Senior Solid Waste Management Engineer

SUMMARY:
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POSITION INFO:

Senior Solid Waste Management Engineer – Cape Town 

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Solid Waste Management Engineer with strong expertise in solid waste management, landfill barrier systems, geotechnical design, and sustainable civil infrastructure. In this role, you will drive technical excellence, ensure regulatory compliance, and deliver high quality designs for landfill facilities, leachate and gas management systems, capping solutions, and waste infrastructure across Southern Africa and beyond.
If you’re ready for a senior leadership position where your technical insight shapes major projects—and you thrive in a specialist, supportive environment—we’d like to hear from you.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Serve as principal technical deputy, overseeing project delivery, mentoring staff, and supporting decision?making.
• Lead design of landfill barrier systems, capping, leachate and landfill gas management, and environmental controls.
• Design waste management infrastructure (RTSs, MRFs, gas management systems).
• Ensure compliance with South African regulations and international best practice.
• Support project planning, feasibility studies, risk assessments, and technical reviews.
• Contribute to resource allocation, team development, and innovation.
• Collaborate with the Technical Director on strategy, proposals, and client relationships.
• Mentor junior and mid?level engineers.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Civil Engineering.
• Registered with ECSA (Pr Eng or Pr Tech Eng).

Experience:

• 8+ years’ experience in solid waste engineering, especially landfill and barrier system design.
• Proven experience leading technical teams or complex projects.
• Strong understanding of South African environmental legislation and permitting.

Skills:

• Advanced landfill and geosynthetics design
• Waste infrastructure design (RTSs, MRFs, gas systems)
• Geotechnical analysis and modelling
• Regulatory and compliance interpretation
• Project and resource management
• Technical review and risk assessment
• Proposal development and client engagement
• Digital design tools (Civil 3D, RocScience Suite, MS Project)

Competencies:

• Technical leadership and decision making
• Strong problem solving and analytical thinking
• Effective communication with clients, teams, and regulators
• Collaboration within a multidisciplinary environment
• Innovation and continuous improvement mindset
• Ability to mentor and develop engineering staff
• Professional integrity and accountability
• Adaptability in a hybrid matrix team structure