professional development and career progression.

Qualifications
Essential professional membership or progress towards membership (e.g., IFE, CABE, RICS, IET, CIOB). Chartered Engineer (CEng) or working towards chartership.

Desirable Skills
- Hazard Identification
- Understanding of As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) principles
- Knowledge of PAS 9980, EWS1 forms, and Façade Engineering
- Familiarity with the Building Safety Act 2022
- Fire Risk Assessment principles
- Understanding of fire dynamics, heat transfer, and smoke behaviour, especially in underground and tunnel environments
- Basic knowledge of Active Fire Protection (AFP) and Passive Fire Protection (PFP) systems
- Experience with fire modelling simulation tools such as CFAST, FDS, Pyrosim, or SMARTFIRE