Associate Technical Director / Technical Director – Forensic Fire Engineering

Rather than designing the next building, you could be investigating what went wrong with an existing one.

A highly respected international consultancy specialising in forensic engineering, risk advisory, dispute resolution and expert witness services is looking for an experienced fire engineer to join its Forensic Technical Services team at Associate Technical Director or Technical Director level. The role can be based anywhere in the UK or Ireland.

£80,000 to £120,000 DOE + car allowance + bonus + benefits

What forensic fire engineering involves

Forensic fire engineering applies fire engineering expertise to buildings that already exist: investigating fire safety deficiencies, building defects, technical failures and construction disputes, and giving independent, evidence based opinions on what went wrong and why. It is a different discipline from fire origin and cause investigation. The focus here is fire engineering design, building safety, construction defects and disputes.

Depending on the instruction, forensic fire engineering work can include:

• Investigating fire engineering design failures and deficiencies
• Assessing whether fire strategies met the relevant regulatory and performance requirements, and whether they were correctly implemented
• Investigating compartmentation defects, and passive fire protection such as fire stopping, fire doors and structural fire protection
• Investigating external wall and façade fire safety defects
• Assessing active systems, including detection and alarm, sprinklers and smoke control
• Investigating compliance issues and departures from approved designs, including installation deficiencies and workmanship
• Fire safety issues on complex and higher risk buildings
• Assessing design responsibility and professional standards in construction disputes
• Independent technical reviews of drawings, specifications, calculations, fire strategies and project records
• Preparing technical investigation reports and evidence for disputes, litigation, arbitration and insurance claims

These are examples of the field, not a fixed list of this team’s commissions.

Why your design experience transfers

If you’ve developed or reviewed fire strategies, you already know how to judge whether a strategy was appropriate, correctly implemented and compliant. If you’ve assessed compartmentation or external wall designs, you can investigate alleged defects, failures and departures from specification. If you’ve advised on compliance and approvals, you can assess disputed technical decisions and explain your findings clearly in an independent report. You wouldn’t be starting again. You’d be applying the expertise you’ve built in a different and demanding context.

Seniority and expert witness development

At Associate Technical Director or Technical Director level, this is about technical leadership: leading complex investigations, exercising independent engineering judgement, critically reviewing evidence, producing or overseeing detailed reports, and explaining contentious technical conclusions clearly to clients and legal professionals, including on multidisciplinary matters.

Forensic work also builds the skills needed to give independent expert opinions. Early on that often means preparing technical analysis and reports that support an appointed expert; over time it can lead to formal expert witness appointments in your own right. An expert’s duty is to give an impartial opinion to the court or tribunal, not to argue the case for whoever instructs them, so technical judgement, objectivity and clear writing matter as much as engineering knowledge.

What they’re looking for

An experienced, technically credible fire engineer with strong analytical skills and excellent written communication, who wants to develop into independent forensic investigation and expert witness work. Relevant backgrounds include some of the following (not all are required):

• Fire engineering design consultancy, fire strategy development and technical reviews
• Performance based fire engineering and fire engineering assessments of complex buildings
• Building Regulations and fire safety compliance, for example Approved Document B, BS 9999, BS 9991 and the BS 7974 framework in the UK, or Part B and Technical Guidance Document B in Ireland
• External wall and façade fire safety, including work on higher risk buildings under the Building Safety Act regime
• Passive and active fire protection systems, smoke control and evacuation strategies
• Fire engineering calculations and analytical assessments
• Technical audits, peer reviews and design assurance
• Investigating construction defects or disputed technical decisions
• Writing detailed technical reports

Chartered status, or equivalent professional standing, would be an advantage. Previous forensic or expert witness experience is not necessarily required. Different job titles are welcome if the technical depth is there.

How to apply

Please submit your CV and a JustEng consultant will be in touch for a confidential conversation.