Join Ofwat’s RAPID Team as a Major Water Infrastructure Programme Lead
*Office Location: London (E14 4HD) or Birmingham (B5 4UA) with hybrid working*
About Us
We are Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority, a non-ministerial government department responsible for regulating the water sector in England and Wales.
The water sector is entering a new chapter. Following the Independent Water Commission’s Final Report and subsequent White Paper – ‘New Vision for Water’, the UK government has set out a bold new direction – one that brings together expertise from across the sector to deliver better outcomes for customers and the environment.
Ofwat is working in collaboration with the government and other regulators to help establish a new body for England, combining our strengths with those of the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Environment Agency, and Natural England. We’re also continuing to engage with the Welsh Government to support future decisions for Wales.
While these changes take shape, our mission remains the same: to hold water companies to account, drive performance, and ensure the sector delivers real value for customers, communities, and the environment. If you’re passionate about making a difference, this is a unique moment to join us and help shape the future of water, and together we can continue to make a positive impact.
The Role
We have an exciting opportunity for a Major Water Infrastructure Programme Lead to join our RAPID team. This role has an important and valuable contribution to enable us to deliver on our goals and regulatory commitments. You will join Ofwat at Principal level and take oversight of a group of Strategic Resource Options (SROs) in the Major Water Infrastructure programme.
As the Principal lead on a subset of water supply infrastructure projects, you will focus on ensuring their smooth and efficient delivery. This includes identifying regulatory blockers and working to find resolutions, managing experts (including Ofwat senior advisors), and advising companies and regulators on how to continue to move projects forward to planning.
You will engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including government bodies, regulators, and water companies, as well as other relevant sectors and interested parties. You will also help shape the gated process and oversee the gate assessment of your portfolio of SROs. You will play a vital role in the successful delivery of new water supply infrastructure which is essential to improving the resilience of water supplies and reducing unsustainable abstraction from the environment.
More generally, our Principals play a key role in driving delivery through effective project and resource planning, as well as through line management. You will be expected to develop and empower other members of the team (including Senior Analysts), acting as a role model, while actively contributing to the corporate initiatives that make Ofwat a great place to work. You will also have the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues across Ofwat, raising understanding of the RAPID programme, sharing your expertise, and working closely with the Major Projects, Water Supply and Price Review teams to ensure successful project delivery.
You will have the opportunity to work on some of the most important capital projects in the water sector and the accompanying policy issues. These projects are vital to meeting current and future customers’ needs, and you will have a direct impact on ensuring companies are delivering for customers.
About You
Below are some of the key essential experience, skills & knowledge required for this post:
- Experience of leading or supporting large infrastructure projects – particularly in a commercial, technical, or strategic planning capacity – ideally within a regulated sector. This could have been achieved via working within or alongside a regulated business, water sector supply chain organisation, consultancy, other regulators, Government, or in another similarly relevant position.
- Strong understanding of the environmental and regulatory requirements around large infrastructure projects.
- Excellent leadership skills and the ability to foster a supportive and high-performing team culture, including coaching others, encouraging knowledge-sharing, and building connections across teams to maximise impact.
- Proven ability to plan, prioritise, and deliver complex programmes of work or projects – both directly and by leading multi-disciplinary teams – while managing competing demands, supporting team wellbeing, and aligning delivery with strategic objectives.
- Experience of building and maintaining constructive working relationships with a diverse set of internal and external stakeholders to understand their needs, expectations, and priorities, and to influence and collaborate effectively to deliver desired outcomes.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including experience of identifying, analysing, and accurately interpreting a range of data and insights to inform evidence-based decisions and solutions for complex problems.
- Excellent presentation and communication (oral and written) skills, including the ability to communicate complex concepts to non-technical audiences.
Why You Should Join Us
- People Centric: Our people are at the heart of Ofwat and everything we do – we ensure all voices are heard and treat each other with respect; you’ll be given the autonomy and the support to do your role in the best way.
- Innovative Work Environment: We embrace agile and new ways of working and have a culture build on trust, flexibility, and collaboration.
- Development Opportunities: Gain valuable experience and develop your skills in a supportive and dynamic setting.
- Work-Life Balance: Enjoy the flexibility of working from home combined with the benefits of in person collaboration in our Birmingham and London offices.
- Excellent employer pension contributions of up to 29%.
- 25 days’ annual leave, increasing to 30 with each year of service, plus bank holidays and an extra 2.5 days of privilege leave.
- Access to exclusive discounts on a variety of goods and services, including retail outlets, theatre tickets, holidays, insurance, and a gym membership.
- Fees paid for membership of relevant professional bodies.
- Up to 3 volunteering days per year.
- Recognition vouchers scheme rewarding your hard work.
- Generous shared parental leave and pay supporting your family life.
Follow the link to apply for full details about the role. Please ensure you have submitted your application in full before the below deadline.
Closing date: 23.55 on 19 April 2026
