Strategic Planning Manager

South East Water UK; Snodland; On-site; GBP 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Excellent stakeholder pension scheme

5 weeks holiday + bank holidays

Flexible annual leave policy

Paid volunteering days

Cycle to work scheme

Health cash plan

Life assurance

Wellbeing related benefits

Job summary

South East Water UK is seeking a Strategic Planning Manager to shape the long-term roadmap up to 25 years. You will lead the development of adaptive strategies, align with the Strategic Direction Statement, and embed Net Zero, climate resilience, and regulatory priorities into operational planning.

You will own resilience strategy, identify emerging risks, and drive strategic projects to close capability gaps, ensuring outcomes benefit customers and stakeholders over generations.

Qualifications

• Data literacy and analysis to inform planning assumptions.
• Excellent writing and presentation skills.
• Collaborating with diverse stakeholders to co-create strategy.
• Project management to run multiple work streams.
• Understanding of the water industry landscape.
• Strong problem-solving mindset and can-do attitude.
• Experience in the water sector or regulated utilities.
• Ability to simplify complex concepts for readers.

Responsibilities

• Owning the big plan and keeping strategic documents current.
• Listening to customers and stakeholders to guide planning.
• Setting core assumptions for use in planning models.
• Joining the dots to align different strategies.
• Monitoring external trends to stay proactive.
• Maintaining high-quality, accessible strategy documents.
• Coordinating engagement on water sector reform and priorities.
• Ensuring programs align with the corporate strategy and regulatory needs.
• Supporting decision-making on delivery priorities and trade-offs.
• Ensuring outcomes meet customer needs and regulatory requirements.

Skills

Data literacy

Writing & presentation

Collaboration

Project management

Industry knowledge

Problem solving

Water sector experience

Strategic document development

Job description

Summary:

Are you an experienced strategist capable of looking beyond the next quarter to shape the next quarter-century?

Do you have the analytical foresight and leadership drive to chart a resilient, sustainable path for our business?

As our Strategic Planning Manager, you will stand at the helm of our future roadmap—scanning long-term horizons and developing adaptive strategies that span up to 25 years. In a rapidly evolving landscape, you will serve as the central strategic coordinator, ensuring core strategies like our Strategic Direction Statement (SDS) drive seamless alignment across every corner of the organisation.

From embedding critical initiatives—including Net Zero targets, climate change adaptation, resilient supply, and environmental enhancement—into all operational plans, to navigating wider water industry shifts, your work will directly protect our corporate priorities. You will own our resilience strategy, identify emerging risks before they manifest, and lead targeted strategic projects to bridge capability gaps. If you thrive on turning long-horizon challenges into clear, actionable goals, step into a role where your insight will define our legacy for generations to come.

Main responsibilities:

• Owning the big plan: Acts as the lead author of key strategic documents, ensuring they remain current and adaptable to global changes.

• Listening to the community: Ensures that customer and stakeholder voices are heard, utilising their insights to direct strategic planning.

• Setting the ground rules: Establishes core assumptions (such as population growth or weather patterns) to be used by the business for planning purposes.

• Joining the dots: Reviews business operations to ensure consistency and alignment across different strategies.

• Future spotting: Monitors external trends, technology, and risks (such as PESTLE factors) to maintain a proactive stance.

• Keeping it professional: Ensures that strategy documents are consistent, high-quality, and accessible to all stakeholders.

• Shaking it up: Coordinates engagement with water sector reform, maintaining key objectives and overseeing work programs against top priorities. Tracks different work streams to ensure organisational alignment.

• Strategic oversight: Maintains a high-level, business-wide view to ensure all key programs align with the strategic roadmap and meet regulatory requirements. Owns the overall Corporate Plan.

• Decision support: Supports strategic decision-making regarding the prioritisation of delivery programs and necessary trade-offs.

• Outcome assurance: Ensures decisions are anchored in achieving the best outcomes for customers, aligning with strategic direction and meeting regulatory requirements.

You’ll need:
Skills / Qualifications / Experience

• Good standard of secondary education and able to demonstrate a good standard of numeracy and literacy skills.

• Data literacy and analysis: Ability to work with data to create uniform planning assumptions or to understand trends to think through future strategy.

• Writing and presentation: Excellent written skills in whatever form it takes.

• Collaboration: The ability to work with a range of people within and outside of the company to co-create strategy documents. You’ll need to be comfortable making the first contact and agreeing how we work together.

• Project management: Skills to manage the projects which we will put around our work.

• Industry knowledge: Good understanding of the water industry landscape.

• Positive mindset and problem solving** :** A can do attitude is a must.

• Previous roles within the water sector or a similarly complex regulated utility environment (e.g. Energy or Telecoms).

• Involvement in developing strategic documents and will have mastered the art of making the complex simple for the reader.

• Experience in the submission of five-year regulatory business plans (e.g. Price Reviews like PR24) and understand the regulatory framework.

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.

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:

From £70,000 p.a. dependent on experience.