Senior Service Planner

Scottish Water; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 44,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A public utility provider in Scotland is seeking a Senior Service Planner to join their Wastewater System Planning Team. This full-time role involves leading the development of Wastewater System Plans and working with various stakeholders to ensure compliance with standards. The ideal candidate will have experience in the water industry and strong communication skills, contributing to sustainable practices that support Scotland's growth. The position offers a competitive salary and excellent benefits.

Benefits

38 days holiday per year

Annual company bonus

Flexible working policies

Life assurance

Pension plan

Qualifications

• Solid understanding of the water industry and challenges to net-zero.
• Experience conveying complex information to stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the creation and implementation of Wastewater System Plans.
• Collaborate with various teams within the organization.
• Monitor and review system plans to integrate into business.

Skills

Knowledge of water industry

Strong communication skills

Experience with wastewater asset planning

Familiarity with project management approaches

Education

Degree or equivalent experience

Tools

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

PowerBi

Copperleaf

IBM Maximo

Job description

Senior Service Planner

Scotland, United Kingdom

Together we are Trusted to Serve Scotland.

It’s not every job where you make a difference for the people of Scotland. But it’s what’s behind every job here.

Our work keeps Scotland’s water flowing, from reservoir to tap – and from sewer to treatment plant. Want to join us? We’re looking for an motivated and enthusiastic individual to join our newly formed Wastewater System Planning Team. This team is a part of our Environmental Planning and Assurance (EPA) group and plays a crucial role in transforming the wastewater planning community. Together, we’ll change how we approach our work and empower smarter investments that promote sustainable and inclusive growth, creating a flourishing Scotland.

What you’ll do

In this full‑time, permanent role based flexibly across Scotland, you’ll report to the Wastewater System Planning Team Leader within the Risk & Lifecycle Planning Team. As a part of the Wastewater System Planning Team, you’ll focus on the future of our wastewater networks and treatment systems. Collaborating across the wastewater community, you’ll assess risks and pinpoint when and how to take action, compiling all insights into a comprehensive System Plan. This approach ensures we’re meeting service standards set by our regulators and customers, taking into account factors like population growth, climate change, and the need for asset maintenance.

You’ll also work closely with the Sustainable Investment Decision Making (SIDM) team, one of our core transformation programs at Scottish Water. SIDM’s goal is to build a strong, lasting investment framework that allows us to deliver the right investments at the right time, adding value for customers. You’ll help us enhance our System Planning capabilities, ultimately leading to better decision‑making that supports value, efficiency, service excellence, and our Net Zero goals.

As a Wastewater System Planner, you’ll be responsible for leading the creation and implementation of Wastewater System Plans to meet the requirements of customers, stakeholders, regulators, and statutory bodies. You’ll also monitor and regularly review these plans to make sure they’re integrated into our everyday business and corporate systems.

You will also be collaborating with wastewater service teams to provide a comprehensive view of system risks and opportunities, aligning our work with Wastewater Service Strategy goals and promoting investment data, customer feedback, asset performance data, hydraulic modelling, and decision‑support tools.

You’ll be responsible for engaging with Investment Planning to show system demands and aid in prioritising investment. Additionally, you’ll play a part in transformation initiatives like Project Orbit, our Intelligent Asset Base efforts.

Some key accountabilities in this role include developing systems thinking for wastewater management across Scottish Water, designing our Wastewater System Planning framework, and working with various teams within and outside of the organisation, including environmental and economic regulators. You’ll also help visualise “Sink to Sea” investment needs through data gathering, analysis, and product development.

What you’ll bring

We’re seeking someone with a solid understanding of the water industry and the challenges we face on the journey to net‑zero. You should have knowledge of the standards, statutory requirements, and licensing under which Scottish Water operates. You should be interested in examining our current processes and committed to finding ways to improve them. Ideally, you’ll also have experience with wastewater asset planning, our asset management systems, and planning processes. Strong communication skills are a must, as you’ll need to convey complex information to a variety of stakeholders, encouraging change beyond your immediate scope. A degree or equivalent experience is required, along with strong writing skills.

Beyond that, we’re also looking for a few nice‑to‑haves.

Experience with system thinking, adaptive planning, transformation initiatives, tools like Copperleaf and IBM Maximo, or data management and visualisation would be valuable, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and PowerBi. Familiarity with project management approaches (waterfall, agile) and skills in workshop planning, facilitation, and presentation would also be a plus.

3>Looking out for you

While the work we do is important, we know it’s not the only thing that matters. That’s why we make sure you have everything need to find a good work‑life balance.

This is a full‑time position based on working 35 hours per week. You’ll get plenty of time to recharge with 38 days of holiday every year (including public holidays). And you can even buy up to five more if you need a little extra time. You can also take time off to volunteer in your community.

When it comes to major life events we have family‑friendly policies around adoption, maternity, and parental leave. And for the everyday? We embrace flexible working.

For your future, there’s our pension (the “know‑what‑you’ll‑get‑when‑you‑retire” kind), and life assurance.

As for some nice extras? You can expect an annual company bonus. Not to mention access to SW Splash – handy rewards that can save you money on holidays, bills, and shopping.

Not‑so‑small print

This role will be Grade 7. If you’re new to Scottish Water, you’ll join us on a starting salary of £44,030. Performance‑driven pay progression would then allow you to move through the range to a maximum of £55,000.

If you’re interested in this role – or know someone else who might be – the closing date for applications is midnight on the 5th of December 2025.

Job offers at Scottish Water are conditional, and will be confirmed on completion of our pre‑employment screening, e.g. referencing, criminal record checks, licence checks, etc. Screening is conducted on our behalf by a third party, and must be completed before your start date. Don’t worry – we’ll only start these checks once you’ve accepted an offer.

A few final things worth knowing…

Research shows that some people avoid applying for jobs unless they can meet every single criterion. If you’re interested in this job, but don’t tick all the boxes, apply anyway! We hardly ever hire people who can do every part of a job from Day One. Everyone has a learning curve. So don’t rule yourself out!

Let us know if there are any changes we can make to our recruitment process to help you perform at your best. Lots of our people have disabilities or neurodiverse conditions (including some of our recruiters!).

We’re very used to making adjustments, so please don’t be afraid to ask.

As part of our commitment to developing a flourishing Scotland, it’s important that all our employees are Scottish taxpayers. If you join us, your home address will need to be in Scotland. If you don’t already live here, you’ll need to commit to moving here within your first three months.

Please note, Scottish Water takes the safety, health and wellbeing of our employees, colleagues and customers very seriously and as such you may be subject to Drug & Alcohol testing in line with our policyp>

Finally (finally!), candidates who haven’t submitted an application in the last 12 months will have their records removed from our recruitment database. You won’t need to do anything. Your data will be automatically deleted.