Digital Specialist

JR United Kingdom; Reading; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in water and wastewater solutions is looking for a Digital Specialist / Business Manager for the Southern Region. This role focuses on driving digital transformation initiatives and ensuring alignment with operational priorities. Candidates should have a strong background in IT leadership and stakeholder management, as well as a commitment to delivering measurable benefits across the region's operations.

Benefits

Pension

Death in service

Qualifications

• Proven experience in IT leadership, service delivery, or digital transformation roles.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills.
• Excellent communication and problem-solving abilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead digital initiatives for the southern region.
• Manage the regional digital budget aligned with central IT.
• Ensure alignment of local digital initiatives with business objectives.

Skills

Stakeholder engagement

IT leadership

Digital transformation

Communication

Problem-solving

Team collaboration

Job description

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Digital Specialist / Business Manager – Southern Region leads the digital agenda for the southern region, ensuring that digital services, transformation initiatives, and strategic IT capabilities are aligned with contract needs and regional priorities. This role combines business partnering, digital delivery oversight, and accountability for regional digital performance, driving tangible outcomes across operations, customer service, and compliance.

Location: Southern Regions

Hours: 40 hours per week

What we offer:

• Pension
• Death in service

Key Responsibilities:

1. Digital Business Partnering

• Act as the primary Digital & IT interface for regional contract leadership.
• Build strong relationships with contract and operational leaders to understand business challenges and opportunities.
• Influence strategic and tactical decision-making by ensuring regional needs are understood and met.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with key IT partners to ensure alignment, remove friction, and deliver shared success.

2. Leadership of Regional Digital Team

• Lead and support the Digital Transformation Lead – North and Digital Solutions Architect
• Create a high-performance culture focused on delivery, adoption, and continuous improvement.
• Provide day-to-day support, coaching, and mentoring to ensure team members grow in capability and confidence.
• Promote a collaborative, proactive, and solutions-oriented culture within the regional digital function.
• Translate central digital strategy into regional delivery plans.
• Ensure local digital initiatives align with business objectives and deliver measurable impact.
• Oversee the full lifecycle of regional digital projects from scoping through delivery and embedding.

4. Governance & Accountability

• Own the digital service experience in the region — including quality, uptime, and responsiveness.
• Enforce compliance with IT security, data protection, and digital governance policies.
• Serve as the escalation point for digital issues affecting regional operations.

5. Budget & Commercial Oversight

• Manage the regional digital budget in partnership with central IT and finance teams.
• Ensure spend is aligned to value and regional priorities.
• Support digital elements of bids, contract changes, and mobilisation planning.

6. Reporting & Insights

• Produce regular reports and dashboards on project delivery, service levels, adoption, and outcomes.
• Present updates to the Head of IT and regional leadership teams.
• Analyse performance and usage data to drive decisions and improve service delivery.

7. Change Management & Communication

• Lead stakeholder engagement, training, and communications for regional digital rollouts.
• Ensure users are well-supported and confident in the use of new technologies.
• Role model positive communication, resilience, and openness to feedback during periods of change.

Key Measures of Success:

• Digital initiatives delivered on time, on budget, and with measurable value.
• High satisfaction levels from regional contract and operational leadership.
• Improved adoption and productivity enabled by digital solutions.
• Strong governance and compliance across all regional digital activities.
• Budget accountability and financial discipline maintained.
• Clear evidence of innovation and value generation.
• Demonstrated improvement in team morale, collaboration, and stakeholder perception.
• Effective collaboration with key IT partners with minimal friction and shared delivery success.

Skills & Experience Required:

• Proven experience in IT leadership, service delivery, or digital transformation roles.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, ideally with operational/field-based business units.
• Experience managing or influencing multidisciplinary teams.
• Solid understanding of digital tools and how they drive operational value.
• Financial awareness and comfort managing budgets.
• Excellent communication, prioritisation, and problem-solving skills.
• Emotionally intelligent, with the ability to positively influence others and lead through change.
• Proven ability to collaborate with internal and external IT stakeholders to drive delivery and continuous improvement.

Who we are

The Lanes Group are the UK’s largest independent provider of water and wastewater solutions and services, we play a vital role in always maintaining the seamless operations of the nation’s water systems.

Formed in 1992, our half a billion-pound turnover ensures continued expansion for market share. Our key differentiator is our 4000+ staff and our resource pool that includes the most innovative fleet, plant, and equipment the market has to offer.

We are the UK’s largest end to end drainage solution provider with depots strategically located across the UK from Aberdeen to Plymouth, to ensure round the clock coverage for customers and clients alike.

This position is open to Internal and External candidates. Any internal candidates currently employed within a division of the Lanes Group must complete an Internal Application form and submit to recruitment.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from under-represented members of the community.