Senior Environment Strategy Specialist

Closing Date

Job Title: Senior Environment Strategy Specialist (hybrid, approx. 1 or 2 days per week in office)

Location: Falmer, East Sussex

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37 hours per week

Salary: circa £60,000 depending on skills and experience

The Environment & Innovation team is at the forefront of Southern Water's drive to enhance and protect the environment. Deploying the latest innovative solutions and working in partnership with our customers and stakeholders, the team takes an holistic approach to managing water quality and flow across the region. The portfolio has rapidly expanded from £50million to over £2 billion in the next 10-year period. This is a fast-paced team that is now expanding to continue to deliver a larger programme of sustainable and innovative solutions.

A brand new position has been created to join our rapidly growing Environment Strategy Team as a
Senior Environment Strategy Specialist.
Job Overview
Reporting to the Environment Strategy Manager, you'll lead the development, implementation, and monitoring of Southern Water's Environment Strategy across the entire business. You'll work with our partners to help embed the strategy into corporate governance, build visibility and accountability across departments, and ensure our environmental ambitions are translated into measurable outcomes. Key responsibilities include:

• Developing detailed technical content and implementation plans for our emerging Environment Strategy, including SMART targets.
• Creating and managing a comprehensive dashboard to monitor progress, joining up existing and new programmes across the business and report to internal and external stakeholders, including senior-level forums.
• Supporting internal governance and the Environment Steering Group embedding the Environment Strategy in its structure
• Promoting strategic approaches to biodiversity and climate resilience across the business.
• Collaborating with teams such as Catchment Management, Asset Planning & Strategy, and Clean Rivers & Seas to align delivery plans with environmental goals.
• Bring the Strategy to life internally and externally, helping champion and build visibility across communication methods and mediums.

About You
You'll be a strategic thinker with a strong technical background in environmental policy and programme delivery. You'll bring:

• Demonstrable experience in developing and delivering environmental strategies.
• Expertise in biodiversity net gain, carbon sequestration, nutrient neutrality, and natural/social capital approaches.
• Strong analytical skills and experience (with GIS and data management systems an advantage).
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage senior stakeholders and present complex information clearly.
• A collaborative mindset and a passion for driving environmental change.
• Ability to bring to life and communicate complex strategic ideas to a variety of audiences

This is a high-impact role that offers the chance to shape the future of environmental resilience in the water industry. If you're ready to lead, influence, and innovate—this is your opportunity.

Package
Benefits
This role will be full time Monday to Friday with a hybrid approach to working between our Falmer office and home. We are offering a salary circa £60,000 as well as other benefits including:

• Generous pension up to 11% company contribution
• 25 days annual leave
• Life assurance equal to 4x salary
• Salary sacrifice electric car scheme (after 6 months service)
• Health Cash Plan
• Full funded eye tests
• Two paid volunteering days a year
• Occupational health service
• Discounts with over 800 popular retailers
• Digital GP service
• Study support may be available for job-related qualifications
• Competitive maternity leave and flexible return to work options
• Cycle to work scheme

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

Does this opportunity excite you but you're not 100% sure if you meet all the requirements for the role? Or are you concerned that 'normal' office hours aren't possible given your personal circumstances? Whilst we can't accommodate every flexible working request, we'll try to find a practical solution. So why not engage with us and find out more about this role?

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, because delivering water for life is our core purpose. To achieve this, we need 24/7 support in place to resolve incidents quickly and efficiently. All our employees understand the importance of out-of-hours incident support – because when problems appear, fixing them is our top priority. That's why our people join together and support when and however needed to make sure our customers get the service they deserve. Joining the Southern Water family means you'll become part of our incident support team. During your interview, your manager will speak to you about any incident support rotas that apply to your position.

Privacy Statement
Please note: If you are an existing Southern Water employee, you will need to confirm within your application that your Manager is aware of your application.

All applicants must be eligible to live and work in the UK. You will need to provide evidence of eligibility (e.g. a passport or long birth certificate and proof of NI) and current proof of address (dated within the last 3 months), will be required as part of the recruitment process. If you do not meet these criteria, your application will not be considered.