Smart Customer Engagement Trials Lead in Bradford

12 Month Fixed Term Contract

Location: This role will initially be based in Bradford but we’re moving our office to Leeds Valley Park in summer 2026, so you’ll be based there in the future / Hybrid Working (1-2 days office a week Bradford/Leeds)

Work type: Secondment 12 Months. 37 hours per week, Monday to Friday.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Smart Customer Engagement Trials Lead to join the Water Quality at Yorkshire Water and be a part of helping Yorkshire Water to provide the best service to our customers.

What We Do

Everyone has an idea of what a water company does. Here in Yorkshire, we make sure that over 5.4 million people living in the region and the millions of people who visit our region each year can rely on our services, and have clean and safe drinking water on tap and that their wastewater is taken away. We look after communities, protect the environment, and plan to look after Yorkshire’s water, today, tomorrow 24/7, 365 days a year. We provide essential water and wastewater services to every corner of the Yorkshire region and play a key role in the region’s health, wellbeing, and prosperity.

New environmental legislation, unprecedented levels of investment and changing expectations from customers means that this is an exciting time to discover opportunities within the water industry. Water Quality are a key part of how we plan to meet the changing expectations of customers and regulators. Yorkshire Water has ambitions to reduce Leakage, Per Capita Consumption and Non-household demand, and have recently submitted its case to the environmental regulator DEFRA/EA and financial regulator OFWAT for the next 5 years funding. Within these plans we wish to replace 1.4 million customer meters with Smart Meters between 2025-2030, and install a further ~160,000 meters. This means moving from a solution which logs how much water has been used on a monthly basis and which is read every 6 months by AMR, to understanding what water has been used on an hourly basis with only a 6 hour delay in receiving the reading, utilising an Internet of Things Network.

To leverage this data to its full extent we are putting in place a team to fully understand the future service improvements, cost efficiencies and new service offerings we can provide. The team will design the end-to-end transition for meter related services, create new or amend existing capabilities, design new processes, define analytic requirements, improve data quality, effectively contract manage partners and work with Tech to develop and embed the solutions to have us ready for smart metering in April 2025. The project team’s initial objective is to create an initial capability and programme roadmap, at which point the ongoing team requirements can be designed for extension of the programme team into 2026 and beyond.

The Smart Trials Lead will be responsible for designing, running, and evaluating trials to target performance improvements for the Yorkshire Water Smart metering rollout programme within the Asset Management Directorate. This role ensures innovative solutions are tested effectively to improve operational efficiency, customer experience, and regulatory compliance. The postholder will lead cross-functional teams to implement trials, analyse outcomes, and provide evidence-based recommendations for wider rollout.

Where You Fit In

As our Smart Customer Engagement Trials Lead, you will:

• Responsibilities

• Design and deliver end-to-end customer engagement trials that test new ways of improving the customer experience.
• Develop clear trial objectives, scope, timelines, and success measures that put customer needs at the centre.
• Ensure each trial supports our wider customer strategy and meets regulatory expectations.

• Customer Insight, Performance Measurement & Evaluation

• Define customer-focused KPIs and experience metrics to evaluate the success of each trial.
• Collect, interpret, and translate data and customer feedback into actionable insights.
• Produce clear, evidence-based recommendations that help senior leaders understand customer impact and shape future decision-making.

• Engagement & Collaboration

• Work collaboratively with teams across Operations, IT, Customer Service, Finance and external partners to ensure trials are seamless, customer-centric, and well-supported.
• Present findings and customer insights confidently to senior stakeholders, Directors, and Programme Boards.

• Governance, Risk & Customer Assurance

• Establish robust governance frameworks to ensure trials are well-controlled, transparent, and aligned to customer outcomes.
• Proactively identify risks that could impact the customer experience and develop mitigation plans to maintain trust and service quality.

• Continuous Improvement for Customer Benefit

• Capture lessons learned, particularly around customer behaviours and engagement effectiveness, embedding these into future trials and wider business processes.
• Support the development of scalable, customer-focused solutions that can move from trial to business-as-usual.

What Skills & Qualifications You Will Need

• Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building skills, with a collaborative approach and a focus on delivering great customer outcomes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, especially in simplifying insight and telling customer-focused stories through data.
• An agile, experimental mindset comfortable trying new approaches, learning quickly, and adapting to customer feedback.
• Significant experience working with data to support test-and-learn activity and insight-driven decision-making.
• Strong IT capability, with experience using tools such as Excel and Power BI.
• Excellent analytical skills, with the ability to translate data into meaningful customer insights.
• Proven influencing and negotiation skills, particularly when driving customer-centric change.
• Demonstrated experience in programme or project management within utilities or other regulated industries.

You Will Also Benefit From Having

• Knowledge of smart metering or transformation in the water sector desirable.
• Professional qualifications (APM, PRINCE2, Agile) preferred.
• Experience of process mapping and business change.
• Experience of working in a regulated environment.
• Experience of smart metering technologies.
• Understanding of Leakage and PCC.

Although we operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it’s important to us that we support flexible working patterns and job share options (when we can), to help you make the best of both your work and home life. We know that juggling childcare responsibilities or getting that ideal work/life balance isn’t always easy!

Closing date - 13th February 2026

If successful for the role, you will be required to undergo pre-employment checks that will include a Basic Disclosure Check, carried out through a Third-Party Company, prior to commencing employment. Depending on the role, you may also be required to go through the security vetting process for either a Counter Terrorist Check or Security Check clearance. All our roles are subject to a medical questionnaire, and further medicals when required. We are committed to removing barriers and ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to everyone. We offer a range of adjustments to make your application experience as comfortable and straightforward as possible. If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition that requires changes to the recruitment process, please include this information in your application. We will then discuss any reasonable adjustments required. Kelda Group reserve the right to close this position before the published closing date, should the need occur. We therefore advise that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible.