Head of Digital Customer Projects

Closing Date

Head of Customer Digital Products

Hybrid working between our head office in Worthing c2-3 days per week and home.

2-year fixed-term contract

37 hours per week, Monday – Friday

Competitive salary commensurate with experience + £500 monthly car allowance, bonus up to 20% and single PMI.

We’re looking for an exceptional digital leader to shape the future of customer digital products and services at Southern Water. This is a highly influential senior role within our Customer Directorate, responsible for defining and delivering a digital-first service model that makes it easier, faster and more intuitive for customers to interact with us.

As Head of Customer Digital Products, you’ll own the strategic direction and performance of our digital customer channels, ensuring they deliver excellent customer outcomes, improve adoption, reduce avoidable contact and drive measurable reductions in cost to serve. Joining us at a pivotal moment, with major transformation underway, you’ll play a central role in building a modern, insight-led and economically efficient digital service ecosystem that supports customers, colleagues and the wider business.

This role offers significant visibility across our Executive and senior leadership community, with real scope to influence strategic decisions, shape investment priorities and embed digital-first thinking across customer operations, technology, product, policy and service design.

• Defining and delivering the digital customer service vision, strategy and roadmap, aligned to the wider organisational strategy and customer outcomes.
• Owning the end-to-end performance of digital service channels, with clear measures across adoption, containment, conversion, customer satisfaction, cost to serve and return on investment.
• Driving the shift from assisted to digital channels, increasing self-service and digital completion while maintaining a high-quality customer experience.
• Using customer insight, behavioural data and performance analytics to optimise journeys, reduce avoidable contact and improve completion rates.
• Leading end-to-end service redesign, championing user-centred design, accessibility, inclusive design and service design best practice.
• Working closely with Customer Operations, Contact Centre, Technology and Product teams to identify automation, AI-enabled support and digital enablement opportunities.
• Translating strategy into a prioritised delivery roadmap, managing dependencies across digital, technology, operations and policy teams.
• Ensuring digital initiatives are delivered at scale, with clear benefits realisation, governance and return on investment.
• Establishing strong governance for digital service development, performance management, risk, regulatory compliance, data protection and service resilience.
• Leading and developing a high-performing multidisciplinary function across digital product, customer experience, product channel, analytics and service design.
• Building strong relationships with senior stakeholders, influencing at executive level and helping the organisation adopt fundamentally new ways of working.

Please note that all our Senior Leaders are required to take part in a standby rota, typically 1 week in 8. More details can be provided at interview.

• Significant experience leading digital service channels in a complex organisation.
• Proven track record of delivering digital-first service transformation at scale.
• Strong experience managing digital channel performance using data, KPIs and customer insight.
• Demonstrable success in reducing cost to serve while improving customer experience.
• Deep understanding of user-centred design, service design and digital product management.
• Experience working across multidisciplinary teams, including digital, technology, operations and customer services.
• Strong strategic capability, with the ability to translate vision into practical delivery and measurable outcomes.
• Executive-level credibility, with the resilience, gravitas and influencing skills to lead transformation through complexity, ambiguity and challenge.
• St…