Earning potential
Your earning potential on this drainage engineer role
Typical: 2–4 per day
Typical client spend: £250–£500
Up to 50% of every job value
Per job
£113
Per day
£338
Per week (5 days)
£1,688
Per year (~232 days)
£78,300
Estimated earning potential based on typical UK job volumes and fee levels — not a guarantee. Actual earnings depend on work flow, ticket size, and hours worked.
About the role
Drainage Engineer — Greater Manchester. Self-employed profit-share role, not a wage. You keep 30% of every job KJ Drainage routes to you. We handle the customer call, triage the problem and dispatch you to priced work — no cold calling, no aggressive up-sell script. You'll be sent to blocked domestic drains and sewers, high-pressure jetting, CCTV surveys and reports for pre-purchase / insurance jobs, patch repairs, no-dig lining assistance, gully and manhole clearance, and root-ingress work. Some jobs are one-hour clears; others are half-day CCTV + report jobs; occasional 1–2 day patch/lining installs. Typical day is 3–5 call-outs within 30 minutes of your base, dispatched via the KJ portal with the customer symptoms, address and access confirmed. Tickets range from around £140 for a straight clear up to £2,500+ for a CCTV survey + patch repair. Suits a drainage engineer with van-mounted or trailer jetter, CCTV kit and PPE. Not for a first-time-in-drainage plumber — this is a specialist pipeline.
Responsibilities
- Clear domestic and light commercial blockages by rod, jet or electro-mechanical
- Operate a van-mounted or trailer high-pressure jetter safely
- Run CCTV surveys and produce written reports with defect coding
- Complete patch repairs and assist on no-dig lining installs
- Clear gullies, manholes and rodding eyes
- Diagnose root ingress and recommend the right remediation to KJ
- Photo and video document each job in the KJ portal
- Cover the optional 24/7 emergency rota for the higher ticket work
Requirements
- Experience operating a high-pressure jetter (van-mounted or trailer)
- CCTV drain survey competence with defect coding
- Own van and full drainage PPE (waterproofs, gauntlets, eye/ear protection)
- Full UK driving licence, trailer entitlement a plus
- Public liability insurance to £5m
- Smartphone for the KJ portal
How working with KJ actually works
From apply to first paid job — four honest steps
- 1
Apply in 60 secs
One tap on this page. No CV wall, no cover letter. Just your name, trade and coverage area.
- 2
Sign your KJ contract
Plain-English self-employed profit-share agreement — 25–50% of job value depending on the role. E-signed. No tie-in, no exclusivity trap.
- 3
Log in to the KJ Portal
See the jobs allocated to you: address, scope, customer notes, agreed price. Accept the ones you want, decline the ones you don't.
- 4
Do the work, get paid your share
Complete the job, mark it done in the portal. KJ invoices the customer. Your share lands on the regular payment cycle — no chasing, no unpaid quotes.
The KJ Portal is rolling out through 2026 — until then, early hires are onboarded and dispatched directly by the KJ ops team. Same profit-share, same transparency.
Why KJ, not a company job
A plumber does 3–4 jobs a day; a surveyor 2–4; a solicitor a handful of matters. The client pays hundreds — often thousands. You take home a fraction. The company keeps the rest.