Head of Environmental Compliance and Standards

The Head of Environmental Compliance & Standards leads the team ensuring Thames Water's adherence to environmental legislation, particularly permitting regulations. This role collaborates with key business areas like Operations to assess and report on compliance risks to senior management. It also manages the relationship with the Environment Agency, including formal information submissions. Additionally, the Head oversees the investigation of serious pollution incidents and manages enforcement proceedings, including criminal prosecution.

What You’ll Be Doing as the Head of Environmental Compliance & Standards

• Ensuring oversight and reporting of the company’s current compliance position and any current and future risks. Delivering improvements to compliance reporting through agreed Environmental Compliance Turnaround Plan actions.
• Overseeing environmental permitting to meet EA standards and deliver agreed programs. Collaborating with colleagues to manage preparatory work and associated risks.
• Ensuring timely submission of regulatory reports relating to flow compliance (dry weather flow annual reports, annual EA flow data return, etc.) and other regulatory reporting deliverables.
• Ensuring the timely completion of investigations into serious pollution incidents in collaboration with operational teams and other business areas.
• Managing the team’s activities related to Environment Agency requests for information (e.g., Pollution Information Requests, Compliance Assessment Reports) to ensure timely delivery of high-quality, suitably assured responses.
• Engaging with industry networks to provide foresight into emerging regulatory risks and issues. Communicating future risks and opportunities to the wider business to ensure they are mitigated or exploited as appropriate.

Base Location: Reading RG1 8DB.

What You Should Bring to the Role

• Understanding of environmental regulation (particularly permitting).
• A degree in a relevant field is preferable, but candidates with strong relevant experience will be considered.
• Leadership experience at least at the middle-management level.
• Proven ability to produce high-quality written reports for regulators and stakeholders.
• Experience in driving change and continuous improvement.

What’s in It for You?

• Competitive salary from £80,000 to £100,000 per annum per annum depending on skills and experience.
• Annual Leave: 26 days holiday per year, increasing to 30 with a length of service. (plus bank holidays)
• Car Allowance.
• Annual Bonus.
• Private Medical Health Care.
• Contributory pension – Defined Contribution - Maximum of 12% (2x employee contribution).
• Personal Medical Assessments – open to all once a year.

Wider benefits scheme including our benefits hub, which is packed full of offers and information to save you money and support your wellbeing.

Who are we?

At Thames Water, our purpose is crystal clear - to deliver life’s essential service so our customers, communities and planet can thrive.
Water is life’s great leveller. Every living thing needs it, every single day. From people to plants, birds to bees, farms to factories, we all need it to thrive, and we’re committed to taking care of it for us all.

But keeping water flowing is becoming harder. From scorching summers to wetter winters, extreme weather affects everything from our pipes to our local rivers. We need to keep millions more kettles boiling, public services operating, washing machines spinning, showers running and more, so every drop is more precious than ever. Are you ready to play your part?

Working at Thames Water

At Thames Water, we recognise that people are at the heart of our business. To help us succeed in providing life's essential service, we need a range of skills and capabilities, representative of society throughout our business.

We seek to attract and retain a cultural mix of people who can offer different but complementary attitudes, values, talents, and knowledge. We understand the importance of appreciating and harnessing the unique skills, experiences, backgrounds, and differences that each individual brings.

Our over-arching diversity and inclusion aim is to ensure Thames Water is a diverse and inclusive great place to work. We encourage applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process.

Find out more about working at Thames Water.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business, meet colleagues and earn some extra money along the way.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.