Water Production Leader — Asset & Resilience

Institute of Water; Walsall; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel allowance

Performance-related bonus

Matched pension contribution

Company benefits

Job summary

South Staffordshire Water is seeking a Head of Production to lead the safe, reliable and sustainable delivery of high-quality drinking water across our production network. You will provide strategic direction, drive operational excellence and oversee major investment and asset management programmes.

The role requires senior leadership of a large team, strong stakeholder engagement, and a proven track record in regulated environments.

Qualifications

• Significant leadership experience within water production, utilities, infrastructure, energy, transportation or another asset-intensive environment.
• Strong understanding of operational asset management, maintenance and resilience planning.
• Experience developing and delivering complex operational or investment programmes.
• Proven ability to lead organisational change and drive performance improvement.
• Experience developing business cases, investment plans and long-term asset strategies.
• Strong commercial awareness with experience managing budgets, forecasts and financial performance.
• Experience operating within highly regulated environments and managing external stakeholder relationships.
• Demonstrable success leading multi-disciplinary teams and delivering against challenging objectives.
• Excellent strategic thinking, problem-solving and decision-making skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership across water production operations, ensuring assets are operated safely, efficiently and in line with regulatory, environmental and water quality standards.
• Lead the development and delivery of production, maintenance and asset management strategies that improve resilience, optimise performance and support long-term business goals.
• Ensure treatment, production and storage assets operate at optimum levels, balancing performance, risk, compliance and cost efficiency.
• Drive a culture of operational excellence through strong governance, assurance, continuous improvement and data-led decision making.
• Lead the delivery of operational and capital investment programmes, ensuring projects achieve agreed outcomes to time, cost and quality standards.
• Optimise treatment processes to improve efficiency whilst maintaining the highest standards of water quality and environmental compliance.
• Provide senior leadership during incidents and resilience events, acting as the escalation point for significant operational challenges.
• Ensure compliance with all statutory obligations, including water quality, environmental, health and safety, and reservoir safety requirements.
• Lead, coach and develop a team of operational leaders and technical specialists, creating a high-performing and accountable culture
• Drive innovation and transformational change, adopting new technologies and ways of working to create long-term value.
• Build strong relationships with regulators, contractors, industry partners and internal stakeholders
• Contribute to business planning, regulatory submissions, investment strategies and future resource planning.

Job description

South Staffordshire Water is seeking a Head of Production to lead the safe, reliable and sustainable delivery of high-quality drinking water across our production network. You will provide strategic direction, drive operational excellence and oversee major investment and asset management programmes.

The role requires senior leadership of a large team, strong stakeholder engagement, and a proven track record in regulated environments.