Catchment Advisor – Kent

Join our team as a Catchment Advisor in the Kent region to lead the development and implementation of critical catchment management activities in priority drinking water areas.

This multi-faceted role involves close collaboration with statutory and non-statutory stakeholders, including charities, NGOs, landowners, businesses, and the Environment Agency (EA).

You’ll be instrumental in ensuring regulatory compliance with the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) and supporting Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) obligations.

A key focus will be on stakeholder engagement, education, and compliance assurance to protect water resources and address water quality issues.

This position plays a vital role in achieving our carbon footprint reduction goals and delivering strong customer value through sustainable water management.

You’ll also contribute significantly to climate change resilience activities, developing long-term solutions to safeguard drinking water provision and quality for the future.

Main responsibilities

• Deliver catchment investigation activities and/or catchment no deterioration schemes associated with South East Water’s obligations under the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP).
• Plan suitable monitoring strategies and assess monitoring data from Catchment Scientists to determine sources of pollution, using this information to inform and guide necessary catchment interventions or remedial works.
• Conducting land usage surveys to determine potential pollution hot spots and use this information to educate and change behaviours and activities in external stakeholders’ operations.
• For investigations, undertake hydrological and hydrogeological characterisations reports and produce source-pathway-receptor models. Ensuring that findings and outcomes are used across the business to improve operations.
• Work closely with the Catchment team to record project performance and land owner engagement statistics. Work with these Stakeholders and other internal teams to ensure that planned actions are guided and driven by our environmental plans.
• Advocate and promote the environmental work of South East Water through engagement with stakeholders on an everyday basis as well as the design and delivery of special workshops and events.
• Working with our various regulators and guardians to produce technical written reports of a high standard to meet tight regulatory deadlines and highlight the positive works of South East Water.
• Support the business with reactive, emergency environmental advice to minimise environmental impact of work and to reduce the likelihood of environmental prosecutions.

You’ll need:

Skills / Qualifications / Experience

• ​​​Educated to degree level in an environmental / related discipline.
• The ability to understand the diverse world of catchment management.
• Excellent Stakeholder management skills – with the gravitas and communication skills needed to explain and gain buy-in to complex environmental processes / solutions.
• Demonstrable experience of working within or alongside the water industry to provide catchment management or environmental protection services.
• Experience of working with diverse stakeholder groups in an environmental setting.
• Experience of working within / alongside regulatory bodies.
• Clean driving licence as occasional visits to other sites will be required.

We want to be the water company people want to be supplied by and want to work for.

We know the communities we serve are diverse. We recognise creativity comes from diversity not similarity. That’s why we are enthusiastic about creating inclusion across age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion and identity. You will experience our dedication to equal opportunities and fair treatment for all: through your recruitment, employment and career progression with South East Water.

Benefits package:

• Excellent Stakeholder pension scheme, up to 10% employer contribution.
• 5 weeks holiday plus bank holidays per annum, increasing to 6 weeks with length of service.
• Flexible annual leave policy to buy or sell holiday leave.
• Paid volunteering days.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Health cash plan.
• Life assurance.
• Wellbeing related benefits.

What can you expect from your recruitment?

• To apply for this position, please submit your CV on our career’s website.
• It is necessary for you to have the legal right to work in the UK when you begin employment with South East Water.
• Additionally, as part of the employment offer, you will need to pass background, identity, and employment referencing checks.

If this sounds like the opportunity you’ve been looking for, apply now!

South East Water kindly asks that recruitment agencies refrain from submitting CVs to our employees or associates without explicit invitation from our HR Resourcing team. CVs sent on a speculative basis will not be acknowledged and will not assume any responsibility for fees or commissions in the event that we hire a candidate who applied directly or subsequently introduced by an instructed agency.

Compensation package:

£40,000 p.a. (dependent on experience)