Head of Regional Operations

Overview

Lead wastewater operations, managing £50M budget and 200 staff regionally.

Key Responsibilities

• asset management
• regulatory submissions
• capital investment
• risk governance
• customer experience
• budget management

Tasks

-Champion health, safety, and wellbeing, ensuring our “Home Safe and Well” principles are embedded in every aspect of our operations and culture. -Represent the business externally, building trusted relationships with regulators and key stakeholders such as the Environment Agency and Drinking Water Inspectorate. -Lead, inspire, and empower a diverse team of around 200 colleagues, fostering a culture of inclusion, collaboration, and high performance that reflects our values and enhances our reputation. -Take ownership of customer experience related to assets and services in your area, ensuring issues are resolved effectively and sustainably. -Embed strong governance across all aspects of operational risk, regulatory compliance, security, contingency planning, and business continuity. -Sponsor and steer capital investment programmes, ensuring they deliver the intended outcomes for customers, communities, and the environment. -Play a key role in shaping regulatory submissions, including contributions to the Price Review, ensuring our plans are robust, future-focused, and customer-centric. -Oversee all asset-related activity—from planning and investment to operations and maintenance—ensuring safe, efficient, and resilient service delivery across your geographic area. -Build and manage strategic relationships with internal and external partners, suppliers, and stakeholders to optimise service quality, cost, and risk, and to ensure effective response to operational events. -Drive continuous improvement in asset performance, customer outcomes, and operational efficiency, using data and insight to inform decision-making. -Shape and deliver the county’s business plan by translating company-wide strategy into local action, including active sponsorship of major transformation and change initiatives. -Hold full accountability for the strategic and effective management of an annual operating budget of approximately £50 million, ensuring value for money and alignment with business priorities.

Requirements

• asset management
• commercial acumen
• strategic mindset
• change leadership
• degree
• people leadership

What You Bring

-Strong interpersonal and influencing skills, with the confidence to engage and collaborate across functions, and the credibility to represent the business externally. -Commercial acumen, ideally gained through managing large-scale contracts or partnerships with third-party providers or internal service agreements. -Proven change leadership, with a track record of successfully sponsoring and delivering transformation programmes that drive measurable business benefits. -Strategic mindset with the ability to shape long-term plans, contribute to company-wide strategy, and influence senior stakeholders at Executive and Board level. -Deep experience in business planning, translating high-level strategy into actionable, measurable plans and budgets that drive performance and deliver value. -In-depth understanding of operational environments, ideally within utilities or similarly complex, asset-intensive sectors. -Educated to degree level (or equivalent), ideally supported by a relevant professional qualification. -Proven leadership of a large-scale operational function, with a strong track record of managing significant budgets (c.£50m+), resources, and performance in a complex, regulated environment. -Exceptional people leadership, with the ability to build, develop, and inspire high-performing, inclusive teams—creating a culture of trust, accountability, and continuous improvement. -Expertise in asset management, with a strong track record of optimising performance, investment, and service delivery across complex infrastructure. -Market awareness, including emerging technologies, regulatory trends, and the evolving landscape of the UK utilities sector.

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Benefits

-A comprehensive healthcare plan through our company-funded scheme -Salary Finance -Wealth at Work courses -Up to 35% performance-related bonus scheme, as well as recognition awards for outstanding achievements -Car cash allowance - £7,500 -MyGymDiscounts - gym and wellness benefit that offers up to 25% off on gym memberships and digital fitness subscriptions -A competitive pension scheme with up to 14% employer contribution, 21% combined, and life cover -A generous annual leave package of 26 days, which increases to 30 days after four years of service (increases one day per year), in addition to 8 bank holidays

About United Utilities

-It operates across North West England, supplying drinking water and treating sewage. -The company manages vast infrastructure, including thousands of kilometers of pipelines and nearly 600 treatment works. -Typical projects include reservoir management, leak detection, and wastewater upgrades. -Specializing in water and wastewater services, infrastructure upkeep, and renewable energy generation.

Sector Specialisms