Technical Optimiser pumping

Yorkshire Water; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading water management company seeks a Technical Optimiser to enhance operational performance across wastewater assets. This role involves managing complex workflows, delivering technical support, and ensuring regulatory compliance to drive efficiency. Candidates must have a full UK driving licence and relevant technical experience. The position offers a permanent contract in the Leeds/York area with a focus on safety and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• In-depth technical knowledge of wastewater assets.
• Experience in continuous improvement in processes.
• Strong data interpretation skills using YW systems.

Responsibilities

• Manage operational activities to deliver workloads.
• Provide technical support for operational management.
• Act as liaison between operations and other departments.

Skills

Technical knowledge of wastewater assets

Data interpretation

Proactive problem-solving

Experience with KPI realization

Tools

Excel

Job description

Technical Optimiser – Yorkshire Water

Location: Leeds / York area, Yorkshire region.

Employment type: Permanent – 37 hours per week, Monday to Friday, with standby rota once fully trained.

Job Summary: Support sewage pumping works across the Yorkshire region. The role requires a full driving licence (no more than 6 points). The Technical Optimiser will drive and support excellent operational performance across wastewater assets including treatment works, pumping stations, CSOs, and detention tanks.

Key Responsibilities

• Demonstrate required health and safety behaviour that complies with company policy and creates a positive safety culture. Ensure all activity on the asset base is completed in accordance with YW Health & Safety policies such as Control of Work, Risk Assessments, and Site inductions.
• Plan, organise and manage complex operational activities on the sites to deliver both reactive and proactive workload.
• Provide technical support and guidance to operational roles in their delivery of operational management of the asset base, driving efficiency and productivity while continuing to improve performance.
• Act as a key liaison between operations and other internal departments such as E&MS, Asset Management and Asset Integrity.
• Verify and investigate all asset performance shortfalls using the company RCA approach.
• Resolve high‑priority, complex and emergency problems, using external resources where necessary.
• Deliver performance commitments such as Pollution incidents, TWC Compliance, Bathing Water Quality, Energy consumption, sludge quality performance, to help Yorkshire Water achieve upper quartile performance.
• Drive efficiency and productivity through operations while continuing to improve performance.
• Ensure team compliance with all regulatory and quality assurance requirements through effective planning, monitoring, control, operation, and optimisation.
• Work as part of the team to deliver excellent performance by understanding how individual performance links into achieving the team’s wider objectives.
• Provide support and investigation in the event of asset failure.
• Proactively monitor trends using SCADA and RTS to improve process efficiency and monitor remote sites to observe performance, driving new ways of working.
• Alter RTS deadbands and set‑point adjustments as required.
• Proactively manage, highlight and escape customer issues, ensuring appropriate resolutions and that all customer interactions meet our Customer Promise.
• Demonstrate financial awareness when making day‑to‑day business decisions.
• Follow appropriate approval processes for additional work.
• Seek the most cost‑effective solution when an asset requires mitigation, e.g. hiring pumps over tankering.
• Be involved in capital schemes and commissioning of new assets, building alliances both internally and externally.
• Update and implement asset mitigation plans.
• Promote accurate risk through the risk management process, ensuring asset risks are visible and represented in the corporate system using incident support data and asset failure history.
• Drive proactive operation, responding to lead measures and maximising the benefits of failure‑predictor models.
• Support Pumping Operators and Maintenance Technicians with on‑site coaching, analytical support, and training to ensure both individuals and assets achieve their full potential.

Required Qualifications

• In‑depth technical knowledge and experience of operating and optimising similar wastewater assets.
• Experience delivering continual improvement in a process or production environment.
• Extensive experience of strategy development, deployment, and delivery.
• Strong background in data and interpretation, particularly using corporate YW systems and Excel.
• Ability to be proactive, take ownership of issues, think through problems and work with others to resolve them across an operational department.
• Experience supporting and embedding change within an operational team.
• Experience delivering against challenging business targets and realising KPIs.
• Full valid UK driving licence (with no more than 6 points).

Additional Information

If successful, you will be required to undergo pre‑employment checks including a Basic Disclosure Check and may be required to undergo a security vetting process for either a Counter‑Terrorist Check or Security Check clearance. All roles are subject to a medical questionnaire and additional medicals when required.

We are committed to removing barriers and ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to everyone. We offer a range of adjustments to make your application experience as comfortable and straightforward as possible. If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition that requires changes to the recruitment process, please include this information in your application. We will then discuss any reasonable adjustments required.

Kelda Group reserves the right to close this position before the published closing date, so we advise you to complete and submit your application as soon as possible.