Operational Improvement 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’ll be doing**
As Operational Improvement Lead, you will be responsible for implementing and embedding improvement projects and initiatives in order to deliver measurable and sustainable efficiencies across OPALIM & Operations. This role works within a unique cross-functional team, balancing operational demand and strategic thinking so you will be in a position to influence decisions to help shape what we do every day and in terms of planning for the future. Alongside this, you will work within the Strategy team to drive forward a long term, well-governed business strategy for OPALIM. This may include delivery or support in large scale transformational change in support of the function or the wider Operations business unit. Your key duties will include:

- Delivery of strategic plans and appropriate governance measures to ensure robust planning processes support the long-term ambitions and objectives of OPALIM - inclusive of in year, annual and AMP planning
- Delivery of all core project management activities appropriate for the lifecycle of various projects, initiatives and programmes in line with established OPALIM project processes
- Being accountable for maintenance of all project governance documentation in support of effective project delivery and implementation as well as any potential audits
- Provision of appropriate reporting and tracking of programme performance against milestone plans, delivery outputs and any relevant KPIs, ODI or other established success criteria
- Being accountable for proactive development and maintenance of strong stakeholder relationships across OPALIM and the wider business, ensuring excellent communication plans are a part of every project delivered
- Facilitate the identification and monitoring of Risks, Issues, Assumptions, Dependencies and Opportunities (RAIDO) across OPALIM, for projects and wider business activity
- Ad-hoc delivery and/or ownership of business activities or analysis for OPALIM and wider Operations functions as required in addition to project led requirements to similar work - as an example this could be anything from cost transformation related activities to support for OPALIM reporting, however these will change and adapt throughout the lifecycle of this role and the requirements of the OPALIM function/wider business
- Some ad-hoc cost, benefit, and operational data analysis may be undertaken in support of wider OPALIM initiatives outside of assigned projects - depending on experience
- This position is based at Kemble Court, Reading
- This role operates on a hybrid office/working from home basis
- 36 hours per week, Monday-Friday

**We’re looking for you to**
- Have previous change/strategy management experience
- Have proven strong leadership skills
- Have experience dealing with and influencing stakeholders at all levels
- Have strong planning skills and self-management capability
- Have excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
- Be able to demonstrate the capability to drive analysis, reporting and insights to contribute to making informed business decisions
- Ability to work under pressure and effectively prioritise conflicting requirements
- Strong IT literacy with an emphasis on MS Office software

**What’s in it for you?**
Our competitive salary package includes an excellent contributory pension, 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with 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’re moving to a hybrid approach where we’ll 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’re a Times Top 50 Employer for Women.

Click here to find out more about working at Thames Water