Principal Structural Engineer

Arcadis is the world's leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets.

We are more than 36,000 people, in over 70 countries, dedicated to improving quality of life. Everyone has an important role to play. With the power of many curious minds, together we can solve the world’s most complex challenges and deliver more impact together.

Role description:

Arcadis delivers several structural services to (internal and external) clients, ranging from simple and straightforward structural calculations to complex advanced simulations of structural behavior. More complex structural services are taken care of by the team ‘High End Finite Element Analysis’ (HE-FEA). HE-FEA is not a team in the strict sense; the team members belong to different groups, business areas and countries.

The work can be characterized as ‘pioneering’: it requires to interpret codes and guidelines in new situations, often without precedent. It requires creative rethinking of available procedures, using advanced software with complex material models. Almost always there’s a need to explore hidden margins in structural safety, and therefore a critical and responsible attitude is key in delivering a reliable and safe result. 

Role accountabilities:

The work is carried out as teamwork, where all team members bring in their competences. Junior/Medior team members are supervised by a senior colleague; this serves a proper sharing of responsibility and optimizes the learning curve. Always 4 eyes should see a result or delivery, and preferably the second pair of eyes is already involved from the project start-up.

• Performing calculation, analysis and providing recommendations and conclusions; 


• Providing technical advice to project team members;


• Reviewing and ensuring compliance in the components of the project for which you have responsibility, including drawings, reports, specifications and studies;


• Building and maintaining effective relationships with partners on projects; 


• Liaising with the Line Manager to keep informed of all developments associated with the project;


• Maintaining a good understanding of the background of the Regional Arcadis business to facilitate building effective and enduring relationships and consolidating both company and personal credibility in the industry;


• Providing direction to the project team, leading by example to achieve goals and championing a quality, innovative, client-focused culture.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Relevant Structural engineering degree


• Analytical mindset and self-learning attitude


• Experienced in reinforced concrete structural calculations.


• Experienced and competent in finite element analysis and application


• Thorough understanding of concrete mechanics, including cracking and crushing, bond-slip and reinforcement behavior (yielding, rupture);


• Understanding of steel mechanics (yielding, fatigue);


• More general: understanding both brittle and ductile failure behavior;


• Basic understanding of dynamics (eigen modes and frequencies, damping);


• Thorough understanding of the finite element method, including mesh quality;


• Understanding of implicit numeric solvers (including the incremental iterative method) and explicit solvers.


• Symbolic mathematic skills (MathCad);


• Experience with applications like DIANA FEA or LS-DYNA.

Nice to have:

• Geotechnical knowledge can be considered a plus


• Experienced of designing special types of structural elements like bridge abutments and piles or concrete massifs (solid) elements like retaining walls, locks or dams


• Piled foundations design and special foundation experience


• Hydrotechnical Structural design experience may be considered an advantage


• Experience and interest in scripting and automation tools


• Good structural mechanics knowledge


• Competent in the use of routine engineering software and/or spreadsheets for foundation, retaining structures, special structures


• Work experience and Standards use knowledge in design of Wind turbines foundations


• Programming/scripting skills (python);


• Blast assessment of a concrete building knowledge


• Stress determination in fatigue-sensitive polymer railway base plate knowledge


• Nonlinear or complex linear reassessments of concrete bridges


• Engineering experience of movable bridges


• Ability to guide and check work for junior staff.

Why Arcadis?

We can only achieve our goals when everyone is empowered to be their best. We believe everyone's contribution matters. It’s why we are pioneering a skills-based approach, where you can harness your unique experience and expertise to carve your career path and maximize the impact we can make together.

You’ll do meaningful work, and no matter what role, you’ll be helping to deliver sustainable solutions for a more prosperous planet. Make your mark, on your career, your colleagues, your clients, your life and the world around you.

Together, we can create a lasting legacy.

Join Arcadis. Create a Legacy.

Our Commitment to Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging

We want you to be able to bring your best self to work every day, which is why we take equality and inclusion seriously and hold ourselves to account for our actions. Our ambition is to be an employer of choice and provide a great place to work for all our people.