People SQL Specialist

Thames Water Utilities Limited; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 44,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading utility company in the UK seeks a People SQL Specialist to develop, optimize, and maintain SQL queries to support business initiatives. The role involves collaborating with stakeholders to understand data requirements, ensuring data accuracy, and enhancing data models, predominantly for operational and project reporting. Candidates should have extensive SQL experience and strong analytical skills. The position offers a competitive salary up to £44,000 per annum and numerous employee benefits including a generous pension scheme and opportunities for professional growth.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Generous Pension Scheme

Annual Leave – 26 days holiday

Access to health and wellbeing benefits

Qualifications

• Significant experience developing advanced SQL queries and stored procedures.
• Strong understanding of SQL database design principles and performance tuning.
• Experience in data analysis and data modelling.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather data requirements.
• Maintain complex SQL queries and data models.
• Ensure data accuracy and integrity across SQL outputs.

Skills

Advanced SQL queries

Data modelling

Data analysis

Communication skills

Problem-solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field

Tools

Power BI

Power Automate

Job description

This role requires deep expertise in SQL, data modelling, and the ability to translate complex workforce data into reliable, structured outputs that support critical business decisions and project delivery.

The People SQL Specialist will work closely with stakeholders to understand data requirements, design scalable data solutions, and ensure data accuracy and performance across all operational and project-related reporting, including high-visibility initiatives.

What you’ll be doing as a People SQL Specialist

• Collaborate with business stakeholders to gather data requirements and understand reporting dependencies.
• Analyse, document, and enhance data sources, data structures, and data quality frameworks.
• Develop, optimise, and maintain complex SQL queries, views, and stored procedures to support BAU and project-specific data needs.
• Design and maintain robust data models and datasets to enable accurate downstream reporting in Power BI and other analytics tools.
• Ensure data integrity, accuracy, and consistency across all SQL outputs and related data assets.
• Conduct comprehensive testing and validation of SQL logic, data pipelines, and performance improvements.
• Troubleshoot and resolve data discrepancies, performance issues, and source-to-target inconsistencies.
• Collaborate with reporting specialists to ensure SQL datasets meet usability, performance, and compliance requirements.
• Lead improvements to database structures and query optimisation to enhance system stability and reporting efficiency.
• Support automation and workflow enhancements through SQL-driven solutions and integrations.

36 hours a week.

What you should bring to the role

To thrive in this role, the essential criteria you’ll need is:

• Significant experience developing advanced SQL queries, stored procedures, and data models.
• Strong understanding of SQL database design principles, performance tuning, and data warehousing concepts.
• Experience in data analysis and data modelling.
• Working knowledge of Power BI (including data modelling and RLS) is desirable but not essential.
• Excellent analytical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and attention to detail.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast‑paced environment.
• Experience with Power Automate or other workflow/automation tools is a plus.

Additional skills and experiences would be great to have/bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary of up to £44,000 per annum depending on experience.
• Annual Leave – 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with length of service (plus bank holidays)
• Performance‑related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets.
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON.
• Access to a range of benefits to support health, wellbeing and finances – from annual health MOTs and physiotherapy and counselling to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.

If you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.

Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

We’re committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, whether that’s extra time, accessible formats, or anything else just let us know, we’re here to help and support.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business and meet colleagues.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.