Operational Readiness Manager

We have an exciting opportunity for an Operational Readiness Manager to join the Asset Delivery & Engineering team at Yorkshire Water and be a part of helping Yorkshire Water to provide the best service to our customers. Could this be you?

Location: This role will initially be based in Bradford but we’re moving our office to Leeds Valley Park in September 2026, so you’ll be based there in the future - Hybrid Working (2 – 3 days office a week – Bradford/Leeds)

Work type: Permanent. 37 hours per week, Monday – Friday.

• We offer a competitive salary, depending on experience – up to £70,000 (band 3b)
• A company car lease/allowance scheme (£500 per month/£6,000 per year, based on full-time employment on joining the company). You can opt to sign up to the EV Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme 6 months after joining the company.
• Annual incentive related bonus up to 15% of annual salary
• Private health care (self only)
• Attractive pension scheme (up to 12% company contribution)
• Life assurance cover of 4 times pensionable salary
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays – plus 2 extra wellness days!
• A great benefits package – choose from health cash plan scheme, critical illness insurance, dental insurance, life assurance flex and partner cover.
• Retail savings scheme
• Online GP service, cycle to work scheme, gym membership discounts and many more!

Everyone has an idea of what a water company does. Here in Yorkshire, we make sure that over 5.4 million people living in the region and the millions of people who visit our region each year can rely on our services, and have clean and safe drinking water on tap and that their wastewater is taken away. We look after communities, protect the environment, and plan to look after Yorkshire’s water, today, tomorrow 24/7, 365 days a year.

We provide essential water and wastewater services to every corner of the Yorkshire region, and play a key role in the region’s health, wellbeing, and prosperity.

New environmental legislation, unprecedented levels of investment and changing expectations from customers mean that this is an exciting time to discover opportunities within the water industry. Asset Delivery & Engineering are a key part of how we plan to meet the changing expectations of customers and regulators.

• Own and continuously develop Yorkshire Water’s Operational Readiness (OR) framework, establishing and maintaining readiness standards, stage-gate criteria, deliverables, and governance requirements that are applied consistently and proportionately across the capital programme according to project risk and complexity.
• Define, implement, and govern measurable readiness requirements throughout the project lifecycle, including asset data strategies, operations and maintenance (O&M) documentation, training and competency requirements, maintenance readiness, operational expenditure (OPEX) validation, and supporting asset dependencies, ensuring clear accountability through robust RACI arrangements.
• Provide programme-level leadership and oversight of Operational Readiness performance, maintaining a consolidated view of readiness status, risks, issues, and forecast handover timelines across all active capital projects, and reporting performance to senior leadership and PMO governance forums.
• Embed Operational Readiness within Yorkshire Water’s project delivery framework, working closely with PMO, Engineering, Operations, and Capital Delivery teams to ensure project progression through stage gates is dependent upon the achievement of agreed readiness criteria, not solely construction or commercial milestones.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Operational Readiness Leads, providing technical guidance, performance management, and support to ensure consistent application of the OR framework and effective delivery of readiness activities across project portfolios.
• Own Operational Readiness risk management at programme level, proactively identifying systemic risks, developing mitigation strategies, resolving escalated readiness challenges, and ensuring material issues are reported through the appropriate governance and leadership channels.
• Drive continuous improvement by…