Contract Performance Engineer

This job is with Southern Water, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.

Closing Date: 2025-05-01

Location: Flexible

Perm/FTC: Permanent

Hours: 37.5 (Mon-Fri)

Salary: Up to £41,100 - Depending on knowledge, skills and experience

There has never been a better time to join our organisation as we build towards a greener future, tackling climate change, minimising our environmental impact and reducing our carbon footprint.

As a Contractor Performance Engineer, you will provide a cost-effective maintenance solutions service to Southern Water's operational sites, tenanted properties and external customers. You will support the delivery and management of the operational contracts service.

Responsibilities include:

• Be responsible for the work life cycle; investigating cost effective options that meet operational needs, defining and communicating scope to contractors, managing the quality, cost and timely delivery of planned & reactive solutions and managing appropriate post-delivery close out.
• Be responsible for the contract administration of multiple contracts including cost and budget management, contract compliance, reporting and cost verification and Health & Safety performance of Contractors.
• Use your skills and experience in financial and works management to ensure that projects and work programmes have robust cost and Health & Safety control.
• Understand and promote Southern Water's values when meeting contractors, customers or other stakeholders.
• Look for opportunities to enhance the reputation of Southern Water when meeting customers.

The post offers the opportunity to play a valuable part in the successful delivery of work programmes and projects in the department and to create a robust culture of strong governance and financial control.

We are looking for someone with strong interpersonal skills and who is adept at problem solving, whilst understanding the importance of being able to communicate effectively with both internal and external partners and stakeholders. Good negotiation skills with up-to-date knowledge of Health & Safety practices and contract management are essential for this role.

You will need to be a positive person who likes a challenge as this role will require you to manage and balance issues/problems against cost and budget restraints, but at the same time ensuring that essential works are carried out to the required standard avoiding a 'Sticky Plaster' situation.

You will have the following:

• Sound knowledge of maintenance work.
• Sound knowledge of environmental considerations.
• Thorough knowledge of contract conditions.
• Good IT skills.
• Sound H&S knowledge to support delivery of maintenance work and reactive activities.
• Skills to deliver cost effective solutions that meet the needs of Operations and Customers requiring a high degree of liaison between site owners/Customer and contractors.
• Skills in cost management and budget monitoring.
• Skills in cost analysis.
• Financial awareness.
• Risk and Compliance awareness with understanding of the risks associated with maintenance work and reactive work on operational activities e.g. wastewater compliance, pollutions, water quality etc.
• Understanding of the H&S risks associated with different work streams and individual jobs.
• Business Skills.
• Contract/Service Management.
• An understanding of operational activities as they are affected by the duties of this role.
• Strong financial awareness.
• Good analytical skills.
• Accountable.
• Performance and delivery focussed.
• Personal and Interpersonal Skills.
• Strong ability to deliver against financial targets and timescales.
• Highly organised and able to multi-task.
• Ability to prioritise competing demands.
• Good oral and written communication skills.
• Good networking skills.
• Strong influencing skills.
• Good negotiating ability.
• Job holder will act with significant autonomy and will use their discretion based on knowledge and experience to deliver solutions for Operations and Customers alike.
• Build strong and effective working relationships with Contractors, Operations and other stakeholders.

Leadership and Management:

• Ability to secure high levels of service from contractors ensuring contractor awareness of service and H&S requirements.

Experience and Qualifications:

• Contract management Experience and/or Qualification.
• Experience of SW operations.
• A good understanding/experience of maintenance work and reactive requirements.
• Knowledge of contract conditions and their applications.
• Understanding of supplier/contractor relationship management.

As well as the friendly and welcoming team and competitive salary, other benefits include:

• Company and performance-related bonus.
• Generous pension with up to 11% company contribution.
• Life assurance payment equal to four times your annual salary.
• Health benefits through a Cash Plan.
• Two paid community volunteering days a year.
• 25 days annual holiday.
• Occupational health service.
• Study support may be available for job-related qualifications.
• Competitive maternity leave and flexible return to work options.

Join Southern Water and see how far your career could progress with a company committed to career progression, training and development opportunities, our customers and the environment.

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, because delivering water for life is our core purpose. To achieve this, we need 24/7 support in place to resolve incidents quickly and efficiently. All our employees understand the importance of out-of-hours incident support - because when problems appear, fixing them is our top priority.

Joining the Southern Water family means you will become part of our incident support team. During your interview, your manager will speak to you about any incident support rotas that apply to your position.

Privacy Statement: Please note: If you are an existing Southern Water employee, you will need to confirm within your application that your Manager is aware of your application. All applicants must be eligible to live and work in the UK. You will need to provide evidence of eligibility (e.g. a passport or long birth certificate and proof of NI) and current proof of address (dated within the last 3 months), will be required as part of the recruitment process. If you do not meet these criteria, your application will not be considered.