Consumer Involvement Lead - 18-month fixed-term contract

This is an exciting opportunity to lead a high-profile, organisation-wide programme that will help place customers at the heart of significant business decisions.

Over the 18-month opportunity, you will lead the delivery of Thames Water’s approach to the Consumer Involvement Rule, turning an agreed regulatory direction into enhanced practical and sustainable ways of working across the organisation.

You will work across Retail, Finance, Strategy and External Affairs, Operations, Customer Insight, Legal, Regulation and other business areas. This will give you broad organisational exposure and the opportunity to build strong relationships with senior leaders, decision owners, change teams and governance forums.

Whether you are applying from within Thames Water or bringing relevant experience from another organisation, this is an excellent opportunity to broaden your experience, lead change at an organisational level and help embed an approach that will have a lasting impact on our customers and organisation. You will be supported by senior colleagues while owning the programme and bringing its different activities together.

What you’ll be doing as Consumer Involvement Lead

As Consumer Involvement Lead, you will take ownership of a defined programme of activities designed to meet the expectations of the Consumer Involvement Rule.

The organisation has set a clear strategic direction. Your role will be to mobilise the programme, coordinate delivery across the organisation and embed the required activities into sustainable business-as-usual ways of working, while providing guidance to support interpretation of requirements

Your key responsibilities will include:

  • Leading the delivery of a complex, cross-functional programme across multiple areas of Thames Water.
  • Translating regulatory expectations into clear, proportionate and business-friendly standards, guidance, templates and controls.
  • Evolving and embedding a consistent framework for identifying decisions that could have a material impact on customers.
  • Establishing a forward view of significant customer-related decisions, allowing customer insight and independent challenge to be planned at the right time.
  • Creating and maintaining a central evidence repository that provides a clear and auditable link between customer insight, available options, challenge, decisions and outcomes.
  • Working collaboratively with business decision owners, Customer Insight, Legal, Regulation, Internal Audit, governance, assurance and change colleagues.
  • Supporting teams to use existing customer insight effectively and identify where additional, proportionate customer engagement may be required.
  • Leading multiple workstreams, dependencies, risks and actions, ensuring the programme remains focused and delivers the required outcomes.
  • Identifying organisational barriers to change and working with stakeholders to build understanding, commitment and ownership.
  • Designing and delivering practical training, briefings, case studies and worked examples for teams across the business.
  • Developing proportionate monitoring and assurance arrangements in collaboration, identifying gaps and supporting teams to complete agreed improvements.
  • Producing clear reporting for senior leadership and governance forums, providing visibility of progress, evidence quality, risks and emerging issues.
  • Consolidating evidence and coordinating accurate, timely responses and external reporting outputs
  • Monitoring external guidance and sector developments, using learning to continuously improve the operating model.
  • Delivering a fully documented and sustainable handover into business-as-usual ownership by the end of the opportunity. 

Base location: Hybrid/ Reading/ Swindon

Working pattern or hours: Full-time -36 hours per week

What you should bring to the role

We recognise that applicants may bring different combinations of experience. You do not need to have worked specifically with the Consumer Involvement Rule, but you will need to demonstrate that you can lead a complex programme, work across organisational boundaries and turn requirements into practical and sustainable change.

The essential skills and experience required are:

  • Demonstrable experience of leading complex, cross-functional programmes or organisational change within a regulated or similarly complex environment.
  • Experience of translating regulatory, legislative, policy or strategic requirements into practical processes, controls and sustainable ways of working.
  • Strong programme management skills, including the ability to coordinate multiple workstreams, dependencies, risks, actions and stakeholders.
  • Experience of successfully embedding change across different business areas, including overcoming barriers and bringing people with you.
  • Knowledge of how customer evidence, insight and engagement can inform organisational decision-making.
  • Experience of establishing practical governance, reporting, monitoring or assurance arrangements across multiple business areas.
  • The ability to critically assess the quality, relevance and sufficiency of evidence.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to turn complex information into clear, engaging and compelling messages for different audiences.
  • Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with a collaborative and hands-on approach.
  • The confidence and credibility to work with senior leaders, decision owners, change teams and governance forums.
  • The ability to build trusted relationships and create sustainable change through others.
  • A customer-focused mindset and the ability to balance regulatory expectations with practical business delivery

Additional experience that would be valuable

It would be beneficial, but not essential, if you have experience in one or more of the following areas:

  • Thames Water or wider water-sector experience.
  • Utilities or another regulated industry.
  • Business-to-consumer organisations where customer needs and customer voice are central to decision-making.
  • Programme or change roles involving the delivery of regulatory or policy-led change.
  • Working with regulators, consumer bodies or independent challenge groups.
  • Customer strategy, consumer insight, consumer engagement, public policy or regulatory affairs.
  • Assurance, audit, compliance or risk management.
  • Working across several business areas to introduce new organisational processes or ways of working.
  • The Consumer Involvement Rule and the expectations of Ofwat, the Consumer Council for Water or independent customer challenge groups.

What’s in it for you?

  • A competitive salary of £65,000 to £70,000 per annum, dependent on experience.
  • Annual Leave; 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service (plus bank holidays
  • Generous Pension Scheme
  • A high-profile opportunity to lead change across Thames Water
  • Broad exposure to different business areas, senior stakeholders and governance forums.
  • The opportunity to strengthen your experience of programme leadership, organisational change, customer strategy and regulatory delivery
  • Access to a wide range of benefits supporting your health, wellbeing and finances, including health support, counselling, Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance

Find out more about our benefits and perks (Please note different T&Cs apply if on secondment)

Who are we?

We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Learn more about our purpose and values

Working at Thames Water

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.

If you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.

Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

We’re committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, whether that’s extra time, accessible formats, or anything else just let us know, we’re here to help and support.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business and meet colleagues.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.