Water Regulations Officer

Location: Field-based, covering Hampshire, the Isle of Wight. A full UK driving licence is essential.

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37 hours per week, Monday - Friday

Salary: Up to £38,000 per annum, depending on skills and experience

About The Role

We’re looking for a Water Regulations Officer to join our Water Fittings & Regulations team. This is a great opportunity for someone who enjoys working independently, meeting customers, investigating issues and taking ownership of cases through to resolution. Once trained, you’ll take responsibility for Water Regulations activity across your allocated region. You’ll plan and carry out a high volume of inspections at customer premises, investigate water quality matters, respond to technical enquiries and advise customers on best practice to help secure water fittings compliance.

You’ll join a team of eight Water Regulations Officers, each managing a geographical area while contributing to the overall success of the team. You’ll use Opuz, our job management system, to organise your workload, record findings, issue reports and plan follow-up visits or enforcement action where required. This is a varied, practical role. Most of your time will be spent out on site, with the remainder focused on planning visits, completing reports and keeping customers and internal teams updated.

What You’ll Be Responsible For

• Planning, arranging and completing Water Fittings Regulations inspections across a wide range of customer premises
• Inspecting complete water systems, recording findings and clearly explaining any issues or required actions to customers
• Investigating water quality concerns and producing accurate reports and case notes
• Managing follow-up visits and taking proportionate enforcement action where needed to secure compliance
• Handling technical enquiries, researching water system issues and advising customers and colleagues on best practice
• Managing your regional workload through Opuz, including appointments, reports, correspondence and ongoing actions
• Working flexibly to respond to urgent jobs, support colleagues during periods of leave and maintain a steady workload
• Building effective relationships with domestic, commercial, agricultural and construction customers

What does a typical day look like?

A typical day will involve around five and a half hours attending sites and two hours planning work, completing reports and updating cases. You could be visiting building sites, farms, outdoor facilities, domestic properties or commercial premises. Some inspections may involve working at height or accessing confined areas.

• Review new and urgent jobs, organise your diary and update colleagues on your whereabouts
• Travel to customer premises to investigate water quality concerns or complete planned inspections
• Introduce yourself, explain the purpose of the visit and inspect the water system thoroughly
• Summarise your findings for the customer and explain any actions or next steps
• Revisit ongoing cases to check progress and consider whether further compliance or enforcement action is needed
• Complete reports, send correspondence, update case notes and plan future visits

Essential What you’ll bring to the role

• A full, valid UK driving licence and the ability to travel across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and occasionally West Sussex
• Strong organisation and time management skills, with the confidence to plan and manage a busy field-based workload
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical or compliance matters to different customers
• A practical, investigative approach with good judgement, attention to detail and the confidence to take ownership of cases

Desirable

• Experience in mechanical engineering, plumbing, Legionella risk assessment, water hygiene or Water Fittings Regulations
• Experience of inspections, compliance, enforcement or managing technical cases
• A relevant technical or vocational qualification
• Experience working independently across a geographical region

If you don’t have a traditional Water Regulations background but can demonstrate the right practical ability, customer focus and commitment to learn, we can offer a comprehensive development plan and mentoring.

About Southern Water

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 opportunity to join a business committed to delivering a generational shift in the way water services are managed. Our mission is to protect and enhance life through water, and we need passionate people to help us achieve it. You don’t need to meet every criterion; what matters most is your drive to make a difference.

Incident support

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and delivering water for life is our core purpose. All employees understand the importance of out-of-hours incident support. Joining Southern Water means becoming part of our incident support community, helping when needed to make sure customers receive the service they deserve. During your interview, the hiring manager will explain any incident support rota that applies to this role.

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.

Additional Information

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. In line with Southern Water’s security requirements, successful candidates will be required to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK, a criminal record check (DBS), current proof of address and verification of employment and/or education history for the past three years. Appointment is subject to the successful completion of all required pre-employment checks and security vetting. Southern Water reserves the right to withdraw an offer where the required standards are not met.