Regional Control Centre Leader - Water Recycling

Circa £90,000 - £95,000 (Depending on Skills & Experience) + BonusPermanent / Full Time / 37 Hours (Flexible Working opportunities can be discussed) Lincoln Double Matched Pension Scheme (up to 21% combined) Private Healthcare Make every drop of your potential count!
We're looking for a Regional Operational Control Centre Leader (Water Recycling) to provide strategic and operational leadership to Anglian Water's 24/7 Control Centre, ensuring operational events and incidents are managed safely, effectively and with clear accountability.
The Control Centre plays a critical role in protecting customers, communities and the environment. This role oversees Water Recycling operational events and incidents affecting services for more than 1.6 million domestic and retail customers, providing senior escalation for pollution, health and safety, serviceability and other heightened business risks.
Reporting to the Head of Operational Services Control Centre, you'll lead a rotating 24-hour team of operational response specialists, take end-to-end ownership of significant events, and work with senior operational leaders, resilience teams, regulators and delivery partners to improve response, recovery and future prevention. You'll also deputise for the Head of Operational Services Control Centre when required and represent the function in senior governance forums.
What you'll be doing:
Lead, manage and develop the 24/7 Water Recycling Control Centre team, creating a culture of accountability, empowerment and continuous learning
Act as the senior escalation point for operational events and incidents that present heightened customer, environmental, safety or regulatory risk
Maintain end-to-end ownership of incidents, ensuring responses are timely, coordinated and effective from identification through recovery
Provide clear leadership and risk-based decision-making during dynamic and high-pressure operational situations
Ensure full compliance across alarm monitoring, pollution response, event management and regulatory reporting
Lead tactical pollution performance and escalation, ensuring accurate and timely reporting to relevant regulators and stakeholders
Develop insight and trend reporting that highlights emerging and heightened risk across Water Recycling operations
Move the Control Centre towards proactive intervention through predictive analysis, strong playbooks and pre-emptive resource planning
Work with operational resilience, performance and planning teams to strengthen processes and improve customer and environmental outcomes
Lead post-event investigations and ensure learning, root causes and improvement actions are embedded across the business
Develop long-term resourcing, competence and succession plans, including Licence to Operate and professional development pathways
Build strong relationships with senior leaders, operational teams, alliance partners, regulators and emergency response stakeholders
Develop and monitor performance measures covering team competence, compliance, incident response and service outcomes
Champion health, safety and wellbeing in every operational decision and throughout the team culture
What we're looking for
Degree-level qualification, professional membership or equivalent relevant experience
A recognised business or leadership qualification, such as an ILM Level 5 Diploma, together with relevant management or training capability
Demonstrable success leading and developing teams in a complex, operationally critical environment
Experience leading teams through organisational, cultural or operational transformation
Strong incident and event management capability, with confidence making significant decisions under pressure
Experience within the water industry or another highly regulated, operationally intensive environment
Strong understanding of environmental, community and customer considerations linked to water recycling operations
Proven ability to engage, influence and constructively challenge senior leaders, external partners and regulators
Strategic thinking combined with excellent planning, prioritisation and organisational skills
Ability to interpret operational information and use analysis to drive continuous improvement and proactive risk management
Strong emotional intelligence, resilience and communication skills, with the ability to create trust and psychological safety
Commitment to inclusive leadership, talent development, succession planning and building a diverse workforce
Desirable:
Postgraduate or Masters-level qualification in a relevant field
Budget management experience
Experience working directly with environmental regulators, local resilience forums or multi-agency incident response partners
Experience developing predictive operational insight, event playbooks or control centre capability
Why join Anglian Water?
At Anglian Water, the Operational Control Centre is central to how we understand risk, coordinate response and protect customers and the environment around the clock.
In this role, you'll lead a business-critical function with significant influence over pollution performance, customer service, asset serviceability and regulatory compliance. Your decisions and leadership will shape how effectively the organisation responds to operational events and how well it learns and improves afterwards.
You'll have the opportunity to develop a high-performing 24/7 team, move operational control from reactive response towards predictive intervention, and work with senior leaders and external partners on some of the most important operational challenges facing the business.
Benefits
26 days annual leave plus bank holidays (increasing with length of service)
Flexible working options
Private health care
Competitive pension scheme - Anglian Water double-matches contributions up to 7%
Life assurance at eight times your salary
Annual bonus – up to 15%
Personal medical assessments
Virtual GP service
Cancer screening
Financial wellbeing support and salary finance benefits
Lifestyle savings including discounts on retail, travel and utilities
Employee Assistance Programme
Volunteer days