Area Services Manager

Thames Water Utilities Limited; Cherwell District; On-site; GBP 48,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

26 days holiday

Pension

Medical assessments

Benefits hub

Job summary

Thames Water Utilities Limited is seeking an Area Services Manager to lead a specialist maintenance team across the Cotswolds, Cherwell and Oxford areas, driving asset maintenance strategies, compliance, and safe operations 24/7.

Based at Banbury or Witney with 36 hours per week and an out-of-hours rota, you will travel between sites, managing budgets, developing staff, and delivering improvements in performance, health & safety, and service reliability.

Qualifications

• Background in industrial mechanical/electrical maintenance including planned and preventative maintenance.
• Minimum of a BTEC/NVQ L3 or equivalent in Mechanical/Electrical and a BTEC HNC Electrical/Mechanical or ICA background.
• Experienced people-manager with a track record of engaging and developing a team and mentoring apprentices.

Responsibilities

• Focus on maintenance strategies to support asset efficiencies, reducing failure rates and improving site resilience.
• Provide technical input to site improvements projects for effective and efficient solutions.
• Identify and mitigate risk across the site and team; act as escalation point when required.
• Own and optimise maintenance delivery plan in line with process delivery.
• Monitor plant performance and reliability, investigate failures and implement corrective actions.
• Drive improvements to reduce maintenance service costs by asset type.

Skills

Industrial maintenance

Electrical maintenance

People management

Health & Safety

SAP

Excel

Budget management

Education

BTEC/NVQ Level 3 in Mechanical/Electrical

HNC Electrical/Mechanical

ICA background

Tools

SAP

Excel

Job description

Job title Area Services Manager Ref 46123 Division Asset Operations & Capital Delivery Location Banbury - OX16 4RZ, Witney - OX28 5JH Contract type Permanent Full/Part-time Full-time Salary Salary between £47,680 - £60,000 per annum depending on your level of experience. Job grade B Closing date 06/11/2026

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.

Fancy a new challenge with variety?

Do you enjoy working in a team, driving high Health and Safety standards that makes you proud, driving performance of not only yourself but also your team, communicating with others at all levels, but most of all love working in an environment where every day is different, and offers you unknown challenges that puts our service as one of the key essentials to us all.

Then we could have the job for you.

With the rapidly changing environment and all the complexities this brings, working as an Area Services Manager will provide you with a wealth of different activities to sink your teeth into.

You will lead a team who will provide specialist technical support to Performance Managers across the Cotswolds, Cherwell, and Oxford areas with a particular technical specialism in maintenance to ensure that the agreed compliance, statutory inspections, and service levels are achieved now and, in the future, and enable us to drive strategic change in maintenance.

You will operate out of the site at Banbury or Witney but will visit other sites making a driving licence and car owner essential as you will need to travel throughout your working week. You will work 36 hours a week Monday to Friday, along with participating in an out of hours rota for escalations and advice as we are a 24-hour business.

If this is you, we are looking for someone to join our Thames Valley North Operations Team in Wastewater that offers a brilliant opportunity for you to establish a career with Thames Water in frontline operations.

What you will be doing as the Area Services Manager

• Focus on maintenance strategies to support driving asset efficiencies, reduced failure rates and overall site resilience. Deliver a consistent approach to asset operation and maintenance to demonstrate a cost efficient, robust, and safe operation 24/7.
• Responsible for technical input to site improvements projects to secure effective and efficient solutions identified and supported.
• Responsible for identifying, mitigating, resolving, and escalating risk across the site and team and act as a point of escalation where required.
• Own and optimise maintenance delivery plan in conjunction with the process delivery plan.
• Monitor and review plant performance and reliability, investigate critical plant failures and ensure corrective actions are taken.
• Drive improvements to give a reduction in the maintenance serviceability cost by asset type.

The main objectives of the role?

• Health and Safety – This is our number 1 priority for everyone in our team and you will Effectively lead the Health, Safety and Wellbeing culture of the team as well driving and creating an environment where good practices are a way of everyday life and total compliance is adhered to in line with Health & Safety Policy. Lead your team to ensure compliance with our statutory inspection programmes.
• People - Lead, manage and develop staff to achieve agreed objectives, providing strong leadership aligned with the Thames Water Values. To act as a coach, hold developmental conversations and continually coach and mentor teams.
• Performance Management – Driving the team to achieve optimal performance in terms of work management, along with being responsible for developing the team and introducing new skills and Health & Safety awareness.
• Financial Management – owning and managing the budgetary and financial activities of the team and driving efficiencies into the overall operational budget.
• Customer & Stakeholder Management - ensuring an exceptional service to our customers with early personal interventions as required.

We are looking for you to have:

• We are seeking an individual with a background in industrial mechanical / electrical maintenance including planned and preventative maintenance.
• You will ideally have a minimum of a BTEC / NVQ L3 or equivalent in Mechanical / Electrical and a BTEC HNC Electrical / Mechanical or have an ICA background.
• You will be an experienced people-manager with a proven history of engaging and developing a team, and ideally will have been a technical mentor to apprentices in a previous role.
• You will be used to taking the lead and achieving results, with a strong focus on and a broad range of H&S skills, H&S legislation, and application.
• A facilities background would be desirable, and NEBOSH would be ideal. You will be required to have this qualification if you do not already.
• You will have excellent communication skills as well as excellent IT skills, especially Excel, and the ability to interrogate data via SAP is desirable.

What is in it for you?

• Salary between £47,680 - £60,000 per annum depending on your level of experience.
• Annual Leave 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service. (Plus, bank holidays)
• Contributory pension – Defined Contribution - Maximum of 12% -2x employee contribution.
• Personal Medical Assessments – Open to all once a year.
• Wider benefits scheme including our benefits hub, which is packed full of offers and information to save you money and support your wellbeing.

Find out more about our benefits and perks (Please note different T&Cs apply if on secondment)

Who are we?

We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.

If you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.

Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

We’re committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process . If you need any adjustments, whether that’s extra time, accessible formats, or anything else just let us know, we’re here to help and support .

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 and meet colleagues.