Specialist System Planner

Who are we?
Thames Water is the UK's largest water and wastewater company. We make a daily difference to our 15 million customers by supplying 2.6 billion litres of water through 32,000 km's of pipes, to keep taps flowing and toilets flushing. We are an essential service and have operated throughout the Covid19 pandemic.

At Thames Water, every one of our actions, big and small, matters every day. Water is essential to daily life, and that means our business is always open.

What you will be doing
This business-critical role is required to understand how we need to manage and evolve the wastewater network across Thames Water. Whilst the role is based within the Thames Valley team, the intention is that you will provide a constant view of how to manage and plan the development of the network consistently across the Thames Water estate.

The scope of the role includes foul and surface water below ground assets, excluding pumping stations, rising mains, and treatment. Aspects of performance to be considered as part of the role include the usual modes of failure such as pollution, flooding, and spills. Capital maintenance is a remit of a separate team so this role is fundamentally focused on the physical performance/capacity of the system, however, you will be expected to have an awareness of these workstreams.

In this role, you will be responsible for understanding network performance and devising, in conjunction with the planning teams, tactical plans to improve performance and potentially developing a programme of activity to improve performance.

Working in a collaborative team you will:

• Understand current and future performance associated with the sewerage network. Some of this info will be available through other workstreams e.g., Drainage and Wastewater Plans (DWMPs)
• Categorise the assets into appropriate key cohorts (e.g., pitch fibre, strategic assets etc) and understand the relative contribution to performance for each of these cohorts to inform a prioritised approach to tactical planning. This may be on a spatial/functional basis
• Facilitate collaborative working by developing and maintaining key working groups and forums to understand how to improve the performance of the network and develop investment plans
• Define and progress investment needs as appropriate through governance, along with support from the geographically based System Planners within the wider team
• Justify the needs using available data and various analytical techniques
• Develop and maintain visible KPIs, dashboards, and decision support tools that can be used to monitor benefit and the effectiveness of delivery and improve asset management decision making
• Maintain and enhance, plans for the sewerage network as appropriate for the short, medium, and long term. You will play a pivotal role in contributing to long term plans for flooding, pollutions, and spills

We're looking for you to:

• Be adept in industry-leading/new techniques and approaches
• Collaborate with technical specialists as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for sewer networks and understand performance relative to other water utilities
• Be a driven individual, who is articulate and has excellent communication and interpersonal skills to facilitate networking
• Have good influencing, negotiation and coordination skills and the ability to manage multiple tasks at one time
• Possess a professional qualification in either asset management, engineering, scientific or an environmental-based subject
• Have experience in GIS and be proficient in analysing and presenting data in applications such as Excel and Power BI
• Having previous experience and knowledge of wastewater networks and wastewater processes; the UK water industry and utility intensive industries is desirable
• Possess strong knowledge of asset management techniques and the regulatory landscape in which we operate

What's in it for you?
This is an exciting opportunity to join a technically diverse team that manages our wastewater strategic planning and investment requirements. You will work in a position that allows you good exposure to all levels within the business, providing you with the chance to interact with a number of key internal and external stakeholders.

The role will suit a determined individual who is looking for their next challenge and who enjoys a diverse workload and varied schedule. You'll be instrumental in planning investment to meet future serviceability measures, asset performance, asset health and water quality.

Our competitive salary package includes an excellent contributory pension, 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service and a wider benefits scheme.

We're proud of the positive ways of working we have adopted during the pandemic.

We want to create a more flexible and dynamic environment so all our colleagues can thrive. For our office-based roles, we are moving to a hybrid approach where we will provide options around working from our offices, our operational sites and home dependent on role/team/individual. This will be discussed during the assessment process.

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work. If you join our team, you'll enjoy fast-tracked career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and unparalleled benefits. We're also proud to be an equal opportunity employer, Stonewall Diversity Champion and Disability Confident Leader and we are a Times Top 50 Employer for Women.

You can find out more in our working for us section of our website.