Graduate Stakeholder Engagement Advisor

Job Description
Location
We are looking for candidates who are willing to locate to a variety of locations based in Peterborough and surrounding area, where they can develop and extend their skills and capabilities in this exciting discipline. This would be for September 2026 intake.

Project Overview
The Anglian Water Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA) project currently involves the planning, design and construction of circa 320km of new strategic, large diameter, clean water interconnector pipelines and associated infrastructure across Anglian Water's region. The SPA Alliance is also taking on responsibility for the future interconnector pipelines, a further 260km of strategic interconnector pipelines and associated infrastructure.

At Costain, we help to improve people's lives by creating connected, sustainable infrastructure that enables people and the planet to thrive. We work together to shape, create, and deliver pioneering solutions that transform the performance of the UK's infrastructure ecosystem across energy, water, transportation and defence markets. Through our collaboration with customers, partners, communities, and wider industry we will deliver an infrastructure fit for a better future.

Full UK Driving Licence Is Essential
Please note that some roles may be within the Nuclear & Defence sector and candidates will need to obtain Security Clearance and have been resident in the UK for the last 5 years

Costain's Graduate Development Programme
The programme will focus on helping you to grow your personal and leadership skills, alongside business and of course, the technical skills you will learn day-to-day on the job, the programme will provide you with specific technical training for your specialised discipline.

The programme is delivered in a variety of formats throughout the 2 years and will allow you to establish a network of contacts that will help and support you through your first 2 years and beyond. We expect some of our graduates to rotate after a period of 8-12 months, to another project/sector of the business to fully understand the depth and breadth of the services offered by the company.

Our line managers are fully supportive of the Graduate Development Programme and will be involved in helping you along the way.

In addition to the programme, we offer mentoring and support in every area of work, as well as a structured training programme to enable graduates to work towards achieving Chartership.

Graduates may have the opportunity to work on a number of exciting and progressive projects around the UK during the 2-year period, in sectors including nuclear, highways, rail, water, airports and tunnels.

Responsibilities

• Support engagement with project stakeholders across local authorities, statutory and non-statutory bodies, communities, and other parties.
• Assist in developing and delivering project-specific stakeholder engagement activities.
• Help identify and map stakeholders, categorising them by influence, interest, and impact.
• Support the use of stakeholder management tools (e.g., CRM, GIS mapping) for engagement tracking.
• Assist with consultation activities such as workshops, exhibitions, virtual events, and site visits.
• Help prepare reports documenting stakeholder feedback.
• Monitor stakeholder sentiment and flag potential issues.
• Collaborate with technical leads to help resolve stakeholder issues.
• Support a range of engagement methods, including community meetings and digital engagement.
• Help build relationships with local communities, businesses, and public sector partners.
• Track and report on community involvement initiatives.
• Assist with education and outreach activities, including supporting STEM initiatives.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement in Health & Safety (H&S), ensuring consistent H&S standards are maintained.
• Ensure completion of a full Induction to H&S in accordance with Company policies, procedures, standards &/or guidance.
• Ensure adherence to safe working practices including completing audits in line with schedule.
• Monitor and maintain compliance with the Working Time Directive.
• Ensure you are compliant with the use of mandatory safety monitoring equipment, near miss reporting and compliance with the company procedures.
• Maintain H&S standards to enable a zero-accident culture.
• Actively work with your team, line manager and the H&S Team to improve upon H&S procedures where possible.
• Report all near misses through the appropriate channel to prevent future accidents.

Knowledge, Skills, And Experience

• Experience (including placements/internships) in stakeholder or community engagement and/ or working on a major infrastructure project.
• Understanding of engagement and consultation best practice
• Ability to communicate technical information to non-technical and external audiences
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work collaboratively with internal teams and external partners
• Strong organisational skill and attention to detail

Qualifications

• Degree in relevant subject (e.g. communications, geography, environment, social sciences)
• Full UK driving licence
• Please note that if you are invited to interview, we will require you to produce your passport and/or right to work documentation.

As some of our project sites are based in remote locations, it is worth noting that you will be required to have the ability to travel to site.