Graduate Leadership Programme

SevernTrentLife; Coventry; On-site; GBP 32,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading utility company in Coventry is seeking passionate graduates for their Graduate Leadership Programme. This 27-month program offers hands-on experience through three unique placements across various business functions, fostering personal and professional development. Ideal candidates are adaptable, possess excellent communication skills, and are eager to make a positive impact in the community. Starting salary is £31,500 with numerous benefits including training, a bonus scheme, and generous holidays.

Benefits

28 days holiday + bank holidays

Annual bonus scheme

Leading pension scheme

Dedicated training and development

Electric vehicle scheme

Qualifications

• Willingness to travel across locations to gain diverse experience.
• Ability to prioritize tasks and respond quickly to changing situations.
• Strong ability to analyze information and present to various audiences.

Responsibilities

• Engage with and influence different stakeholders.
• Measure customer experience and resolve customer issues.
• Manage project risks and ensure successful project delivery.

Skills

Communication skills

Problem-solving

Stakeholder management

Adaptability

Team collaboration

Education

Any degree background

Job description

Graduate Leadership Programme

LET’S CUT STRAIGHT TO IT

At Severn Trent, we believe everyone deserves more. More care for the, more sustainable initiatives, and more support for the communities we serve. That's why we're on a mission to deliver bigger and better things, and we need passionate graduates like you to help us achieve our goals.

Our people and culture are the heart of our success. We're proud to be in the top 5% of utility companies worldwide for employee engagement and ranked as a Top 50 UK Employer on Glassdoor. With nearly 10,000 dedicated colleagues, we're looking for more brilliant people who are eager to turn challenges into opportunities for a better future.

If you're excited to learn, and ready to make a real impact, we want you on our team.

LET’S TELL YOU MORE

Our Graduate Leadership Programme offers an ideal blend of personal and professional development. You’ll gain hands‑on experience across frontline operations and core business functions through three unique nine‑month placements. During this time, you’ll learn the fundamentals of our business and how we collaborate to deliver services across water and waste, while taking ownership of key business challenges and projects.

Your placements will provide exposure to our four core business areas: Customer, People, Project, and Commercial. In line with our company values, you’ll embrace curiosity—exploring new business areas and taking on a variety of roles. You’ll demonstrate courage by challenging existing ways of working and take ownership in turning innovative ideas into reality.

As you develop strategic and critical thinking skills, you’ll also learn how to showcase your work effectively, presenting to stakeholders across the business. This is your opportunity to demonstrate creativity and make a real impact in shaping our future direction.

We welcome graduates from all backgrounds because we know diverse minds bring fresh ideas and new perspectives. We’re looking for individuals who want to build their career with us and seize every opportunity. In return, we’ll support you with varied experiences, training and development—providing a strong foundation for your future career.

HOW WILL THE PROGRAMME WORK?

You’ll be primarily based at Severn Trent Headquarters in Coventry—the heart of our region— but flexibility to travel across our patch is essential. This mobility ensures you gain a wide range of exposure to different teams and locations throughout the programme.

This programme to give you a broad range of experience across the business which means you could take on a role across any of our directorates! For example, you may find yourself working as part of our asset strategy or innovation teams in Chief Engineer, or you could be learning about our people strategy and how we plan our future workforce in Human Resources. You could be supporting Strategic Business planning in our Strategy and Regulation teams or even helping to deliver our Carbon and Sustainability ambitions in our Environmental teams.

In this exciting programme, you will have the chance to discuss your development and career ambitions in your 1‑1 meetings with business leads, mentors, the cohort leader and the New Talent Team.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

You will expand your knowledge of project and people management, including learning how to effectively manage and influence stakeholders. You’ll also gain a strong business and commercial acumen, developing your ability to plan strategically with time, cost and quality in mind, and how to deliver this message successfully to a range of stakeholders.

You’ll gain a deeper understanding of why and how we make sure we deliver with our customers at the heart of what we do, and how we communicate this message across our communities.

Regardless of your placements, you will gain skills across the 4 core business pillars below, either directly through your placements or through supplementary training and project work.

People:

• How to engage with and influence different stakeholders from our front‑line teams and technical experts, through to senior leaders and our executive committee.
• How to present with impact to a range of audiences.

Customer:

• How we measure customer experience and how we solve problems for our customers day‑to‑day. You may take on a role where you’ll deal directly with customers, helping solve issues and having a real impact at the front line.
• You may be involved in Business planning, focusing on our end customers.

Project:

• Exposure to the project lifecycle and understanding how we measure the impact and benefits of our projects.
• How to use core project management tools and an understanding of what we need to consider for project success (Time, Cost, Quality and Benefits).

Commercial:

• How to manage contractors and/or contracts, working closely with suppliers and contract partners to do so.
• Exposure to and appreciation of budget management and cost considerations in projects, teams and the wider business.
• Further understanding of our business strategy and how we are regulated.

The graduate programme is designed to help you discover a career path that aligns with your passion while also preparing you to become a future leader.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We want our employees to care and to have a genuine passion for what we do as a business. We need people who want to make a difference in providing a vital service to our customers, now and for the long‑term.

If you have the passion to succeed that we see in our graduates every day, you’ll be a great match for our programme. We’d love you to be someone with:

• A ‘can do’ attitude – willing to get stuck in, take accountability for decisions and actions and who takes pride in their work.
• A love of variety in a role and ability to adapt to a dynamic, fast‑paced working environment.
• Ability to quickly prioritise tasks and the initiative to dive head‑first into problem solving. No two days are the same on the front line and not every day goes to plan, so you’ll need to be quick on your feet to respond!
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills and enjoy working with multiple teams.
• Ability to analyse and interpret information and effectively communicate this to different team members and audiences.
• Ability to travel freely across our patch to visit different sites and travel to meetings and training days.
• Curiosity to learn quickly in a reactive and dynamic working environment.

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

Our New Talent Team will guide you and support you every step of the way. Furthermore, your line manager, mentor and graduate buddy will be there to help you in making sure you reach your full potential here at Severn Trent.

Location: Severn Trent Centre, Coventry, CV1 2LZ

Programme Duration: 27 months

Starting Salary: £31,500

Entry Criteria: Any degree background

Driving Requirements: Travel is required, therefore a driving licence and access to your own vehicle is preferable. However, the company Headquarters in Coventry and other main offices are accessible via public transport.

HOW WE’LL REWARD AND CARE FOR YOU IN RETURN

It’s not just a job you’ll get here; you’ll get a career too. We have a range of benefits that reward and recognise great work and award‑winning training to ensure you reach your potential. And we’ll also help you play your part in looking after the environment and the community in which we live.

Here are some of our favourites:

• 28 days holiday + bank holidays (and the ability to buy/sell up to 5 days per year)
• Annual bonus scheme (up to £2,225, subject to eligibility)
• Leading pension scheme – we will double your contribution (up to 15% when you contribute 7.5%)
• Sharesave – the chance to buy Severn Trent Plc shares at a discounted rate
• Dedicated training and development with our Academy
• Electric vehicle scheme and retail offers
• Family friendly policies
• Two paid volunteering days per year

As if that isn’t enough, you’ll receive an annual salary increase whilst you’re on programme and you’ll also get an increase when you move into your first job.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

At Severn Trent we are passionate about our people. We want to make sure that we continue to foster a more diverse, inclusive and cohesive culture that represents the communities and customers we serve. We’re making sure we keep up the progress with our wonderful working groups – LGBTQ+, Women in Operations & STEM, Disability and Ethnicity, who help us with our commitments. Find out more about our commitments to Diversity and Inclusion at Severn Trent.

LET’S GO

Apply now to build an amazing career and be part of a brilliant team. We can’t wait to hear from you.

• Roles close on 13th January at Midday (12pm)
• Check your diary – face‑to‑face assessments will run from 16th February to 20th March 2026
• Estimated start date – September 2026

To find out more about working with us, search #LifeatSevernTrent on social media.