Deputy Legionella & Water Hygiene Subject Matter Expert in Newcastle upon Tyne

For jobs located in Wales, the ability to speak Welsh is desirable. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is one of the government's largest public service departments with a sizeable annual budget, serving over 20 million citizens. The estate spans 1.4 million square metres across 800+ sites and supports around 78,000 colleagues. Our vision includes DWP colleagues, supply chain, partners and, most fundamentally, the customers the Department exists to serve. They are the reason for our existence.

We are responsible for the day-to-day operation of our vast Estate by managing a private sector supply chain that delivers essential services such as Security Guarding, Maintenance, Property and Leasehold Management, Construction, Cleaning and Facilities Management. DWP Estates is not just about maintaining buildings - it's about transformation. Our strategic goals include:

• Transitioning to a smaller, more affordable, and adaptable estate to meet future needs
• Investing in infrastructure through planned replacement works
• Embedding sustainability in line with Government Greening Commitments (GGCs)
• Delivering cost-effective services while maintaining high standards
• Creating a professional, best-in-class working culture across the Government Property profession

Our Estates strategy ambitions have been refreshed to take us through to 2030:

• OPTIMISE: Continue to transition to a more affordable and adaptable DWP estate that creates productive environments
• INVEST: Investment in an improved environment that better meets the needs of customers and colleagues and minimises service disruption
• SUPPORT: the drive for sustainability throughout DWP
• DELIVER: Expertly deliver improving, cost-effective services for DWP
• THRIVE: Continue to develop a working culture for DWP Estates that is best in class across government

An exciting national opportunity exists for a Deputy Legionella & Water Hygiene Subject Matter Expert (SME) to support robust, proportionate Legionella risk management across a complex UK-wide estate. The role is central to Business As Usual (BAU) Legionella governance, providing the technical oversight, assurance and reporting required to protect people, assets and organisational reputation.

Operating under the technical direction and governance of the National Water Hygiene SME, the post holder leads BAU technical activity, ensuring Legionella risks are identified early, controlled effectively and escalated appropriately. The role maintains national visibility of the risk position, emerging issues and systemic weaknesses, translating operational and CAFM data into clear, evidence-based risk narratives to inform governance-level decisions.

The Deputy SME provides assurance that Legionella control regimes remain effective across diverse building types and system configurations, including oversight of Water Risk Assessments, written schemes of control and control-measure delivery, ensuring continuous alignment with ACOP L8 and HSG274. Independent of commercial and contractual management, the role delivers proportionate engineering challenge, ensuring remedial works and system modifications are technically sound, risk-led and represent best value for money.

Through structured BAU reporting, weekly operational engagement and clear escalation, the post holder supports effective governance, sustained risk reduction and continual improvement in Legionella control at a national scale.

Key responsibilities:

• Maintain a detailed understanding of Legionella risk management requirements, ensuring control arrangements remain aligned with ACOP L8 and HSG274 and are applied consistently across the estate.
• Provide day-to-day BAU technical oversight of Legionella control, including review of compliance evidence, validation of control delivery and identification of emerging or sustained risk issues.
• Collate, review and present Legionella risk and performance information to support governance forums, operational meetings and technical oversight, translating operational data into clear risk-based narratives.
• In conjunction with key stakeholders, review and quality assure Legionella Water Risk Assessments (WRAs), written schemes of control and associated action plans, ensuring they are technically accurate, practical and reflective of system configuration.
• Work closely with operational teams and assurance functions to support the definition, tracking and closure of corrective actions, ensuring actions are prioritised based on risk and supported by appropriate evidence.
• Support the definition, implementation and monitoring of key performance indicators and assurance metrics relating to Legionella control, using CAFM data and other compliance information as the evidence base.
• Use the CAFM system on a daily basis to review work order evidence, interrogate PPM compliance, identify exceptions and track corrective actions to closure.
• Provide technical challenge and assurance on proposed remedial works, system modifications and engineering solutions, ensuring they are proportionate to risk, technically correct and represent best value for money.
• Support investigations into control failures, adverse trends or suspected Legionella-related incidents, contributing to root cause analysis and the definition of effective corrective actions.
• Play an active role in weekly operational water safety and Legionella meetings, providing the BAU technical position, escalating key risks and supporting clear ownership and timescales for action.

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer.