Head of Water

The Head of Water will assure the design, construction and adoption of water and wastewater networks to ensure that ESPUG adopts safe, compliant and efficient assets.

The development and delivery of robust processes and procedures to manage the retail relationship with HH and NHH consumers and retailers is a key part of the role.

The post holder will be expected to develop close collaborative working relationships with colleagues across the company – including but not limited to the Regulatory team, Customer Fulfilment, Pricing, the Group Financial Controller team and the Commercial team.

Continued relationships that we have with SLPs, consumers, incumbent water companies and regulators for the build out and operation of networks under the asset adoption process are key to achieving compliance.

The role will have a broad range of knowledge across water and wastewater supply and discharge networks with experience of design, construction, operation, and policy setting.

This role will fulfil a primary leadership position and will be expected to liaise and communicate with the ESPUG Executive team and the Board when required to do so.

The post holder will be expected to be aware of the relevant governmental and regulatory environment and to keep abreast of, and evaluate the impact of, changes with regards to water sustainability, environmental requirements, water quality, demand, consumer service and water and wastewater policy.

The Head of Water will be responsible for ensuring and assuring that current and future water and wastewater networks comply with ESPW’s standards, industry standards and legislation for water and wastewater.

This post holder will engage with industry and regulatory forums alongside the Regulations Team and will need to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of sector risks and future water and wastewater scenarios to ensure that ESPUG complies with and manages the risk of regulatory reform. The post holder will develop and implement a strategy and action plan to ensure that ESPUG has suitable polices and processes in place to address the businesses’ compliance with our regulatory and statutory obligations.

The post holder will identify and develop opportunities that arise commercially, including water sustainability/neutrality, SuDS, and wastewater reduction/treatment. This will include consideration of new technologies and processes (such as greywater harvesting for example) and new or emerging technologies (e.g. smart meters) that will provide ESPW with opportunities for a competitive advantage; grow the companies water and wastewater connections portfolio; enable the pull through of MU connections;

and optimise asset lifecycle costs and lower operational costs and risks. The evaluation of new or emerging technologies and processes to ensure ESPW are recognised as a prudent operator and leading NAV company will be an important aspect of the role.

Alongside supporting commercial opportunities, the post holder will also be adept in identifying technical solutions and innovative engineering options that support customers unlock challenging projects.

• Designing, implementing and maintaining appropriate policies and procedures
• Provide Tier 2 assurance that these policies and procedures are adequately implemented
• Implementing contract frameworks to ensure suitable competent resources are engaged (internal and external) to Operate and maintain our water and wastewater networks
• Develop ESPW’s network monitoring strategy to assure optimal leakage and unaccounted for water performance, whilst also ensuring regulatory reporting confidence and compliance
• Putting in place processes for the approval of designs and support the Design Manager in the approval process
• Develop ESPW’s future smart metering strategy to ensure compliance and expectations with regulators
• Working closely with, and supporting, the Customer Fulfilment, Operational Support, Finance teams and SLP customers to ensure timely registration of new consumers.
• Oversee the meter read programme to deliver timely collection of meter reads to ensure revenue collection
• Leading the strategy and approach to…