Graduate Executive Assistant

Welsh Water is a not-for-profit organisation, which means every decision we make is driven by what’s best for our customers and communities. We’re now offering a development-focused opportunity for a graduate to join us and gain invaluable experience supporting senior leaders.

This Graduate Executive Assistant role is designed for someone who’s eager to learn, take responsibility, and make a real impact. You’ll play a key role in supporting executive priorities while building a strong foundation for a future professional career. The EA will provide high-level, proactive and confidential administrative support to the CEO, Chair and the Chief Strategy & Stakeholder Engagement Officer. The EA will ensure the smooth running of their offices, enabling them to focus on strategic and operational priorities that impact water services, compliance and stakeholder engagement.

• Diary, Email and Communication Management
  • Proactively manage complex diaries, including scheduling, prioritising and resolving conflicts for meetings such as Board, Leadership, Health & Safety and regulatory forums.
  • Monitor and manage email inboxes, filtering, responding and escalating as appropriate, especially during periods of absence or annual leave.
  • Act as the first point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, including regulators (e.g., NRW, EA, Ofwat), partner organisations and senior managers.
• Meeting and Event Coordination
  • Arrange, prepare agendas, take minutes and co-ordinate the completion of actions for a wide range of meetings, including Leadership Meetings, Steering Groups, TU Forums and operational reviews.
  • Organise and manage events, workshops, conferences and site visits, such as managing and arranging logistics, travel, accommodation and itineraries, often involving operational sites and external partners.
  • Develop, co-ordinate and issue communications for business-critical events such as incident management, business continuity and seasonal planning (e.g., winter readiness, drought response) to relevant members of staff.
  • Liaise with external bodies to maximise the impact of the Leaders interaction across a number of agencies (DWI, EA, NRW, WG, HSE etc).
• Document and Correspondence Management
  • Produce, draft, format, confirm accuracy of content and issue correspondence, reports and presentations on behalf of Chief Executive, Chair, and CSSEO, including regulatory submissions, customer complaint responses and Board papers.
  • Manage to conclusion confidential and sensitive information, including customer complaints, Board items and high-level documentation.
  • Co-ordinate, manage, prepare and distribute meeting packs, trackers and organograms, ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements.
• Financial and Procurement Administration
  • Evaluate & process expenses, mileage claims, procurement card transactions.
  • Co-ordinate appropriate budget and raise purchase orders for operational and capital projects.
• Stakeholder Liaison and Communication
  • Build relationships and liaise with internal and external stakeholders, including regulatory bodies (NRW, EA, Ofwat), contractors and partner organisations.
  • Compile, co-ordinate, draft and issue communications on behalf of DCE Directors, including invitations, reminders and responses for industry events and regulatory meetings.
• Project and Process Support
  • Co-ordinate projects and business processes, including induction plans for new starters, evaluate and ensure robust business continuity planning and process improvement initiatives relevant to assets and operations.
  • Manage ad hoc queries and provide coordination to a number of wider support teams, including operational, health & safety and sustainability initiatives.

About you

The following are essential requirements for the recruitment of the role:

• Qualifications
  • A Degree in a professional subject (for example Business Management or Administration).
• Knowledge & Skills
  • Highly specialised level of discretion and confidentiality, especially when handling regulatory and customer-sensitive information.
  • The ability to communicate with and influence individuals within and outside of the organisation to support the needs of the Directors.
  • Excellent organisational, communication and interpersonal skills.
  • Strong IT skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Office and industry-specific systems (e.g., procurement, compliance and incident management platforms).
  • Ability to be adaptive and manage multiple priorities and work under pressure, particularly during operational incidents or regulatory deadlines across the whole of the broader organisation.
  • Proactive, flexible and solution-focused approach, with an understanding of the water sector’s operational and regulatory context and the freedom to interpret the issue and solve problems at source.

Benefits

As well as a market competitive salary, 33 days annual leave (pro rata, including public holidays), we offer a range of employee benefits and rewards including:

• Variable pay schemes
• Enhanced employer pension contributions – Up to 11% employer contributions
• Several internal employee networks including Embrace, LGBT+, Neurodiverse, Disability, Women of Welsh Water, Parents, Wellbeing and many more...
• Enhanced family friendly policies
• Progression opportunities, including the ability to apply for funded training and coaching and mentoring programmes
• Reduction on high street & online shopping
• Cycle to work scheme/Car-leasing scheme
• Online GP service
• Voluntary private healthcare
• Free mortgage brokering service
• An employee assistance programme for employees and their immediate family
• Free Headspace App to support your wellbeing
• Colleague matched fundraising scheme up to the value of £500 per year for your chosen charity
• 20% off all Welsh Water visitor attraction centres and gift shops
• Flexible working patterns
• We also recruit our own volunteer Wellbeing Champions (on an annual basis) - successful recruits will receive full i-act and StRaW training

Whilst also working for a not-for-profit company that truly cares about earning the trust of customers every day, and about looking after our beautiful environment.