Product Owner

Job Title: HR Workday Product & Technical Owner Location: Hybrid between our head office in Worthing and remote working.
Contract Type: Permanent
Hours: 37 hours per week, Monday - Friday
Salary: Competitive salary commensurate to experience

Southern Water is on a journey to optimise and modernise its HR systems, ensuring they deliver maximum value to the business and our people. At the heart of this transformation is Workday, our core HR platform, and we’re looking for an experienced HR Workday Product & Technical Owner to lead its evolution.

You’ll act as the bridge between HR and Digital, ensuring Workday meets strategic objectives, integrates seamlessly with other systems, and supports continuous improvement across our organisation.
You’ll lead a team of Workday specialists within HR and task-manage technical colleagues in Digital, driving upgrades, integrations, and enhancements. From managing biannual releases to delivering new features and projects, you’ll ensure Workday remains robust, compliant, and future-ready.

Own the Workday roadmap – prioritise enhancements and process changes to meet HR and business needs.
Lead and inspire a team of Workday specialists, while task-managing technical colleagues in Digital.
Drive integrations between Workday and other systems (e.g., payroll, finance, occupational health), ensuring resilience and compliance.
Manage upgrades and releases – oversee testing, rollout, and adoption of new features twice a year.
Run sprints and deliver projects – from classification of job families to linking Workday with wider digital architecture.
Act as the key liaison between HR, Digital, and external partners, ensuring smooth delivery and governance.
Champion best practice – monitor Workday’s roadmap, adopt innovations, and represent Southern Water in the Workday community

Skilled at balancing business and technical priorities, with a strong understanding of HR processes and Workday HCM modules.
Confident in leading teams and managing stakeholders across HR, IT, and third-party providers.
Familiar with Workday integrations, security, and reporting (Workday Studio, EIBs, APIs).
Comfortable working in an Agile environment and delivering projects at pace.

Workday certifications, project management qualifications (e.g., PRINCE2, Agile), and experience in regulated industries would be particularly advantageous.

This role will be full time Monday to Friday with a hybrid approach to working between our head office in Worthing and remote working.

We are offering a competitive salary depending on skills and experience, as well as other benefits including:

• Company and performance-related bonus
• Generous pension with up to 11% company contribution
• Life assurance payment equal to four times your annual salary
• Two paid community volunteering days a year
• Retail benefits offering discounts and savings on a wide range of brands, products and experiences
• We offer competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave with flexible return to work options

Join Southern Water and see how far your career could progress with a company committed to career progression, training and development opportunities, our customers and the environment.

Why Southern Water?

Southern Water is at the forefront of transforming Britain’s water industry, investing significantly to enhance resilience, sustainability, and service excellence. 8bn planned investment for 2025-30, this is an unparalleled opportunity to join a business committed to delivering a generational shift in the way water services are managed.

We offer an environment where senior professionals can make a meaningful impact, influence major strategic decisions, and drive long-term value creation.

At Southern Water, diversity and inclusion are core values.