Director of Communications

Powered by Water, Driven by Purpose

At Pennon Group, we're proud to serve communities while protecting the environment. Together with our subsidiaries, South West Water, Bristol Water, Bournemouth Water, SES Water, Pennon Water Services and Pennon Power, we're leading the way in water and renewables.

We're proud to be recognised as a leader in the UK water sector, working towards a greener future. Our goals? As well as lowering our carbon footprint, we're working with partners to plant 300,000 trees, restore peatlands and supporting farmers and landowners to improve water quality and wildlife.

Whether you're starting out or seeking a new challenge, our scale and ambition create opportunities for you to shape your own career.

Ready to make a splash?  Join our team today.
Reputation isn't built on easy days. It's built on the challenging ones.
Director of Communications
Pennon is seeking an exceptional communications leader to lead its corporate communications function and play a critical role in protecting and enhancing the reputation of the Group and its operating businesses.

This strategically important role combines strategic leadership with hands-on delivery. Operating in a highly visible and scrutinised environment, the Director of Communications will develop and deliver the Group's communications strategy, lead proactive and reactive media relations, direct communications during incidents and crises, and drive the continued evolution of Pennon's digital and social media capability.

This is an outstanding opportunity for a communications professional who thrives on complexity, exercises sound judgement under pressure and can balance long-term strategic thinking with operational execution.

The Role
As Director of Communications, you will own and lead Group corporate communications across Pennon and its operating businesses, ensuring clear, consistent and effective external communications that support business priorities and strengthen corporate reputation.

Key responsibilities include:

Developing and delivering communications strategies that enhance reputation and support organisational priorities.
Leading proactive and reactive media relations activity, including ownership of the media office and newsroom operation.
Personally managing high-profile, complex and reputation-sensitive media issues.
Leading communications during major incidents, crises and operational events, including leadership of the Communications Cell within incident management structures.
Providing expert communications counsel and constructive challenge to Executive leaders and senior stakeholders.
Leading communications planning and delivery for major corporate announcements, campaigns and business milestones.
Driving the development and delivery of Pennon's digital and social media strategy, strengthening audience engagement through owned channels.
Owning and developing the Pennon corporate website as a key communications platform.
Leading community communications and community relations activities across Pennon's operating areas.
Overseeing executive media briefing, preparation and support for interviews, events and significant announcements.
Leading communications monitoring, insight and evaluation to inform decision-making and continuous improvement.
Building, leading and developing a high-performing communications team, creating accountability, resilience, capability and engagement.
Working collaboratively across Public Affairs, Customer, Regulation, Sustainability, Legal and Operational teams to deliver aligned external communications.
As a critical leadership role within the organisation, the Director of Communications will also maintain effective out-of-hours communications and incident response capability, participating in a standby (on-call) rota and providing communications leadership during incidents, crises and reputation-sensitive situations, including occasional weekend working as required.
About You
You will bring significant senior leadership experience in corporate communications, media relations or reputation management within a large and complex organisation.

You will be able to demonstrate:  A strong track record of…