- Principal Design Engineer: Design Integration
- Western Sydney, NSW - Full time
- Permanent (with performance incentives)

About the role We're partnering with a major NSW infrastructure and utilities organisation to fill a newly created role at the centre of their Design Engineering function, a team of around 50 engineers spanning front end design, powerlines (overhead and underground), civil and structural, electrical substations, earthing, enablement and digital innovation.

This isn't a conventional design role. You won't be doing the hands on design work yourself; you'll be the person who gets design engineers talking to each other, holds them accountable to timelines, and challenges the way things have always been done. Think less "senior engineer" and more design engineering business partner: someone who can walk into a room of experienced, siloed engineers and ask "why are we doing it this way?" and have the credibility and curiosity to actually get an answer.

They're growing fast. This is one of the most active regions in NSW for new substations, brownfield upgrades, transmission and sub transmission infrastructure, and digital substation projects. At the same time, a significant portion of large scale infrastructure delivery is coming back in house, a genuine step change in how design work is governed, standardised and delivered. They need someone who can build that capability from the inside.

What you'll be doing

- Acting as the connective tissue between design disciplines: civil, structural, electrical, substations, powerlines,



getting engineers who typically work in silos to collaborate, share timelines and hold each other accountable
- Leading a gap analysis in your first six months: where the business is today, where the industry is heading, and what that means for standards, tools and ways of working
- Challenging existing design processes and legacy ways of working, freeing engineers up to focus on genuinely high value work
- Supporting the uplift of technical standards, governance and procedures required to bring large scale infrastructure delivery in house
- Mentoring and developing engineers at all levels, including creating space for junior engineers to spend part of their week on innovation and process improvement
- Benchmarking against how other leading infrastructure organisations design, govern and deliver, and bringing that thinking back into the team
- Building genuine, lasting improvements to how the team works: this is a role with scope to leave a legacy, not just deliver a project

What they're looking for

- Background in large scale infrastructure: electricity, water, rail, resources or similar asset intensive sectors; substation experience highly valued
- A civil,



structural or electrical engineering qualification (or equivalent); versatile on discipline, provided the large infrastructure experience is there
- A track record of improving processes, breaking down silos or building governance frameworks, not just delivering to spec
- Strong stakeholder management skills, and the confidence to hold experienced engineers accountable without formal authority over them
- A commercially minded approach; consultancy backgrounds are well suited, understanding the value of time and outcomes, not just activity
- Genuine curiosity; comfortable asking questions, speaking to people across the business, and building a case for change based on evidence rather than assumption

Why this role stands out

- A rare opportunity to shape how an entire engineering function operates, not just deliver individual projects
- Real executive visibility and backing to challenge legacy ways of working
- A growing pipeline of substations, digital engineering uplift and major infrastructure work
- The chance to build something that outlasts you: genuine legacy building, not another initiative that fades after 12 months
- A collaborative, curious team culture actively working to cut out the mundane and focus people on the interesting stuff

This role would suit someone who's challenged the status quo before and can point to real evidence of making things better as a result, whatever their job title says. We are super excited to hear from you, learn more about you and tell you more about us. So hit APPLY now and let's catch up.

📌 Principal Design Engineer: Design Integration (Southern Sydney)
🏢 Interface Agency Australia
📍 Southern Sydney