Emergency Planning Lead

South East Water; Snodland; On-site; GBP 54,000 - 66,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme (up to 10% employer)

Holiday entitlement: 5 weeks + bankH,

Flexible annual leave policy

Paid volunteering days

Cycle to work scheme

Health cash plan

Life assurance

Wellbeing benefits

Job summary

South East Water is seeking an authoritative Emergency Planning Lead to own our EPRR framework, drive culture, and ensure resilience across the organization. You will set direction, standards and priorities, and partner with internal teams to embed best practices while maintaining full regulatory compliance.

You will lead a team of emergency planners, manage stakeholder relationships with LRFs and emergency services, and oversee incident reviews and policy updates to strengthen response

Qualifications

• Proven EPRR expertise in critical infrastructure or utilities.
• Decisive, calm direction during high‑pressure incidents.
• Ability to translate complex data into actionable strategic frameworks.
• Experience building relationships with external multi‑agency partners and LRFs.

Responsibilities

• Lead Emergency Planning Team and set long‑term EPRR strategy.
• Collaborate with Ops Improvement, Alternative Water and SEMD leads.
• Represent SEW with Local Resilience Forums and drive best practices.
• Ensure compliance with statutory emergency obligations.
• Develop and own SEW's emergency planning framework.
• Lead incident reviews and implement improvements.

Skills

EPRR expertise

Decisive command

Cross-functional negotiation

Stakeholder influencer

Education

Secondary education

Formal qualification in incident management or emergency planning

Job description

Summary:

At South East Water, keeping the water flowing for millions of customers requires world‑class foresight, rapid tactical execution, and unwavering resilience. We are seeking an authoritative, visionary Emergency Planning Lead to take total organizational accountability for our Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (EPRR) framework. This isn't just about managing plans—it is about leading culture, shaping strategy, and ensuring our operations withstand any challenge.

The Opportunity:

As our subject matter expert, you will step to the forefront of our operational strategy. You will set the direction, standards, and priorities that elevate our resilience, ensuring South East Water remains robust, agile, and fully compliant with all regulatory and legislative requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership: Head a dedicated team of Emergency Planners, establishing clear priorities and long‑term EPRR strategies.
• Internal Collaboration: Partner directly with the Ops Improvement Team, Alternative Water Team, and SEMD Lead to integrate localized tactical plans seamlessly into our master response strategy.
• External Influence: Serve as the face of South East Water across regional Local Resilience Forums (LRFs). Actively contribute to area‑specific water disruption plans and drive the adoption of industry best practices.
• Regulatory Governance: Ensure complete, uncompromised compliance across all statutory emergency obligations.
• Brand Restoration: Play a critical frontline role in enhancing operational resilience, minimizing impact during incidents, and actively rebuilding trust with external partners and local communities.

Main responsibilities:

• Team Leadership & Delivery: Directly manage the Emergency Planning Team, overseeing performance and professional growth. Build capability within the Emergency Planning Team, using previous experience to coach and mentor as required. Provide wider business coaching, specifically on incident management and emergency response.
• Internal and external stakeholder management: This role will be responsible for building internal relationships with key stakeholders to build a collaborative response to incidents and emergency planning. This role will be responsible for working with Local Resilience Forums to ensure industry best practice is adopted at South East Water. The role will actively participate in LRF working groups, contributing towards area‑specific water disruption plans.
• Undertake incident reviews, identify areas for improvement and implement actions: This role will support our internal incident review process, working closely with the Operational Resilience and Security Manager to identify opportunities for improvement. This role will be responsible for ensuring improvement opportunities are recorded, implemented and tested.
• Develop, implement and own South East Water’s emergency planning framework: This role will be responsible for aligning operational, tactical and strategic plans within our Incident and Emergency Plan. This role will be responsible for reviewing our existing emergency planning policies and where necessary updating. This role will be responsible for creating new emergency planning policies, and where possible aligning with the multi‑agency response approach.
• Internal incident management training: This role will be responsible for an ongoing programme of incident management training. This role will be responsible for developing training material for all roles on our incident management rota. This role will be responsible for ensuring the principles of Gold, Silver and Bronze Command are understood and implemented.
• Business Continuity planning: This role will be responsible for wider business continuity, by assessing potential threats and conducting impact assessments to inform business continuity plans. This role will be responsible for updating our existing business continuity plans and ensuring a clear line of sight to South East Water’s Emergency Plan.

What We Are Looking For:

• Proven EPRR Expertise: A seasoned emergency planning expert with a strong track record in critical national infrastructure (CNI) or utility sectors.
• Decisive Command: A confident leader capable of providing clear, concise, and calm direction during high‑pressure incidents.
• Cross‑Functional Negotiator: Ability to translate complex tactical data from specialized teams into actionable strategic frameworks.
• Key Stakeholder Influencer: Extensive experience building robust working relationships with external multi‑agency partners, emergency services, and LRFs.

You’ll need:

• Good standard of secondary education and able to demonstrate a good standard of numeracy and literacy skills.
• A formal qualification in incident management and or emergency planning would be advantageous.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage diverse audiences and build strong working relationships.
• Highly organised, methodical and adept at managing time effectively.
• Able to simplify complex topics and issues to engage with a wider range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Proven ability to plan effectively and deliver against deadlines, even when facing significant obstacles.
• Willingness to undertake continuous professional development in emergency planning and incident management.
• Proven track record in managing teams, projects, or large‑scale programmes.
• Proficiency as a technical author, capable of creating structured business templates and procedural documentation.
• Practical knowledge of emergency planning and incident response processes, including development and maintenance of plans and procedures.
• Experience working in emergency planning, business continuity or incident response. Ideally within the water industry or an operational environment.
• Awareness of the Security and Emergency Measures Direction (SEMD) and a working knowledge of the Civil Contingencies Act.
• Experience supporting or contributing to emergency exercises, post‑incident reviews and training.
• Employees are required to be flexible and to be prepared to perform duties and other tasks within their capabilities.

Benefits package:

• Excellent Stakeholder pension scheme, up to 10% employer contribution.
• 5 weeks holiday plus bank holidays per annum, increasing to 6 weeks with length of service.
• Flexible annual leave policy to buy or sell holiday leave.
• Paid volunteering days.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Health cash plan.
• Life assurance.
• Wellbeing related benefits.

Compensation package: Upto £60,000

Company Culture and Inclusion:

Grow a career with a meaningful purpose. We know the communities we serve are diverse. We recognise creativity comes from diversity not similarity. That’s why we are enthusiastic about creating inclusion across age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion and identity. You will experience our dedication to equal opportunities and fair treatment for all: through your recruitment, employment and career progression with South East Water.

• Come to work to be safe, valued, and trusted.
• We’ll encourage you to create and pursue new opportunities for personal growth.
• A place to be the real you, build deeper connections and enjoy a sense of belonging.
• Be invested in helping us to create a sustainable water supply for now, and in the future.

We supply top‑quality drinking water to 2.3 million customers in the southeast of England. Through a network of 9,000 miles of pipe, we deliver 544 million litres of water every day. It's the skill and expertise of our employees that ensures our water meets the highest standards. We make sure we can meet the needs of our customers both now and in the future.