Senior Associate Stakeholder Engagement Lead

We’re Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority – a non-ministerial government department responsible for regulating the water sector in England and Wales.

As the economic regulator of water and wastewater companies in England and Wales, our role is to enable, incentivise and hold companies to account for providing the very best for customers, communities and the environment. We also oversee the markets in the water sector to ensure they’re working for customers. 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.

The Roles

At this crucial time for the water sector, we are recruiting to three Stakeholder Engagement Lead roles to ensure we plan and deliver effective external engagement and communications to ensure the success of key strategic programmes.

Each Stakeholder Engagement Lead role will be assigned to one of the following three priority areas for Ofwat:

1. Water efficiency campaign

One of the available roles will be focused on our water efficiency campaign, Let's Save Water. Let's Save Water is a cross-regulatory behaviour change initiative co-owned by Ofwat, DEFRA, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, Natural Resources Wales, and water companies. This is a high-profile campaign addressing one of England and Wales's most pressing environmental challenges, and you'll be at the heart of making it happen.

2. RAPID (Regulators' Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development)

We're also looking for an experienced engagement professional to promote and explain the work of RAPID to a variety of stakeholders. RAPID is a partnership between Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, established in 2019 to accelerate the development of major water supply infrastructure. Through the Major Water Infrastructure Programme, we are overseeing a pipeline of around 30 projects set out at Price Review 2024 and recently consulted on expanding RAPID's role to include the development of large-scale wastewater and other strategically important infrastructure projects.

3. Cross-cutting

We also have one cross-cutting role, which will lead work within our central Stakeholder Engagement team across a range of priority programmes and activities.

Key deliverables

In this role you will be expected to:

• Develop, coordinate and deliver stakeholder engagement plans ensuring stakeholder views and insight are known and considered as part of key projects and programmes.
• Advise Ofwat's senior leaders on their engagement with key stakeholders, including in bilateral meetings, speaking engagements and visits.
• Work effectively and build strong relationships with key stakeholders and partners, ensuring high-quality standards of engagement are consistently delivered across projects and supporting effective and efficient coordination of our work plans.
• Deliver proactive external monitoring, capturing key insights and sharing these effectively to inform future engagement and internal decision-making. Oversee sentiment tracking and wider evaluation measures to ensure the successful delivery of engagement activity and continuous improvement of our approach.
• Work proactively with the wider Communications and Engagement team, sharing appropriate insights and working collaboratively across audiences and channels will support shared objectives.
• Manage and design speaking engagements, events and visits, working in partnership with stakeholders to design engaging and purposeful activities that build relationships, support effective communication of key messages, and support two-way engagement.
• Produce high-quality written and verbal communications to support stakeholder engagement, including briefing materials, key messages, speeches and presentations.

About You

Below are some of the key essential experience, skills & knowledge required for this post:

1. Lead criterion:Strong experience in designing and delivering strategic stakeholder engagement plans to support corporate priorities, including objective setting, strategy design and evaluation.

2. Experience in building and maintaining strong relationships with stakeholders, both internally and externally and including senior leaders.

3. Excellent verbal and written communication skills and attention to detail including the ability to write clearly and in a tailored way for a range of audiences.

4. The ability to work collaboratively with people across teams and levels, ensuring the effective involvement of a range of partners in the development and delivery of engagement plans. It is desirable but not essential to have experience working with external stakeholders, agencies or contractors to deliver campaigns, projects or events.

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 offices.
• Good employer pension contributions
• 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.