Oversight & Quality Assurance Lead

As we approach the close of another successful year at Thames Water, are you seeking a new opportunity?

If you’re an experienced senior change or transformation leader who thrives on complex, multi‑layered challenges, we may have the perfect opportunity for you.

We’re seeking an Oversight and Quality Assurance Lead on a 12-month fixed-term contract to join our Debt Management System Replacement Programme, playing a pivotal role in supporting the implementation of a new debt management system into live operation within the next 12–14 months.

What you’ll be doing as an Oversight and Quality Assurance Lead
You’ll sit within the senior leadership team of the transformation programme, where strong communication, curiosity, and a proactive mindset are essential. You’ll build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across Financial Customer Care, Revenue & Debt, and the wider Income leadership team, working collaboratively with Retail, Digital, Business Readiness, and change delivery teams.

You’ll engage confidently with both end users and senior stakeholders, communicating decisions clearly and transparently to ensure alignment across sponsors and delivery teams.

Key responsibilities include:
Quality Planning & Strategy

• Review programmes, build, test, and implement plans to identify risks, gaps, and optimisation opportunities
• Ensure delivery aligns with organisational strategy across people, process, technology, and customer outcomes
• Define quality metrics, acceptance criteria, and a prioritised QA roadmap
• Embed QA practices across the full programme lifecycle
• Conduct ongoing impact assessments, gap analyses, and reviews of workstream deliverables

Revenue / Budget Control

• Apply a strong understanding of OPEX and CAPEX principles
• Assess programme impacts on OPEX budgets
• Identify and manage financial risks, trends, and issues
• Support governance to ensure delivery remains within agreed budgets
• Facilitate CAPEX approvals through appropriate governance forums

Data Assurance

• Assure data migration strategies and execution readiness
• Validate data integrity, accuracy, and completeness across system flows
• Support data mapping, cleansing, reconciliation, and migration activities

Solution Design Assurance

• Review functional and technical designs against business requirements
• Identify and track solution risks and gaps with clear mitigation actions
• Contribute QA input into programme forums and design workshops
• Support change management and user adoption activities in partnership with readiness and training teams

Testing Assurance & Coverage Review

• Provide assurance over the overall testing strategy and approach
• Validate test plans against requirements and solution design
• Assess coverage across functional, non-functional, integration, and data migration testing
• Maintain traceability between requirements, test cases, and defects
• Identify testing risks and recommend mitigation actions
• Support stakeholder reviews of test outcomes and quality metrics

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders, translating needs into delivery outcomes
• Communicate effectively across technical and non-technical audiences
• Collaborate closely with business analysts, developers, and project managers
• Provide regular QA updates, escalating risks and issues as required
• Facilitate QA reviews and secure required approvals

Continuous Improvement & Innovation

• Drive continuous improvement in QA, testing, and delivery practices
• Support change management and user adoption to minimise disruption
• Partner with training and readiness teams to ensure capability uplift

Location: Hybrid – Walnut Court
Hours: 36 hours per week, Monday to Friday

To thrive in this role, the essential criteria you’ll need are:

• Extensive experience in senior change and QA roles on large-scale transformation programmes
• Proven delivery of sustainable financial and operational change
• Strong data management, migration, and validation expertise
• Deep understanding of solution design and delivery governance
• Experience working in Agile and Waterfall environments
• Excellent analytical, communication, and stakeholder management skills
• Ability to influence and build relationships at all levels
• Desirable: experience within utilities or debt management

Additional skills and experience that would be advantageous:

• ISTQB or equivalent QA certification
• Experience using Azure DevOps
• Analytics for Office and SQL capability
• Knowledge of APIs and system integrations
• Familiarity with SAP C4C and/or SAP ISU

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary between £75,000 - £85,000 per annum, depending on skills and experience
• 26 days holiday per year, increasing to 30 with the length of service (plus bank holidays)
• Performance-related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets
• Car allowance
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON
• Private Medical Health Care
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of you and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Find out more about our benefits and perks (Please note different T&Cs apply if on secondment)

Who are we?
We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Learn more about our purpose and values 

Working at Thames Water
Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.
If you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.

Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

We’re committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, whether that’s extra time, accessible formats, or anything else, just let us know. We’re here to help and support.

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 and meet colleagues.

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.