Overview
Stellen is hiring a Senior Civil Engineer to help our team of talented and passionate engineers solve important problems. This includes everything from flood modelling, to road design, to water supply schemes in the remote Solomon Islands. We have a range of interesting projects across Australia in land development (both green and brownfields), healthcare, education and infrastructure.
We’re looking for an experienced engineer who’s done similar technical work. But nobody (even in a senior role) hits the ground running. You won’t be able to answer every question immediately or know how all the systems work on day one — and we don’t expect you to.
This is a remote position, however we\'re only considering candidates who live in Australia or New Zealand (or with extensive experience in these places). We need someone deeply familiar with the Australian technical and regulatory environment. And you’ll need to visit customers and sites from time to time.
The role is set up as a flexible 5-hour work day to accommodate real life. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds to apply for a job where they can do the best work of their career.
This position reports to our Operations Manager.
About the job
We purposely set out to help clients with difficult technical problems. They often need solving them in some novel way, and often where others have unsuccessfully tried conventional approaches. This usually requires some high level of innovation in approach, less frequently in technique.
Innovation not invention. That is, we look for ways to assemble proven engineering techniques in a way the suits the goals of our clients.
We have a dedicated team of talented young engineers, eager to learn and develop themselves. This role will be to act as a technical river guide. Not dictating process, but teaching and helping others develop themselves. An key part of this role is leading our customers and managing their expectations.
Though acute rescue situations do come and go, this role isn\'t about micro-managing and technical hand-holding. Not in the long-term. It\'s about setting up processes and thinking patterns to allow people to solve their own problems. Knowing when to jump in, but also when to let people learn.
Projects you might work on
- Obtaining approval and developing a design for a 300-lot residential subdivision with drainage problems and flood affectation.
- Designing the hydraulics, earthworks and drainage for Australia\'s most remote and advanced aged care facility, 300km west of Uluru.
- Setting a strategy for a 2000-apartment development in an overland flow path in Sydney. Know where the technical and approval risks lie. Understand which parts of a DCP can be pushed and which cannot. Concentrate the technical work of our engineers on the vital aspects.
- Designing a water management system for a mine in remote Papua New Guinea. Know how the project and documentation comes together. Know which discipline/consultant interfaces are the most important and tackle them early. Prompt our engineers to ask the right questions of the client and obtain important inputs early. Know what level of documentation is appropriate.
- Helping a junior engineer understand why an on-site detention system is counterproductive to its very purpose in a certain situation. Guiding them to build a catchment model at just the right level of detail to show a case.
- Guiding a junior engineer on a road geometry and pavement design for an expanding school. Helping them offer the client and landscape architect realistic options for concepts.
- Optioneering civil earthworks for a First Nations remote primary school. Understanding what is available in remote locations. Helping our engineers think through product life cycle, especially operations and maintenance.
That\’s a diverse set of responsibilities. You may not be an expert in all of them, and that\’s fine. A solid fundamental approach to analysis (and being able to tap other experienced colleagues) will pave the way.
About you
You\’re creative. You\’re organised. You\’re experienced. You\’ve done this before. You want to do it again. You absolutely want to do it for us.
We value people who can take a stand yet commit even when they disagree. We\’ll often subject ideas to rigorous debate (especially with our customers and regulators), so you\’ll need to stand up for what you believe, but we remember that we\’re here for the same purpose: to do good work together.
We are a small, growing business which means light structure and process. Yes, you\’ll need to learn how we work at Stellen, but we\’re also looking for someone to teach us how to work. You\'ll enjoy autonomy to create new systems where required, and also throw them away when they are past their use-by date, starting again.
You have deep experience in design and leading designers in engineering consulting firms. If you worked in a large firm, you\'ll be refreshed by our light-touch process. You get to do a lot of engineering.
You should be comfortable working remotely. This means that the bulk of our work is written, whether that be in the form of long reports or short chats. We value good writers.
How to apply
Please send an application tailored to this position that speaks to us. Introduce yourself as a colleague. As we said, we value great writers, so please take your time with the application. Forget that generic resume. There\’s no prize for being the first to submit.
We’d like to hear how you\’d approach some of the example projects outlined in the description about the job. Imagine you\’re doing the work and walk us through your thinking.
All that being said, don\’t send in a copy of War & Peace. Be kind to the people doing application triage and keep your cover letter to fewer than 800 words.
Email your application to
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📌 Senior Civil Engineer - 5 hour work day flexible
🏢 Stellen Consulting
📍 Cairns