Head of Planning and Scheduling

South West Water; Exeter; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading water services provider in Exeter is seeking a Head Of Planning and Scheduling to drive operational excellence for their Waste Water Operations team. This full-time role involves strategic leadership to enhance field team productivity, championing new workflows, and ensuring safety and quality in service delivery. The ideal candidate has a degree and significant leadership experience, alongside proven skills in planning and stakeholder management. A competitive salary and excellent benefits package are offered.

Benefits

Company car or cash allowance

Bonus scheme

Private Medical Insurance

Generous holiday allowance

Employee Sharesave scheme

Access to discounts through Perkbox

Qualifications

• Demonstrable leadership experience with large teams.
• Proven experience in designing and implementing effective strategies.
• Internal and external stakeholder management.

Responsibilities

• Ensure safety of all field teams.
• Improve delivery of planned and reactive work.
• Deliver change and continuous improvement.
• Meet all operational performance measures.

Skills

Leadership

Strategy formulation

Stakeholder management

Planning and scheduling

Education

Degree qualified or equivalent

Job description

Exeter, England /Operations and Supply Chain /Permanent full-time

AtSouth West Waterwe believe that the strongest businesses are built on solid, stable foundations - with a vision and a culture that gives them the freedom to change, improve and innovate.

We’re proud to be responsible for providing reliable, efficient and high-quality drinking water and wastewater services for the beautiful South West area.

And we have huge ambitions.

Not only are we committed to reaching net-zero by 2030, but we’ve also partnered with Wildlife Trusts, National Parks and local partners to help ensure a better future for generations to come.

So, if you want to be part of a diverse team where opportunities flow and fresh ideas are welcomed, #JustAddWater.

We're thrilled to announce an exciting opportunity for a Head Of Planning and Scheduling to join our hard-working Waste Water Operations team in Exeter. This is a full-time, permanent position that comes with a competitive salary of £80,000 - £85,000 plus car allowance and fantastic benefits.

About the role:

This is a brand new role where you'll be at the helm of operational planning and scheduling activities for South West Water. Your main task will be to ensure the wastewater field force is working at its optimum level, enabling us to deliver essential services to our customers. You'll be the catalyst for change, driving improvements and efficiencies to foster a proactive approach to planned work. We're looking for someone who can not only initiate change but also embed it into our work culture.

How you’ll enhance field team productivity:

Strategic Leadership: You’ll set the vision and strategy for smarter, more efficient delivery of planned and reactive work, ensuring our field teams are always in the right place at the right time, with the right resources

Empowering Field Teams: By streamlining scheduling and removing operational barriers, you’ll enable our field teams to focus on what they do best—delivering outstanding service—while reducing downtime and unnecessary travel.

Driving Continuous Improvement: You’ll champion new ways of working, leveraging technology and data to optimise routes, allocate tasks more effectively, and ensure our teams can complete more jobs, safely and to a high standard.

Collaboration for Success: Working closely with stores, logistics, and asset planning, you’ll ensure our field teams have everything they need, when they need it, minimising delays and maximising productivity,

Performance and Wellbeing: Your leadership will inspire and motivate our teams, fostering a culture of high performance, accountability, and safety—ensuring everyone gets home safe, every day.

What you'll be doing:

• Ensuring that our people get home safe every day. To create a team that strives to ensure that there are no serious incidents or lost time injuries by creating an environment that puts safety first.
• Setting a strategy to improve delivery of planned and reactive work and maintenance on time and to quality.
• Delivering change and continuous improvement to the operation of our front-line field teams, driving enhanced performance and customer service.
• Meeting and exceeding Opex, Capex + Totex financial targets, through a proactive approach to workforce planning and implementing operating efficiencies.
• Meeting all health and safety, financial, people, and operational performance measures required to deliver outstanding service to our operational business.
• Working in collaboration with the stores and logistics team to maximise the availability of parts and materials.
• Closely working with our Asset and planning teams to ensure delivery of our investment plans.
• Providing direction and leadership that motivates, inspires, and develops people to perform at their best, creating an environment that delivers on our commitment of being a Great Place to Work.
• As a member of the leadership team, you will have collective accountability for our performance commitments and other regulatory requirements under SEMD, Environment Act, as well as supporting the Company’s delivery of EPA4*.

What we are looking for:

• Degree qualified or equivalent
• Demonstrable leadership experience with large teams
• proven experience in designing and implementing effective strategies that drive change and deliver measurable outputs
• Internal and external stakeholder management
• Planning and Scheduling experience

What's in it for you:

• We know that the support and commitment of our staff is key to our success so you will receive the opportunity for ongoing support and development for a long-term career with us. We’re one of the largest companies in the South West and are proud to have been awarded Investors in People recognition. In return, we offer an excellent range of benefits including:
• A company car or cash for car allowance
• A company bonus
• Private Medical Insurance
• Competitive Contributory Pension
• Invest in Pennon through our employee Sharesave scheme
• Generous holiday allowance plus bank holidays, with an option to buy / sell leave offering you extra flexibility
• Take up to 26 weeks’ additional maternity leave
• Shared parental leave
• Look after your wellbeing through our Champion Health support platform
• Enjoy free eye tests and discounts on frames and lenses at Specsavers
• Enjoy access to thousands of deals and discounts on supermarkets, online retailer, travel, eating out, cinema, gyms and more through Perkbox

If you’re passionate about making a real difference to the productivity and well being of field teams, and want to play a key role in delivering essential services to our communities, we’d love to hear from you. Closing date: 22nd August 2025

Be yourself, we like it that way. Together, we will build a culture of belonging, where inclusion is instinctive. Diversity is our strength and a reflection of our communities. We care, we value everyone, we celebrate uniqueness.

Our core values which are essential to our success are:

Be Rock Solid - Build trust and be trusted. Be the one we all look to and can depend on.

Be You - We want you to bring your best everyday. Be yourself and make your mark in your individual way.

Be the Future - Embrace change. Drive Progress. Own the challenge.

We're always pleased to hear from talented people. So if you have any questions about the opportunities that we have available, or if there's anything else you'd like to know before you apply (or indeed during the application process), please don't hesitate to send your details to our Talent Acquisition Team.