Spills Lead

Overview

Closing Date: 2026-02-09

Job Title: Spills Intelligence Lead

Location: Falmer

Job Type: Permanent

Hours: 37 hours per week

Salary: Up to £45k (depending on skills and experience)

About The Role

At Southern Water, we’re committed to safeguarding the environment, rivers, and seas for future generations.

As our Wastewater Spills Intelligence Lead, your primary role is to ensure the accurate and timely verification of wastewater spills, enabling compliant 24‑hour reporting to regulators and near real‑time updates to our Rivers and Seas Watch app. You will also support the development of predictive insights to help strengthen future spill management and operational understanding.

Your core responsibility is to accurately verify wastewater spills, ensuring regulatory reporting within 24 hours of an event, and accurate, near real‑time public updates via Rivers and Seas Watch.

Alongside this essential work, you’ll contribute to the development of predictive analytics, helping to identify emerging patterns and provide deeper intelligence to support environmental protection and operational planning.

What You Will Be Responsible For

• Verify Spills Accurately: Validate spill events based on multiple data sources, ensuring full compliance with strict 24‑hour regulatory requirements.
• Ensure Real‑Time Transparency: Provide accurate, timely data updates to the public via Rivers and Seas Watch.
• Enhance Data Quality: Improve and maintain ASPIRE PIAF profiles to strengthen automated verification processes.
• Predictive Analysis: Use statistical methods and analytics tools to identify trends, anomalies, and emerging spill risks.
• Root Cause Investigation: Apply structured approaches to understand underlying causes of spill events and support targeted operational improvements.
• Support Compliance: Respond to regulatory information requests within statutory timeframes.
• Stakeholder Support: Assist with media queries and represent spill processes clearly to internal and external stakeholders.
• Industry Representation: Champion Southern Water’s approach at industry events and forums

Essential

What you’ll bring to the role:

• A naturally curious, analytical mindset
• Strong attention to detail and problem‑solving capability
• Ability to explain complex data and technical insights clearly
• Experience in data analytics, data science, or similar technical fields
• Understanding of wastewater operations and regulatory frameworks (desirable)
• Familiarity with ASPIRE, PRISM, PI, and MS Office
• Demonstrated experience conducting root cause investigations
• Ability to work at pace and manage multiple demands
• Educated to degree level, preferably in an environmental discipline, data science, or another relevant scientific/technical field

Desirable

• Knowledge of predictive analysis, statistical modelling, or machine‑learning techniques

About SW – Standard Wording

Southern Water is at the forefront of transforming Britain’s water industry, investing significantly to enhance resilience, sustainability, and service excellence. With £7.8bn planned investment for 2025-30, this is an unparalleled opportunity to join a business committed to delivering a generational shift in the way water services are managed.

You will be joining at a time of significant change, working alongside a highly skilled leadership team with a clear vision for the future. We offer an environment where senior professionals can make a meaningful impact, influence major strategic decisions, and drive long-term value creation.

Option 1 – Inclusive & Empowering

\”At Southern Water, we believe diverse perspectives drive innovation. If you’re passionate about making a positive impact and think you can bring value to our team, we’d love to hear from you—even if you don’t tick every box. Your unique skills and experiences could be exactly what we need.\”

If this role isn’t quite what you’re looking for but are keen to be contacted about opportunities at Southern Water, you can register your details here: Introduce Yourself (myworkdaysite.com- Introduce Yourself).

Our Commitment to Diversity

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or any other protected characteristic. If you need reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.