Head of Regulatory and Corporate Finance Strategy

Join Ofwat’s Financial Resilience team as a Head of Regulatory and Corporate Finance Strategy

*Office Location: London (E14 4HD) or Birmingham (B5 4UA) with hybrid working*

About Us

We are Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority, a non‑ministerial government department responsible for regulating the water sector in England and Wales.

The water sector is entering a new chapter. The government has set out a bold new direction, bringing together expertise from across the sector to deliver better outcomes for customers and the environment. We are collaborating with fellow regulators to respond to recommendations in The Independent Water Commission Report, the Welsh Government’s response to the Green Paper, Shaping the Future of Water Governance in Wales, and the Government’s White Paper, A new vision for water.

Ofwat is working with the government and other regulators to help create a new body for England, bringing together our strengths with those of the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Environment Agency and Natural England. We are also continuing to work with the Welsh Government to support decisions on the future arrangements for Wales.

While these changes take shape, our mission remains the same: to hold water companies to account, drive performance, and ensure the sector delivers real value for customers, communities, and the environment. If you’re passionate about making a difference, this is a unique moment to join us and help shape the future of water, and together we can continue to make a positive impact.

The Role

As a Principal within the financial resilience team, you will use your accountancy experience and knowledge of regulatory and corporate finance to monitor the financial performance of the companies Ofwat regulates, to ensure that they are complying with the requirements of their licences, and to challenge companies to ensure that they provide financial data in a clear and transparent way. We also expect you to have a key role in developing our future approach to regulation.

In leading an area of work in the financial resilience work stream, you’ll ensure that we’re delivering on our strategic objectives to time and to budget, and in line with our ways of working. You will make an important contribution to understanding and managing strategic risks and opportunities.

Internally, our principals will have a seat at the leadership table, forming part of our wider leadership team, and will take responsibility for cracking our toughest problems to deliver our objectives. You will have a broad portfolio of issues and will take ownership of a range of specific policies and procedures, taking responsibility and accountability for their success. You will be expected to have good judgement and to exercise it across complex issues responsibly in line with our strategy and ways of working.

Effective stakeholder engagement, including with Investors and across Government, will be important for your success, as you nurture existing relationships whilst developing new ones.

Our organisational culture is also very important to us, and we expect all our people to uphold our SAILOR values (see above). We have a well-supported, agile and flexible working environment – and have an autonomous and trust-based culture to help you succeed within Ofwat.

In this role you will be expected to:

• Successful candidate will be expected to work on different projects within the Financial Resilience work stream.
• A key stand of the work is the development of our policy and processes in relation to how companies need to demonstrate resilience and the approach that Ofwat or a successor regulator should take to regulation in this area, this includes engaging with Defra and other stakeholders in developing our approach to future regulation.
• You may also contribute monitoring the financial performance and position of both the wholesale water and wastewater companies and the non-household retail companies and, considering whether there is a risk to their resilience and whether action needs to be taken to protect customers.
• Within this work stream you may also be involved in looking at issues relating to the accuracy and transparency of financial reporting by companies, company compliance with relevant licence requirements and may be involved in work to address concerns over the resilience of individual companies.
• You may also be involved in supporting engagement with investors and other stakeholders, in relation to evolving regulation and work being undertaken by the Delivery Directorate.
• The financial resilience team are also expected to support other workstreams and priority areas across Ofwat.

About You

Below there are some of the key essential experience, skills & knowledge required for this post:

• Lead criterion: Good understanding of regulatory and corporate finance and associated reporting requirements for the water sector.
• Relevant experience in investor relations and/or in engagement with government in respect of complex financial issues.
• Experience of leading work streams or projects within a complex programme, including planning, prioritisation, tracking and reporting progress.
• Educated to degree level, accounting qualification or equivalent experience
• Ability to draw conclusions from financial data and to present options and recommendations to senior management.
• Experience of building effective relationships with senior staff and external stakeholders and identifying and facilitating linkages between projects and work streams.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills. Including the ability to write high-quality documents, and to communicate complex analysis and issues to non-technical audiences.
• Able to produce high-quality analysis to tight timescales, while managing competing priorities.

Why You Should Join Us

• People Centric: Our people are at the heart of Ofwat and everything we do - we ensure all voices are heard and treat each other with respect; you'll be given the autonomy and the support to do your role in the best way.
• Innovative Work Environment: We embrace agile and new ways of working and have a culture build on trust, flexibility, and collaboration.
• Development Opportunities: Gain valuable experience and develop your skills in a supportive and dynamic setting.
• Work-Life Balance: Enjoy the flexibility of working from home combined with the benefits of in person collaboration in our Birmingham offices.
• Excellent employer pension contributions of nearly 29%.You can find further details about pension schemes under Terms and Conditions in the Candidate Pack.
• 25 days’ annual leave, increasing to 30 with each year of service, plus bank holidays and an extra 2.5 days of privilege leave.
• Access to exclusive discounts on a variety of goods and services, including retail outlets, theatre tickets, holidays, insurance, and a gym membership.
• Fees paid for membership of relevant professional bodies.
• Up to 3 volunteering days per year.
• Generous shared parental leave and pay supporting your family life.

#J-18808-Ljbffr