Who are we?

Thames Water is the UK’s largest water and wastewater company. We make a daily difference to our 15 million customers by supplying 2.6 billion litres of water through 32,000 km of pipes, keeping taps flowing and toilets flushing.

At Thames Water, every one of our actions, big and small, matters every day. Water is essential to life, so our business is always open.

What is the purpose of this role?

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape our 25-year long-term strategy for water. As a Strategy Manager with a focus on Below Ground Water assets, you will be focused on setting the strategy for the assets that convey water to customers’ taps. These assets are at the frontline of delivering a great service to our customers, ensuring we drive great performance on water quality, supply interruptions, and driving down leakage. You will be responsible for setting the direction of travel for our below-ground distribution water assets accounting for their deterioration, their role in maintaining performance and compliance, and their resilience to a changing environment (growth, climate change, and new regulations).

We have ambitious goals now and for the future (2050) and your role will ensure that our future vision is supported by clear strategies that set out what we are trying to achieve and how we are going to get there. The future is uncertain with climate change, growth, droughts, and asset debt all posing threats to the future resilience of our assets, systems, and operations. The strategies will consider ways in which we can adapt to manage and mitigate these threats, and, in some cases, adaptive pathways will need to be considered.

This role sits in our Asset Strategy and Planning Department, and you will be part of a team of technical planners, interacting with teams across the wider business. This role offers experience in business planning (via industry Price Reviews), long-term planning, and adaptive pathway planning. A key part of this role will be working with the Planning, Innovation, Regulation, and Operational teams to formulate the optimal way forward to serve our customers and then preparing narratives to articulate strategies to support business planning. The successful candidate will play an important part in developing how we manage and operate our water network assets to ensure they continue to serve their communities and protect the environment.

We’re looking for you too.

• Ideally degree qualified or significant experience in similar roles.
• Professional membership in an engineering, environmental, or asset management organization is an advantage.
• Numerate and proficient in the use of MS Office.
• Technical background in Water Network assets either from an operational, engineering, or planning perspective.
• A keen interest in the long-term objectives of the government, our customers, and stakeholders.
• A sound understanding of asset management best practices.
• Great communicator who can simply share complex information.
• Can identify problems or opportunities for improvement and takes ownership of them, driving them through to resolution.
• Able to work flexibly across multiple workstreams, responding to changes in focus.
• Can build and leverage strong relationships across the company and external organizations.
• Hold a good understanding of regulatory processes, such as price reviews or annual returns.
• Hold a good understanding of water and wastewater catchments (including current levels of cost, risk, and performance) and the impact that external factors can have on them.
• Will be able to influence at all levels across the business, especially at a senior level, and to account for others’ views in our plans.
• Will help to create an open, inclusive learning environment where everyone’s views and input are welcomed.

What’s in it for you?

Helps to shape our asset strategy for our water networks. You will be part of a great team working to develop our long-term direction of travel on how we develop, manage and operate our water networks to drive great performance on leakage, water quality, and supply interruptions.

We’re proud of the positive ways of working we’ve adopted during the pandemic, creating a more flexible and dynamic environment so all our colleagues can thrive. For our office-based roles, we’re moving to a hybrid approach with various options for working from the home, office, and our sites.

Our competitive salary and package include a bonus, car allowance, private healthcare, an excellent contributory pension, and 26 days of holiday per year increasing to 30 with a length of service.

Thames Water is a dynamic, rewarding, and diverse place to work, with opportunities around every corner. If you join our team, you’ll enjoy a fulfilling career, flexible working arrangements a wider benefits scheme including our benefits hub, which is packed full of offers and information to save you money and support your well-being.

We’re also proud to embrace and promote diversity and believe that creating a workforce that reflects the communities we serve will help us to thrive. We encourage applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process.

Find out more about working at Thames Water.

We deliver life's essential service to our customers, communities, and the environment can thrive. This means, that when a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business, meet colleagues, and earn some extra money along the way.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close a vacancy earlier than the advertised date. This is so we can manage all the applications properly and give candidates a positive experience. Once closed, we can’t consider any further applications, so please submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.