SEMD Lead

South East Water; Snodland; On-site; GBP 54,000 - 66,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stakeholder pension

5 weeks holiday + bank holidays

Flexible annual leave

Volunteer days

Cycle to work

Health cash plan

Life assurance

Wellbeing related benefits

Job summary

South East Water is seeking a proactive SEMD Lead to ensure regulatory compliance and operational resilience. You will drive SEMD RAG assessments, lead the go green plan, and coordinate with internal teams to deliver on milestones.

The role requires strong leadership, exceptional communication, and a hands-on approach to manage a small team across security and emergency planning in a regulated water environment.

Qualifications

• Proven leadership and project management capability delivering executive reporting.
• Collaborative mindset with cross-departmental influence and clear communication.
• Hands-on team leadership with a proactive, detail-focused approach.
• Experience or strong transferable skills in SEMD or other regulated sectors.

Responsibilities

• Own SEMD RAG assessment submission and drive milestones across departments.
• Lead SEMD go green plan development with measurable actions and regular reporting.
• Manage SEMD legal instruments delivery, ensuring milestones and risk mitigation are tracked.
• Mentor and lead a small team, ensuring outputs meet industry and company standards.
• Liaise with regulators and industry groups; shape long-term SEMD strategy.

Skills

Leadership

Project Management

Stakeholder management

Team leadership

Security knowledge

Education

Security/Emergency planning qualification

Job description

Summary

Are you a proactive project manager with a knack for compliance, risk mitigation, and team leadership? South East Water is seeking a hands-on SEMD (Security and Emergency Measures Direction) Lead to ensure our operations meet vital regulatory standards under the Water Industry Act. Whether you bring deep expertise in Security and Emergency, and ideally within the water sector or offer exceptional project management skills from another regulated industry, this high-visibility role places you at the heart of our operational resilience.

Key Responsibilities & Ownership

You will serve as the strategic connector across South East Water, ensuring SEMD guidance is seamlessly understood and embedded in daily operations, while driving two critical workstreams: SEMD RAG Assessment ‘Go Green Plan’: Act as Lead Project Manager to drive milestones and maintain momentum across departments. Produce monthly performance and progress reports for the SEMD Steering Group and Regulatory Steering Groups. Deliver comprehensive quarterly updates directly to the Executive team. SEMD Legal Instruments Delivery: Manage and deliver required legal instruments, ensuring strict adherence to internal and external reporting deadlines. Proactively identify milestone risks, devise mitigation strategies, and implement corrective actions. Oversee and mentor a small, dedicated team, providing direct, hands-on support to execute daily objectives.

What We Are Looking For

Proven Leadership & Project Management: Demonstrated ability to track complex milestones, manage risk, and deliver executive-level reporting. Collaborative Mindset: Strong cross-departmental communication skills to educate, align, and gain buy-in on regulatory compliance. Hands-On Team Manager: Readiness to dive into detail while leading and developing a small specialist team. Industry & Security Experience (Preferred): Prior experience in emergency response, resilience, or the water industry is an advantage, but transferable experience in compliance-heavy or utility sectors is highly valued.

Main responsibilities

• Own the South East Water annual SEMD RAG assessment: This role will be responsible for coordinating and submitting our annual SEMD RAG assessment. This role will work closely with internal stakeholders to ensure the annual SEMD RAG assessment is reflective of our business, providing guidance, support and clarity. This role will ensure the annual SEMD RAG assessment is managed and used as working document, rather than an annual health check. Driving continuous improvement and compliance with the regulations.
• Own the South East Water ‘SEMD go green plan’: This role will be responsible for developing our SEMD ‘go green plan’ after each annual SEMD RAG assessment submission. This role will be responsible for reviewing the ‘go green plan’ regularly, ensuring it continues to meet the requirements of South East Water, within the SEMD guidance. This role will work closely with internal stakeholders to identify clear and measurable actions that sit within our ‘go green plan’. This role will support internal stakeholders to deliver actions within our ‘go green plan’ by providing expert guidance and support. This role will provide regular reporting on our ‘go green plan’ which will be shared both internally and externally.
• Internal and external stakeholder management: This role will be responsible for raising the profile of SEMD within South East Water. With a combination of regular, informative updates, and using their expertise to bring the topic to life. This role will be responsible for liaising with the Drinking Water Inspectorate on issues relating specifically to SEMD.
• Horizon scanning: This role will be responsible for identifying potential legislation changes and assessing the impact to South East Water to help shape our long term strategy. This role will be required to sit on industry specific working groups, helping to identify external threats and issues facing other companies and ensuring South East Water have an appropriate and proactive approach to mitigate.
• Team Leadership and Delivery: Directly manage and develop a team of three reports, overseeing performance and professional growth. Coordinate staff and build resource plans to ensure project milestones within our SEMD legal instruments are met efficiently. Act as the final ‘quality controller’ for all team outputs, ensuring work meets industry and company standards.
• Own delivery of our SEMD legal instrument: This role will be responsible for project managing the activities within our SEMD legal instrument. This role will be responsible for reporting progressing against milestones within our SEMD legal instrument, both internally and externally. This role will be responsible for identifying and managing project risks within our SEMD legal instrument.

Skills / Qualifications / Experience (Essential)

Good standard of secondary education and able to demonstrate a good standard of numeracy and literacy skills. A formal qualification in security and or emergency planning would be advantageous. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage diverse audiences and build strong working relationships. Highly organised, methodical and adept at managing time effectively. Demonstrate thoroughness and a strong attention to detail. A curious and innovative thinker who is comfortable constructively challenging the status quo. Able to simplify complex topics and issues to engage with a wider range of internal and external stakeholders. Proven ability to plan effectively and deliver against deadlines, even when facing significant obstacles. Managed projects from initial discovery and scoping through to execution and post-launch evaluation. Proven track record in managing teams, projects, or large-scale programmes. Proficiency as a technical author, capable of creating structured business templates and procedural documentation. Demonstrable experience working on projects or initiatives relating to SEMD and a clear understanding of the requirements. 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. 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.

Eligibility and Compliance

It is necessary for you to have the legal right to work in the UK when you begin employment with South East Water. Additionally, as part of the employment offer, you will need to pass background, identity, and employment referencing checks.

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

Upto £60,000

Company Culture

• 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