Closing Date 2025-01-31 Job Title: Bathing Water Partnership Manager Location: Flexible (Hybrid, with travel to regional sites) Contract Type: Permanent Hours: 37 hours per week Salary: circa £55,000 The Environment & Innovation team is at the forefront of Southern Water’s drive to enhance and protect the environment. Deploying the latest innovative solutions and working in partnership with our customers and stakeholders, the team takes a holistic approach to managing water quality and flow across the region. Currently delivering a £50million portfolio which rapidly expands to over £2 billion over the next 10 years. This is a fast-paced team that is now expanding to continue to deliver a larger programme of sustainable and innovative solutions. This role sits in the part of the directorate that focuses on improving bathing water quality. Job Overview Bathing water quality can be impacted by several factors including leaking or damaged sewers, storm overflows, agricultural runoff, illegal connections, seabird or other animal waste, incorrect disposal of waste and other marine activities. The Bathing Water Partnership Manager will establish excellent partnerships with local councils, regulators. community groups and customers, working together to mitigate impacts on bathing water quality. The role reports directly to the Bathing Water Lead, focusing on the bathing waters that require improvement. The role holder will influence and lead action, achieved through genuine and open communication. Working closely with our Corporate Affairs team, ensuring consistent engagement and messaging about bathing water. Promoting the team’s activities internally and externally, but most importantly, driving action, outputs and change. Deliver a programme of partnership engagement and action, ensuring regular dialogue with key stakeholders around the delivery of our Bathing Water Improvements Plan. This includes arranging and leading on steering group meetings, community-based meetings, customer events, stakeholder talks and providing insight into council scrutiny meetings. Identify and pursue opportunities to co-deliver projects alongside partners with shared priorities. Develop the strategic partnership/engagement plans for key stakeholders, working closely with colleagues across the business to ensure they are aligned with the company strategy, make best use of existing relationships, highlight areas for improvement and are communicated appropriately across the business. Manage reactive stakeholder engagement, including media, for example on bathing water classifications, with support from colleagues in the Task Force and Operations. Provide progress updates to senior internal and external stakeholders. About You Passion to deliver results that benefit the environment and protect water quality. Strong knowledge of bathing water regulations/considerations. Excellent understanding of Local Authorities, preferably gained through working with such originations. Excellent relationship management skills to work with colleagues at all levels across the business and with external stakeholders. Confidence/experience speaking to the media is preferred. Capable to work under pressure to tight fixed deadlines on high profile issues. Strong influencing and persuasion skills and ability to engage, influence and collaborate with stakeholders which drives outputs. Excellent writing ability. A strong verbal communicator, with an adaptable style and the ability to think on their feet. This is a unique opportunity to join a high performing and highly engaged team who are delivering a complex but rewarding programme. Bathing waters are central to users wellbeing, their enjoyment, and the local economy, therefore we are excited to invite you to be part of protecting and enhancing the water quality of these spaces Package This role will be full time Monday to Friday with flexibility around location but the role does include travel to regional site visits/meetings. We are offering a salary circa £55,000 as well as other benefits including: Generous pension up to 11% company contribution 25 days annual leave Life assurance equal to 4x salary Salary sacrifice electric car scheme (after 6 months service) Health Cash Plan Full funded eye tests Two paid volunteering days a year Occupational health service Discounts with over 800 popular retailers Digital GP service Study support may be available for job-related qualifications Competitive maternity leave and flexible return to work options Cycle to work scheme Join our Environment & Innovation team and see how far your career could progress with a company committed to career progression, training and development opportunities, our customers and the environment. Does this opportunity excite you but you’re not 100% sure if you meet all the requirements for the role? Or are you concerned that ‘normal’ office hours aren’t possible given your personal circumstances? Whilst we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we’ll try to find a practical solution. So why not engage with us and find out more about this role? Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, because delivering water for life is our core purpose. To achieve this, we need 24/7 support in place to resolve incidents quickly and efficiently. All our employees understand the importance of out-of-hours incident support – because when problems appear, fixing them is our top priority. That’s why our people join together and support when and however needed to make sure our customers get the service they deserve. Joining the Southern Water family means you’ll become part of our incident support team. During your interview, your manager will speak to you about any incident support rotas that apply to your position. Privacy Statement: Please note: If you are an existing Southern Water employee, you will need to confirm within your application that your Manager is aware of your application. All applicants must be eligible to live and work in the UK. You will need to provide evidence of eligibility (e.g. a passport or long birth certificate and proof of NI) and current proof of address (dated within the last 3 months), will be required as part of the recruitment process. If you do not meet these criteria, your application will not be considered. LI-Remote LI-AC1