Programme Design Manager

Southern Water is delivering one of its most ambitious infrastructure programmes to date—nearly £400 million of investment across our five largest surface water treatment works: Testwood, Otterbourne, Hardham, Burham, and Weirwood. We’re proud of our collaborative, high-performing team culture, and we’re committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workforce. We offer flexible working arrangements, including hybrid working, adjusted hours, and part-time options, to help you thrive both professionally and personally.

We’re looking for a Programme Design Manager to lead the design delivery of this critical programme, which plays a vital role in improving water quality, supply resilience, and environmental outcomes for our customers and communities. This is a strategic leadership role where you’ll work alongside another PDM and lead a team of Project Design Leads, managing the technical input into major improvements at these key sites. You’ll be at the heart of shaping solutions that directly impact the lives of millions and help safeguard the future of water in the South East.

Responsibilities will include:

• Overseeing the design delivery of a major capital programme across five strategic water supply works
• Leading a team of 4 Project Design Leads to deliver high-quality, technically sound solutions
• Driving health & safety, sustainability, and innovation across all design work
• Managing budgets, costings, and ensuring value through TOTEX-focused solutions
• Collaborating with internal teams and delivery partners to embed our AMP8 operating model
• Acting as the “technical conscience” of the programme – ensuring quality, consistency, and compliance
• Supporting and mentoring your team, fostering a culture of learning, inclusion, and continuous improvement

About You

We’re looking for someone with proven experience in programme or project delivery, ideally within the water or infrastructure sectors. You’ll bring a strong engineering background—civil, mechanical, or water preferred—and be confident in managing design teams, budgets, and the technical delivery of complex projects. You’ll be a strategic thinker who leads with empathy, encourages innovation, and fosters collaboration. While project management qualifications such as APM or PRINCE2 are a bonus, we also welcome candidates who are qualified by experience. Most importantly, you’ll be a collaborative leader who values teamwork, inclusion, and shared success.

This role will be full time Monday to Friday 37 hours a week. Southern Water operate a hybrid approach to working between our Falmer office and home. We are offering a salary from £79k per annum + monthly car allowance depending on skills and experience as well as other benefits including:

• Company and performance-related bonus
• Generous pension up to 11% company contribution
• 25 days annual leave
• Life assurance equal to 4x salary
• Salary sacrifice electric car scheme (after 6 months service)
• Full funded eye tests
• Two paid volunteering days a year
• Discounts with over 800 popular retailers
• Study support may be available for job-related qualifications
• Competitive maternity leave and flexible return to work options
• Cycle to work scheme

Does this opportunity excite you but you’re not 100% sure if you meet all the requirements for the role? Or are you concerned that ‘normal’ office hours aren’t possible given your personal circumstances? Whilst we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we’ll try to find a practical solution. So why not engage with us and find out more about this role? 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. That’s why our people join together and support when and however needed to make sure our customers get the service they deserve.

Joining the Southern Water family means you’ll 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.

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.