See job eligibility requirements: Deputy Director, Water Utilities

Reference number

399740

Salary

£90,000

This is an SCS Pay Band 1 role. The successful candidate should expect to earn £90,000 per annum.

Existing Civil Servants on level transfer will retain their existing base salary. Candidates on promotion will have their substantive base salary increased by 10% or start on the minimum of the SCS PB1 scale of £76,000 per annum; whichever is higher

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

SCS Pay Band 1

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

MOD – Defence Infrastructure Organisation

Type of role

Finance
Senior leadership
Other

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time

Number of jobs available

Location

Flexible with regular travel to DIO Head Office, DMS Whittington, Lichfield Staffordshire

About the job

Job summary

About Defence Infrastructure Organisation

DIO enables Defence people to live, work, train and deploy at home and overseas and we are proud to be the expert partner Defence needs for all their infrastructure requirements. As one of the largest landowners in the UK we manage assets worth £28bn, with an annual budget of £3.3bn. DIO employs approximately 2,500 staff from a very diverse range of professions, working across the world: in for example Germany, Cyprus, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Canada, Kenya & Belize. In the DIO, it is Regional Delivery that delivers Facilities Management services to customers across the estate. That includes routine repair or reactive maintenance, refurbishment and servicing to over 45,000 buildings in the UK and overseas: as well as catering, retail and leisure services. In addition, Regional Delivery provides a safe place to train across the UK and overseas training estates.

Job description

This is an exciting new role that is strengthening our leadership team to help address complex issues facing water across the Defence Estate. The Deputy Director Water Utilities is responsible for setting strategic direction for operational delivery across the organisation, securing resources and enabling delivery outcomes for water consumption for both the military and the public. The existing water utilities provision for MoD, referred to as ‘Aquatrine’ is a unique and complex operation, providing fresh drinking water, fire mains, sewage treatment and water suppression systems to all military and a large number of civilian and commercial establishments. In scale, this is equivalent to the UKs 9th largest Water Board serving circa 600,000 users and comprising circa 2500 sites, managed by the DIO as a single operation and worth circa £2.8bn. You will develop the strategy for the subsequent transition into a future operating state. This will involve the set up and leadership of a managed service provider and all associated staffing, systems, data management, compliance and operational delivery across the defence estate.

Person specification

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their experience and skills against the following essential
criteria:

▪ Has held a strategic, executive leadership remit at divisional, regional or national level within the water utilities sector or a related infrastructure-intensive industry.
▪ Proven track record of delivering large-scale, complex operational improvements and capital projects, preferably above £100m in capital value; experience of visible leadership within a wider organisation with revenue, turnover or budgets above £500m.
▪ Strong understanding of regulatory frameworks, environmental standards, and water quality requirements, with experience of implementing these in an operational context. Evidence of championing best practice, supporting improved compliance, assurance and risk mitigation.
▪ Experience managing a broad range of internal and external stakeholder relationships, which may include boards, government bodies, regulators or local communities.
▪ Strong communication, negotiation and advocacy skills, with the ability to influence at highest levels of seniority, in either public or private sector organisations. Evidence of working across organisational boundaries to achieve shared outcomes.
▪ Exceptional financial acumen, with experience managing multi-million-pound budgets and driving cost efficiencies. Comfortable working with numerical data with a track record of identifying and realising commercial opportunities and achieving value for money.

Desirable
▪ Degree in engineering, environmental science, or a related discipline.
▪ Membership in relevant professional bodies (e.g. Institution of Civil Engineers, Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management).
▪ Experience leading sustainability initiatives, particularly related to water resource management.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £90,000, Ministry of Defence contributes £26,073 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

GatenbySanderson, an executive search agency, has been appointed to assist with this appointment. To apply for this post, please visit www.gatenbysanderson.com/job/GSe121013 by no later than 23:55 on Sunday 27th April 2025 and please provide the following
documentation:

▪ A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.

▪ A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role. Both documents are weighted equally in their scoring, so it’s important to consider this when uploading your application. Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with us via devon.coates-leaning@gatenbysanderson.com

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.