Head of Water Networks North

Are you a strategic and inspiring operational leader who is passionate about delivering exceptional services for customers, communities and the environment?

As our Head of Water Networks North, you will lead and shape water network operations across the North East, with accountability for delivering safe, resilient and efficient services for our customers. This is a significant leadership opportunity to influence the future of our water networks as we transform our operations and deliver the ambitions of AMP8 and beyond.

You will lead the performance and continued transformation of our Water Networks function, delivering stretching operational, customer and regulatory commitments while ensuring our operating model, capabilities, partnerships and infrastructure are fit for the future.

You will take ownership of key performance commitments, including leakage, interruptions to supply and network water quality, alongside Water Networks’ contribution to demand management. You will also oversee the performance and resilience of our strategic and distribution network assets, including reservoirs, trunk mains and other critical infrastructure.

Working across Water, Asset Investment, Service Planning, Water Quality, Commercial and other functions, you will bring together operational delivery, investment and long-term planning to deliver sustainable outcomes for customers, the environment and the business.

You will champion data-led decision-making, using analytics, smart technologies and network intelligence to improve performance, efficiency and customer experience, while continuing to evolve our operating model and drive transformation, innovation and continuous improvement.

As a visible and inclusive leader, you will lead through a team of senior leaders, creating a high-performance culture where people are empowered to succeed. You will also build strong relationships with contractors, delivery partners, regulators and industry stakeholders to drive performance, innovation and value.

We’re looking for an experienced and inspiring senior leader with a proven track record of delivering results through people, partnerships and transformation within a complex operational, infrastructure, regulated or asset-intensive environment.

You will have experience of leading large, geographically dispersed, multi-functional teams, delivering sustained performance and organisational change through senior leaders and their teams. You will be able to provide clarity and direction, translate ambitious goals into practical delivery and bring people together behind a common purpose.

You will have a track record of delivering significant performance improvement while balancing operational delivery, customer outcomes, resilience, investment and risk. Experience of leading complex operational incidents, business continuity or emergency response arrangements would also be valuable.

Alongside strong commercial and financial judgement, you will have experience of managing significant budgets, prioritising investment and identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and performance. You will be a collaborative and influential leader, comfortable operating across organisational boundaries and building trusted relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.

Previous water industry experience would be beneficial, but it is not essential. We are particularly interested in the leadership capability and transferable experience you can bring from other complex operational, regulated or critical infrastructure environments. Experience of asset management, operational resilience, regulatory environments, data-led performance management, digital technologies and continuous improvement would be advantageous.

We’re a Great Place to Work because of the amazing people who work for us, and to say thank you we offer a range of benefits to colleagues. Our ‘Tap Into’ benefits include:

• Generous holiday entitlement starting 28 days increasing to 32 after 6years service, plus bank holidays and additional time off on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. There’s also the option to buy or sell holidays.
• Company pension scheme, where we’ll double match your contributions up to an employer contribution of 10%.
• Free access to local attractions.
• A fantastic discount scheme, with savings on days out, shopping, travel and more.
• Award winning ‘Living Well’ wellbeing support, including access to a digital GP service for you and your family members.
• Support with sustainable travel - through salary sacrifice cars and a cycle to work scheme.
• Financial wellbeing support - access our community savings scheme, financial education and low cost loans through Salary Finance. We also provide 4 x Life Assurance and an Income Protection Scheme.
• Support with your development - we offer a range of development opportunities, can support you through an interest free qualification loan and we’ll even pay for any relevant professional body subscription.

This role has also been defined as a safety or security critical role and as a condition of a formal offer of employment you’ll be required to undergo a drug and alcohol test.

Prospective employees and agency workers in defined safety and security critical roles will be required to undertake a drug and alcohol test after the job offer has been made. This will be prior to or within four weeks of their start date., Our values describe our main principles, qualities and attributes. They are the guiding principles which define who we are, what we do and how we do it. They make us different from our competitors and guide our decisions and actions to drive us towards our vision.

Our values are:

Results Driven We take responsibility for achieving excellent business results.

Ethical We are open and honest and meet our commitments with a responsible approach to the environment and our communities.

Customer Focused We aim to exceed the expectations of our internal and external customers.

Innovative We continuously strive for innovative and better ways to deliver our business.

One Team We work together consistently, promoting co-operation, to achieve our corporate objectives.

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Colleague benefits

We’re the great company we are because of you - our people. As our way of saying thanks, you’ll be eligible to some of our wide range of benefits and discounts to take advantage of.

To find out more about our benefits, see our benefits booklet attached to this advert.

Eyecare

Discounted Medicals

Employee Assistance Programme

Cycle2work

Buying & selling annual leave

Long service awards

Salary sacrifice car scheme

Computer Loans

Award winning wellbeing site

NWG savings scheme

Company pension scheme

Pre-retirement workshops

Life assurance

Christmas savings club

Discounts & cashback offers

Most importantly, you will share our commitment to delivering excellent outcomes for customers, communities and the environment, developing our people and shaping the future of a service that millions of customers rely on every day.

We recognise that talent comes from many different backgrounds and experiences. If you’re excited by this opportunity and believe you can make a positive impact, we encourage you to apply, even if your experience doesn’t match every aspect of the role., Here at Northumbrian Water, we embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, and encourage all colleagues to bring their most authentic self to work.

Our colleague network groups include our Rainbow Support Network (LGBTQIA+), REACH (Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Heritage), WiSTEM (Women in STEM) and Thisability (disability and neurodiversity) networks. They provide a safe space for colleagues from diverse backgrounds, welcoming all colleagues regardless of their personal characteristics to participate in valuable conversation that improves our organisational awareness, understanding and inclusivity.

We encourage and welcome all applications, as we strive to be an equal opportunity employer, committed to having diverse communities represented within all our teams, structures, and organisation.

NWG are an inclusive employer who support the rehabilitation of offenders, we will not, however consider candidates who have certain unspent convictions to ensure our commitment to fostering a safe and secure working environment for all OR colleagues, suppliers, customers and third parties.

Please note this role will require a DBS to be completed prior to employment

We’re aware that not everyone will have every skill listed in the job description, however if you have some of the skills listed, we’d encourage you to apply

NWG at a glance:

Our purpose at NWG is caring for the essential needs of our communities and environment, now and for generations to come.

We do this by providing reliable and affordable water and wastewater services for our customers.

We make a positive difference by operating efficiently and investing prudently, to maintain a sustainable and resilient business.

Our vision is to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and wastewater services. To support us in achieving our vision, we have five core values which are the guiding principles, defining who we are, what we do and how we do it., NWG (Northumbrian Water Group) provides water and sewerage services to 2.7 million people in the North East of England as Northumbrian Water, and water services to 1.5 million people in the South East of England as Essex & Suffolk Water.

We are proud to serve our customers and we’re committed to delivering great service, putting our customers at the heart of everything we do.