Innovation Investment and Foresight Lead

Dwr Cymru Cyf; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Variable pay

Additional annual leave

Pension contributions

Mortgage broker service

Family-friendly policies

Training and mentoring

Gym discounts

Cycle to work

Job summary

Dŵr Cymru Cyf (Welsh Water) is seeking a Senior Innovation Investment Lead to drive external funding and a pipeline of investment‑ready opportunities. You will translate regulatory, environmental and societal trends into practical proposals and collaborate with key partners to maximise funding success.

You will develop business cases, support funding bids, and coach colleagues on bid writing, while maintaining relationships with funders and regulators to ensure strategic fit and value delivery.

Qualifications

• Experience developing external funding submissions or investment/business cases.
• Ability to gather and analyse complex evidence from multiple sources.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams to shape proposals.
• Experience writing for senior stakeholders and governance papers.
• Experience building trusted relationships with funders, regulators or partners.
• Familiarity with governance, portfolio, funding or change environments.
• Understanding of innovation funding, benefits management or change in regulated sectors.

Responsibilities

• Lead innovation investment and external funding activity aligned to priorities.
• Coordinate a cross‑business pipeline of opportunities and funding routes.
• Lead horizon‑scanning and translate trends into opportunities.
• Develop standards and QA processes for funding submissions.
• Provide evidence and recommendations to senior leaders and governance forums.
• Develop funding submissions and investment proposals meeting governance requirements.
• Support innovation investment readiness forums and communities of practice.
• Coach colleagues on bid writing, evidence, benefits articulation and narratives.
• Build relationships with Ofwat, universities, suppliers and partners.
• Maintain reporting on funding secured, pipeline, and benefits realization.

Skills

Funding submissions

Investment readiness

Evidence building

Stakeholder communication

Proposal development

Education

Degree level qualification or equivalent

Job description

In this role, you'll help drive innovation investment, secure external funding and identify emerging opportunities that support our long‑term business, regulatory, environmental and customer priorities. Working closely with the Innovation Team, senior leaders and specialist functions, you'll develop strong business cases, support funding bids and help build a pipeline of investment‑ready innovation opportunities. You'll also play a key role in horizon scanning, translating future regulatory, technological, environmental and societal trends into practical opportunities that create value for our customers and business. Along the way, you'll collaborate with industry partners, funders and sector bodies to strengthen our innovation capability and maximise funding success.

What You’ll Do

• Lead innovation investment and external funding activity, ensuring opportunities are aligned to business priorities, regulatory commitments, environmental challenges, customer outcomes and long‑term value.
• Coordinate the development of a cross-business pipeline of strategic innovation investment opportunities, creating visibility of emerging opportunities, investment readiness, funding routes, value potential, delivery dependencies and prioritisation considerations that feed into ePMO/PfMO.
• Lead innovation horizon‑scanning activity, gathering insight on regulatory, environmental, technological and societal change and translating this into opportunities for further exploration.
• Develop and maintain standards, templates, readiness criteria and quality assurance processes for innovation funding submissions, investment cases and business cases.
• Provide evidence, analysis and recommendations to senior leaders and governance forums, clearly setting out strategic fit, value, affordability, risk, deliverability, dependencies, benefits, routes to embedment and long‑term outcomes.
• Develop high-quality funding submissions, business cases and investment proposals, ensuring they meet funder expectations and internal governance requirements.
• Support and contribute to innovation investment readiness forums and communities of practice, bringing together innovation and business colleagues to improve bid quality, strengthen business case development and share good practice.
• Coach colleagues across the business on successful innovation bid writing, business case development, evidence building, benefits articulation, investment narratives and decision‑ready content.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with Ofwat, Spring, UKWIR, universities, suppliers, other water companies and strategic partners to ensure opportunities are aligned to external expectations and positioned for success.
• Maintain reporting and track measurable outcomes from innovation investment, including funding secured, pipeline performance, forecast value, bid success rates, benefits realisation, strategic alignment, delivery confidence and lessons learned.
• Coordinate input from colleagues contributing to bid development, funding strategy, horizon scanning, investment assurance and strategic proposal development across Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.
• Undertake any other duties required to meet the needs of the business.

Degree level qualification or equivalent experience in business, innovation, policy, regulation, environmental science, engineering, finance, change or a related discipline. Experience developing or supporting successful external funding submissions, investment cases or business cases that have secured approval, funding or stakeholder support.

Experience working with complex evidence from operational, financial, technical, regulatory, environmental or customer sources and using it to shape clear, evidence‑led proposals.

Experience working across teams and bringing together colleagues from different professional backgrounds to shape proposals, resolve ambiguity and agree a clear way forward.

Experience writing for senior stakeholders and governance forums, including funder, business case or governance papers, with the ability to make complex issues clear and compelling.

Experience building trusted relationships with internal stakeholders and external partners, including funders, regulators, sector bodies, suppliers or academic organisations.

Experience working within governance, assurance, portfolio, funding or change environments where proposals need to meet defined standards before review or approval.

Good understanding of innovation, funding, investment planning, benefits management or organisational change in a regulated, technical or public‑service environment.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water keep 3 million people healthy each day with safe, reliable water, and take away wastewater to clean, before returning it safely to our beautiful rivers and seas.

To be able to deliver high quality, essential services which help to protect the health of our customers, colleagues and our environment, we need the right people to deliver on our vision. This is achieved by living our core values and demonstrating the core behaviours that underpin them. The security of our people, assets and information is key to us, so we are looking for people who understand and comply with the company's required security objectives. We know that the most successful teams are the most diverse teams. Equality, diversity and inclusion provide the very foundation to our culture at Welsh Water. We want every individual to feel confident, proud and able to bring their whole selves to work. To ensure an improved representation in our workforce, applications are particularly welcome from minority groups including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people, Females, LGBT+, Non‑binary and people with disabilities. Together we continue to build a workplace that not only celebrates the diverse voices of our colleagues but also represents each customer we serve. In essence, ours is a company based on trust, openness, respect, commitment and honesty. A company that our colleagues are proud to work for. Dŵr Cymru Cyf, a limited company registered in Wales No. 2366777. Registered office: Linea, Fortran Road, St. Mellons, Cardiff CF3 0LT.

As well as a market competitive salary, 34 days annual leave (pro rata, including public holidays), we offer a range of employee benefits and rewards including:

• Variable pay schemes (your salary band will remain the same, but performance depending, you could receive an incremental within-band increase and a yearly incentive)
• Option to buy additional annual leave up to 5 days per year
• Enhanced employer pension contributions - Up to 11% employer contributions
• Free Mortgage Brokering Services
• Enhanced family friendly policies
• Progression opportunities, including the ability to apply for funded training and coaching and mentoring programmes
• Gym and fitness discounts as well as high street shopping
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discount off all Welsh Water visitor attraction centres and gift shops
• Car-leasing scheme and free on-site parking at all sites
• Health CashBack scheme and access to an online GP service
• An employee assistance programme for employees and their immediate family
• Many more can be found on our website.

Due to the nature of the industry, we require satisfactory references, post offer medical clearance, and a criminal records Basic Disclosure check on all new employees joining the business.