CI Implementation Lead

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

We have a great opportunity to join our team in Reading. As one of a team of 4 Continuous Improvement Implementation Leads, you will be responsible for leading and contributing to initiatives focussed on improving our Customer Experience, Operational Performance and Quality across the Operations Service Centre.

Primarily supporting the Waste network planning function, you will also support Planning and Scheduling across the whole function, as well as Data & Insight and Customer Operations. You will be required to identify, lead and support improvement initiatives that increase performance, productivity and customer satisfaction; ensuring we have clearly defined processes and procedures and are delivering solutions that drive towards consistency across the whole function. You will engage, collaborate, and communicate with stakeholders, both from within the function and across Thames Water and our partner agencies, to effectively implement change. You will be responsible for identifying and tracking relevant benefits and ensuring the accuracy of data, and play a key role in embedding new ways of working.

As well as leading projects you will, when required, help to guide colleagues in the delivery of 'in the line' initiatives providing advice and support on delivery and helping them to identify opportunities and dependencies.

• Lead and support a portfolio of continuous improvement projects across the Operational Service Centre
• Apply basic project management techniques to ensure projects have a clear scope, agreed milestones, robust benefits, stakeholder engagement plan and risks are managed effectively
• Gather and use Data and Insight to ensure the perceived issues are validated and effective solutions are identified along with a route to benefits realisation
• Facilitation of workshops and meetings required to drive the Continuous Improvement projects forward and encourage collaboration and engagement
• Conduct change readiness and risk assessments and address any shortfalls to enable successful completion of projects
• Design, implement and maintain relevant business process maps
• Actively engage with stakeholders and all affected staff throughout the project lifecycle
• Produce relevant status reports and presentations on projects as requested by line manager and other project delivery functions
• Identify new opportunities for improvement and ensure they are captured
• Deputise for peers and line manager in meetings as required
• Act as SME for Continuous Improvement and business change; using these skills to support other colleagues with improvement initiatives and projects
• Actively lead and champion the implementation and embedding of any corporate customer experience initiatives
• Actively participate in all team and wider Operational Service Centre business meetings

We're looking for you to:

• Be proficient in using Company IT systems and Office software
• Be confident in applying change management techniques to land projects successfully
• Have a good understanding of core continuous improvement and process improvement
• Have excellent knowledge and understanding of building and improving business processes and procedures
• Possess a basic understanding of core project management methods
• Be passionate about delivering excellent customer service and developing efficient operational services
• Understand who our customers are, and what they expect from us
• Have strong analytical, prioritisation and organisational skills
• Have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to liaise at all levels and influence others beyond your span of control
• Be confident in managing stakeholders

What's in it for you?

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.