Operational Resilience & Security Manager

South East Water Limited; Snodland; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme (employer contribution)

5 weeks holiday + bank holidays

Cycle to work scheme

Health cash plan

Life assurance

Wellbeing related benefits

Job summary

South East Water Limited seeks an Operational Resilience and Security Manager to ensure SEMD compliance, develop the security strategy, and lead emergency planning across the business. As SME, you will translate industry guidance, identify risks, and secure funding through the price review process.

You will engage with external bodies, train teams in incident management, and drive robust security and resilience plans throughout the organisation.

Qualifications

• NVQ Level 3/4 in security or emergency planning (preferably water industry).
• Ability to lead a multi-disciplinary team and manage complex programmes.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Experience with SEMD and emergency planning guidance.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Operational Resilience and Security team.
• Ensure SEMD compliance and communicate requirements across the business.
• Act as SME to disseminate industry guidance and manage risk mitigations.
• Lead security-focused pricing discussions and funding requests.
• Develop and oversee the Emergency Planning capability and external engagements.
• Coordinate with external bodies (LRFs, DEFRA, Water UK) and training teams.
• Prepare annual SEMD RAG assessments and improvement plans.

Skills

Security leadership

Stakeholder influence

Risk management

Project management

Team mentoring

Decision making

Industry liaison

Education

NVQ Level 3/4 in security or emergency planning

Job description

Summary

Summary: The Operational Resilience and Security Manager is responsible for ensuring South East Water comply with the Security and Emergency Measures Direction, as per the Water Industry Act. The role will be responsible for developing our protective security strategy, ensuring the requirements are clearly communicated within South East water, fully understood and complied with at all times. As an Subject Matter Expert (SME), this role will be responsible for disseminating industry guidance to the wider business. Ensuring any risks or issues are identified and appropriate mitigation put in place. The Operational Resilience and Security Manager will lead on our price review submission for security matters, ensuring an appropriate business case is submitted to secure funding for future requirements. In addition, this role will develop and lead our emergency planning capability. By engaging with external stakeholders (LRFs, industry working groups, other utilities) and through the newly established Emergency Planning Team, they will ensure South East Water has the appropriate emergency plans in place to deal with all foreseeable incidents / events.

Main responsibilities

Develop and manage the Operational Resilience and Security team: Lead, mentor and manage the ORS team. Ensure the appropriate processes and procedures are in place, ensuring compliance with requirements set out in SEMD. Provide guidance and expert advice to the team. Provide guidance to stakeholders at South East Water, as the business SME: Ensure the wider business has the appropriate level of understanding to maintain compliance. Identify emerging risks and issues early and provide guidance to Senior Management and Directors. Feed into the price review process as the security lead, ensuring funding requirements are clearly articulated taking into account future needs. Work closely with our Alternative Water and Ops Improvement Teams, ensuring operational contingency plans align with our business emergency response plans. Proactively manage external stakeholders by building trust and working relationships: Lead our engagement with LRF’s by participating in working groups and test exercises. Attend external incident debriefs when required. Act as primary contact for the Drinking Water Inspectorate for matters relating to SEMD. Participate in industry working groups, focusing on security and emergency planning topics. Liaise regularly with Water UK to discuss and review industry specific risks. Act as the primary contact for DEFRA. Provide guidance through training materials working with the HR Team: Incident management training. Security awareness training. Emergency planning training. Complete our annual SEMD RAG assessment and ‘go green plan’ You will work closely with other departments to ensure our annual SEMD RAG assessment is submitted on time. You will also work closely with other departments to ensure our annual SEMD RAG assessment is suitably detailed and completed to the required standard. It will be required to identify any areas that are not meeting the standard, identify the appropriate action required and implement.

Own South East Water’s Incident and Emergency Plan

The emergency plan is reviewed annually as a minimum. There will responsibility for ensuring the plan is updated, following any recommendations from incident reviews. Ensuring we have a planned programme of test incident scenarios. Undertake incident reviews, identify areas for improvement and implement actions: You will be expected to undertake internal post incident reviews for all level 3 and 4 events. Producing reports for all level 3 and 4 incident reviews and provide recommendations where appropriate. Tracking incident recommendations and where relevant implementation.

Own our contracts with external security providers

Ensuring we have the appropriate contracts in place to maintain our physical security infrastructure. Ensuring our security contractors are providing the right level of service and it represents good value for South East Water.

Ensure capital projects are compliant with the latest security guidance and SEMD

Advising security requirements for all Engineering schemes. Making sure an appropriate audit process is in place for all construction sites.

Ensure our Security Risk Assessments are reflective of current risk level and maintained

You will be responsible for undertaking planned site security audits and undertaking reactive site security audits (following suspicious activity or confirmed intrusions). There will be a need for completing 3 day and 20 day reports for the DWI following confirmed site intrusions.

Skills / Qualifications / Experience

• NVQ Level 3 / 4 (or equivalent) within a security or emergency planning discipline, preferably water industry specific.
• Ability to develop, motivate and lead a multi-disciplinary team.
• Highly organised, methodical, and adept at managing time effectively.
• Demonstrates thoroughness and a strong attention to detail.
• Problem-solving skills, capable of rapid and sound decision-making in high-pressure scenarios, often with incomplete or ambiguous information, utilising strong logical reasoning.
• Ability to influence stakeholders, using sound logic and reasoning.
• Proven track record in managing teams, projects, or large-scale programmes.
• Demonstrable experience creating new teams, projects or workstreams.
• Experience navigating regulated industries and interfacing with bodies such as the DWI.
• Significant experience working within a security or emergency planning discipline.
• Extensive knowledge of SEMD, Emergency Planning Guidance for the Water Industry, Protective Security Guidance for the Water Industry and the Civils Contingencies Act 2004.

Employees are required to be flexible and to be prepared to perform duties and other tasks within their capabilities. The nature of our business is such that the contents of any job profile are subject to change from time to time.

Company Culture

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.

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

Ppto £70,000, plus a £6,492.29 car allowance Be you, belong and valued.

Values & What you can expect

• 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. Grow a career with a meaningful purpose.