Mechanical Engineering Lead, Pretoria

A Dynamic and Passionate Water Intelligence Concern is seeking a Sustainable Water Management Lead - A Senior Engineer who can take ownership of the full EPCM lifecycle across multi-site water engagements, from Inception through Close-out, on every ECSA work stage. This is a senior role for someone who wants to do real engineering work at scale, with an ambitious team.

You will lead the engineering team responsible for sustainable water management system design (SWMS), water audits, EPCM delivery, and the conversion of audit and feasibility findings into implementation-ready packages. You will be the senior technical authority on your engagements and the day-to-day leader for your direct reports.

Must have:
- Engineering qualification. BSc / BEng / B.Tech in Civil or Mechanical Engineering. For Mechanical candidates, demonstrable specialism in Wet Services and Fire Engineering is required. 
- Professional registration. Pr Eng (ECSA) or close to it - ideally already registered, or with a clear path to registration within the next 12–18 months. If currently Candidate, you must be able to articulate the timeline and what's outstanding.
- Experience. 10+ years post-qualification, with at least 5 years in a consultancy, EPCM, or wet-services design role that directly involved water-system design across one or more of: stormwater management, water reticulation, water reuse, water-treatment plant design, fire-water systems, blackwater treatment, groundwater abstraction and treatment, or irrigation.
- EPCM track record. Demonstrable lead-engineer role on at least three substantial multi-discipline EPCM engagements, taken through ECSA Stages 1–6 (or substantially through to Stage 5 / 6 - construction administration, inspection, and close-out).
- SWMS / water master plan experience. Lead-engineer experience on at least two Sustainable Water Management System or water master plan engagements - through design, BoQ, programme, and into construction-phase oversight.
- Cross-domain exposure. Demonstrable design or delivery experience across at least three of the five focus areas (Data, Water Resilience, Groundwater Abstraction & Treatment, Fire Water, Blackwater). 
- Design discipline. Strong drawing and BoQ skills (AutoCAD or Revit), and the engineering judgement to know when a hand calc is enough vs. when full modelling is required.
- Leadership. Has led at least one engineering team (small is fine) and can describe how you build technical capability in junior engineers.
- Driver's licence and own transport. Site work is part of the role.



Key responsibilities:
Design leadership across all five focus areas
- Lead the engineering design for SWMS, EPCM, and water-master-plan engagements - covering data and monitoring infrastructure, water resilience strategy, groundwater abstraction and treatment, fire-water systems, blackwater and wastewater treatment, and the full reticulation backbone that links them.
- Set design standards, review and sign off on drawings, BoQs, technical specifications, calculations and feasibility reports.
- Drive the Reduce / Secure / Supplement framework into every deliverable - fixture rationalisation, leak management, water reuse and harvesting, monitoring, alternative sources.
- Own the technical risk register for every engagement; escalate complex decisions early.
Client delivery
- Be the senior technical face across our portfolio of live SWMS, EPCM, and portfolio SLA engagements.
- Lead client meetings, design reviews, technical workshops and value-engineering sessions.
- Convert audit and feasibility outcomes into implementation-ready EPCM packages, in coordination with implementation partner.
- Build long-term portfolio relationships - most of clients are on a 5-year+ engagement horizon, mapped against the five focus areas above.
Team leadership
- Lead the engineering team day-to-day: assign work, review output, develop technical and consulting skills in your direct reports.
- Mentor ECSA Candidate engineers on the team toward Pr Eng / Pr Tech Eng registration.
- Run the weekly team operating cadence and contribute to the cross-team operating cadence with our monitoring and portfolio-account-management pod.
Productisation & methodology
- Codify your engineering work into reusable playbooks, templates and design tools - moving company from artisanal project work to repeatable productised offerings across each of the five focus areas.
- Contribute to the 3-way JV digital water intelligence platform requirements, particularly the audit, SWMS, monitoring and SLA modules.
- Help build the company engineering knowledge base, design standards and quality system.