Principal Digital Specialist - Enterprise Architect
Apply locations: Scotland Flexible (Edinburgh or Glasgow Central Belt, Inverness, Aberdeen City)
Time type: Full time
Posted on: Posted Yesterday
End Date to apply: February 1, 2025 (14 days left to apply)
Job requisition ID: R9736
Together we are Trusted to Serve Scotland.
Scottish Water has recently refreshed our Digital Strategy; Digitally Leading Scottish Water – through solutions and innovation that add value, are secure, easy to use and always on. This role is pivotal in ensuring as we plan for our next regulatory review period (Strategic Review 2027) that our refreshed Digital Strategy is embedded across the organisation, enabling sustainable growth and operational excellence. It offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of Scottish Water, where digital innovation meets environmental stewardship, customer excellence and value for money.
Scottish Water has made progressive moves to cloud-based IT services for improved efficiency and security across our technology estate. We have also recently invested in smart network technologies by developing our Wastewater Intelligent network with over 1000 sensors streaming near real-time data from our combined sewer overflows available for public use and a further 1000 sensors planned in 2025.
Scottish Water invests over £1BN/yr of capital investment on improving our assets. With increasingly competing demands for investment, we want to continue to drive for savings and improve our customer experience through digital enablement, automation and the use of artificial intelligence.
What you'll do
We are looking for a Principal Digital Specialist - Enterprise Architect to join the Digital Strategy & Architecture team, with particular focus on developing and maintaining the Digital Strategy and steering digital investment policy for Scottish Water.
The role will develop and maintain business partnerships across the Scottish Water directorates and the supply chain to ensure that business area needs are well understood and strongly supported by digital for success, whilst aligned to the corporate digital strategy.
At Scottish Water, we’re shaping the future with innovation at the heart of everything we do. By maintaining and evolving our Digital Strategy, we’re steering investment towards smarter, sustainable solutions.
We believe collaboration drives progress. That’s why we’re building strong relationships across our business and supply chain to understand emerging digital needs and craft visionary plans for the future.
By analysing business needs, we design cutting-edge prototypes and services to deliver meaningful outcomes. In conjunction with business leaders, we document our current capabilities and map out the future state aligned with their aspirations.
Leading on technology roadmaps and influencing senior stakeholders, we stay at the forefront of digital evolution. With innovative thinking, we provide strategic advice that advances people, processes, and technology.
Our digital principles and policies ensure every function aligns with Scottish Water’s Digital Strategy, delivering measurable results. Engaging with industry best practices, we evaluate emerging technologies and AI-driven solutions to unlock new possibilities.
Working closely with our Enterprise Architecture team, we foster a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing, encouraging coaching and mentoring opportunities. At Scottish Water, we’re not just adopting technology; we’re pioneering it to enhance lives and protect Scotland’s natural resources.
Join us on this exciting journey—where every innovation contributes to a better future.
What you'll bring
At Scottish Water, we’re looking for individuals who bring proven leadership, strong decision-making abilities, and self-awareness of their impact on others. Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, and influencing skills are at the heart of what we need to drive success.
Do you have a deep understanding of modern technology stacks and their implications for enterprise architecture? Can you navigate strategic IT solutions, cloud technologies, and quality standards while aligning with legislation and best practices?
We’re searching for someone who can translate complex digital concepts into simple, relatable terms, bridging the gap between technology and people. With experience in Enterprise and/or Solution Architecture—encompassing Business, Data and Applications—you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping our future.
We value proven expertise in leveraging AI and data-driven technologies for business transformation. Familiarity with architecture standards and best practices is essential, alongside the ability to create and communicate process models and capability representations effectively to stakeholders.
Scottish Water is a unique organisation with complex technological and functional needs. A strong understanding of our business objectives and the operating environment of a large water utility is key.
With business analysis skills, you’ll deploy critical thinking, and the ability to employ a range of tools and techniques. You’ll also engage with external contractors and consultants to ensure requirements are clearly understood and outcomes are monitored and managed. A solid understanding of change management and experience delivering change in a complex organisation are vital.
If you’re also familiar with project management, risk management, and issue resolution, we’d love to welcome your expertise to help us deliver innovative solutions for Scotland’s future.
We are looking for a Principal Digital Specialist - Enterprise Architect who is grounded in practical, actionable architecture and thrives on building real-world solutions that drive tangible benefits. The ideal candidate will avoid operating in an "ivory tower" and instead focus on close collaboration with teams and stakeholders to ensure architecture delivers measurable value. Additionally, we seek someone who is passionate about harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to optimise processes, improve efficiency, and support Scottish Water's mission to innovate and lead digitally.
If you are a forward-thinking architect passionate about driving digital transformation and AI-powered innovation, we want to hear from you.
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 you need to find a good work-life balance.
You’ll get plenty of time to recharge with 38 days of holiday every year (including public holidays). And you can even buy five more if you need a little extra time. You can also take paid 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), as well as 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.
The not-so-small print
This role will be a Grade 8. If you’re new to Scottish Water, you’ll join us on a starting salary of £48,900. Performance-driven pay progression would then allow you to move through the range to a maximum of £68,510.
If you’re interested in this role – or know someone else who might be - we’ll be accepting applications until midnight on the 31st January. Please also include a cover letter with your application.
*indicative date for interviews: Monday 10th Feb at our Edinburgh office.
Job offers at Scottish Water are conditional, and will be confirmed on completion of our pre-employment screening, e.g. referencing, criminal record checks, license 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 criteria. 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 also aware that some people might be experiencing temporary challenges because of life events, like menopause. 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.
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.
We’re here to help. Ask us anything at SWRecruitment@ScottishWater.co.uk
Together we are Trusted to Serve Scotland.
Working at Scottish Water you'll be making a real difference to the lives of the people and communities in Scotland who rely on the vital water and wastewater services we provide. We offer a broad range of career opportunities and our approach to inclusion and diversity means we can make a real difference together.
Our people are essential to providing our customers with the very best service in communities around Scotland. We're passionate about attracting, developing and retaining the best people who can make a positive difference to our business.
If you are passionate about delivering a great customer service and can inspire trust and demonstrate pride in your work, we are confident that you will find Scottish Water a place where you can build on your talents and one where you can thrive.
If you would like to join our team at Scottish Water you can find out more about our latest vacancies here.
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