Head of Water in Leatherhead

The Head of Water will assure the design, construction and adoption of water and wastewater networks to ensure that ESPUG adopts safe, compliant and efficient assets. The development and delivery of robust processes and procedures to manage the retail relationship with HH and NHH consumers and retailers is a key part of the role. The post holder will be expected to develop close collaborative working relationships with colleagues across the company, including but not limited to the Regulatory team, Customer Fulfilment, Pricing, the Group Financial Controller team and the Commercial team.

Continued relationships with SLPs, consumers, incumbent water companies and regulators for the build out and operation of networks under the asset adoption process are key to achieving compliance. The role will have a broad range of knowledge across water and wastewater supply and discharge networks with experience of design, construction, operation, and policy setting. This role will fulfil a primary leadership position and will be expected to liaise and communicate with the ESPUG Executive team and the Board when required.

The post holder will be expected to be aware of the relevant governmental and regulatory environment and to keep abreast of, and evaluate the impact of, changes regarding water sustainability, environmental requirements, water quality, demand, consumer service and water and wastewater policy.

Role Purpose

The Head of Water will be responsible for ensuring and assuring that current and future water and wastewater networks comply with ESPW’s standards, industry standards and legislation for water and wastewater. This post holder will engage with industry and regulatory forums alongside the Regulations Team and will need to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of sector risks and future water and wastewater scenarios to ensure that ESPUG complies with and manages the risk of regulatory reform.

The post holder will develop and implement a strategy and action plan to ensure that ESPUG has suitable policies and processes in place to address the business’s compliance with our regulatory and statutory obligations. The post holder will identify and develop opportunities that arise commercially, including water sustainability/neutrality, SuDS, and wastewater reduction/treatment. This will include consideration of new technologies and processes (such as greywater harvesting) and new or emerging technologies (e.g. smart meters) that will provide ESPW with opportunities for a competitive advantage; grow the company's water and wastewater connections portfolio; enable the pull through of MU connections; and optimise asset lifecycle costs and lower operational costs and risks.

The evaluation of new or emerging technologies and processes to ensure ESPW are recognised as a prudent operator and leading NAV company will be an important aspect of the role. Alongside supporting commercial opportunities, the post holder will also be adept in identifying technical solutions and innovative engineering options that support customers unlock challenging projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Accountable for ensuring that the water and wastewater networks adopted and operated by ESPW are compliant and meet or exceed our customer, consumer and regulatory obligations and expectations by:

• Designing, implementing and maintaining appropriate policies and procedures
• Providing Tier 2 assurance that these policies and procedures are adequately implemented
• Implementing contract frameworks to ensure suitable competent resources are engaged (internal and external) to operate and maintain our water and wastewater networks
• Developing ESPW’s network monitoring strategy to assure optimal leakage and unaccounted for water performance, whilst also ensuring regulatory reporting confidence and compliance
• Putting in place processes for the approval of designs and supporting the Design Manager in the approval process
• Developing ESPW’s future smart metering strategy to ensure compliance and expectations with regulators
• Working closely with, and supporting, the Customer Fulfilment, Operational Support, Finance teams and SLP customers to ensure timely registration of new consumers
• Overseeing the meter read programme to deliver timely collection of meter reads to ensure revenue collection
• Leading the strategy and approach to future network design in order to meet water efficiency and environmental targets (i.e. demand management, wastewater system operation)
• Offering technical advice to the Regulations Team to identify risk and impact of regulatory code changes, mitigation and development of an action plan to meet our obligations
• Setting Policy and ensuring appropriate safety and commercial risk assessments are undertaken
• Ensuring asset records are accurate and suitable to meet regulatory requirements and minimise risk
• Being accountable for all ESPW’s Water Quality obligations, ensuring its water quality compliance sampling programme is delivered in conjunction with DWI requirements
• Ensuring all Water Quality incidents and events are reported and reviewed in collaboration with the DWI
• Assuring ESPW’s water fittings and water quality sampling activities and working closely with the Regulations Team to ensure compliance
• Auditing the delivery of asset inspection maintenance and directly managed activities (Tier 2 assurance)
• Maintaining ESPUG’s ISO55001 accreditation for water and wastewater

• Supporting the Commercial team in the pre-sales stage
• Working with the Commercial team to develop appropriate sales collateral
• Meeting with Developers, SLP and MU customers to support their sales opportunities and to support their construction activities to ensure that assets that are fit for purpose are adopted and lead to repeat sales

• Developing and enacting ESPW’s Asset Management Policy
• Supporting I.T colleagues with development and implementation of fit for purpose Asset Management Systems that ensure assets are recorded and maintained
• Ensuring that risks are identified, recorded and suitable mitigation is put in place
• Identifying asset investment to minimise risk to ESP
• Assuring that ESP assets are maintained appropriately, and that Service Providers produce a safe, compliant and efficient service

• Supporting the design team with technical direction, training and guidance
• Auditing the design acceptance process
• Supporting the water land rights process
• Providing technical guidance to Customers on design, construction and future networks

• Supporting the Customer Fulfilment team in the onboarding and management of household (HH) and non-household (NHH) consumers; including vulnerable customers
• Supporting on network emergencies and outages
• Ensuring that periodic meter reads for billing and operational purposes are collected to time and quality
• Supporting the Finance team in water billing and revenue management

• Ensuring that the performance of water and wastewater activities is adequately monitored and reported at appropriate frequencies to ensure compliance is maintained
• Ensuring that progress, risks and concerns are reported

Key Skills

Ideally the candidate will be qualified to degree level or hold a minimum of HND/HNC or equivalent in a water, wastewater or environmental related discipline and/or have substantial relevant experience within the water sector. The successful candidate should be an accredited member of a recognised and related professional institute and be working towards attaining or already hold Chartered status.

Specific key skill requirements include:

• In depth knowledge of the relevant water and wastewater Industry Standards, Recommendations, Specifications and Legislation relevant to the construction and operation of water and wastewater networks
• Demonstrable commercial acumen and customer service ethos
• Experience of planning, design, delivery, installation, operation and maintenance of water and/or wastewater distribution networks
• Knowledge of the relevant Regulatory, HSE and Environmental Framework
• Knowledge of the philosophy and principles relating to the design of water distribution and wastewater collection
• Knowledge of the selection and procurement of materials to be used in the construction of water and wastewater networks
• Ability to assure the design, construction and operation of water and wastewater networks for adoption by ESPW and in conjunction with suitably qualified and competent Consultants and Service Providers
• Brings an energetic and curious approach to problem solving
• Ability to innovate and to embed continuous improvement and innovation through a team
• An ability to adopt a wider perspective than the immediate bounds of the job description
• Substantial experience in leadership and people management, with a proven ability to inspire teams, develop talent, and foster a culture of accountability and high performance
• The successful candidate will demonstrate sound judgment, strong interpersonal skills, and a track record of guiding diverse groups through change, growth, and complex challenges
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills