Industrial Waste Water Management Scotland 2024

Start your career with a splash. When you join Scottish Water as a Graduate, it’s more than just a great launchpad for your career. You’ll play an important part in helping Scotland to flourish, by delivering the critical infrastructure and services that our nation relies on every day.

You’ll be joining us at a fascinating time, as we endeavour to transform into a more agile, innovative organisation that provides truly excellent service, delivers great value for money, and works in an environmentally sustainable way that goes beyond Net Zero.

What you’ll do

Trade Effluent is the catch-all term for waste water produced in industrial settings. All sorts of businesses produce trade effluent. A small launderette will produce water with lots of fabric softener and detergents in it. Your local swimming pool generates water with lots of chlorine. A large chemical plant might create a large volume of effluent containing toxic substances.

Collectively, Scotland’s industries discharge millions of litres of trade effluent every day. And this presents significant environmental risks if it isn’t carefully managed and treated.

Businesses that want to discharge their effluent into the public waste water network can pay us to handle it for them. We’re happy to do it, but only under strict agreements we call Consents.

Which brings us to our wonderful Trade Effluent team. Their whole focus is on protecting our waste water network, and Scotland’s natural environment. They make sure that business customers don’t discharge effluent into our network that might create blockages, risk pollution incidents or create treatment problems at our Waste Water Treatment Works.

Over the course of 2 years, you’ll work alongside Waste Water specialists to learn all about the ways we provide an effective trade effluent service, and make sure that we are managing industrial waste water in a way that meets our environmental, wholesale and safety obligations.

Day to day, you can expect to be involved in:

• Making sure that business customers have the necessary Consents in place, and that they are following the conditions that have been agreed.
• Tracking the regulation and control of industrial effluent discharges, monitoring compliance, and investigating any non-compliance.
• Attending and advising on any pollution incidents, as well as advising on pollution prevention and environmental legislative requirements.
• Becoming an expert on our commercial agreements, including wholesale charges.

If you’re interested in scientific, environmental or commercial impacts of waste water, this is a brilliant opportunity to become a specialist in this crucial part of our business.

How does the graduate programme work?

• You’ll be employed on a permanent contract from Day One.
• The starting salary for this role will be £28,500. After each successful 6-month placement, your salary will increase by up to £1000.
• You’ll be part of a cohort of c.60 graduates, giving you an instant and invaluable network of contacts throughout the business.
• There is plenty of support. As well as your day-to-day manager, we’ll match you up with a mentor who will support and coach you as you go through your programme.
• You’ll have access to both structured and informal training designed to equip you with the skills you need now, and in the future.

What you’ll need

You’ll have graduated within the last three years (or be on track to graduate next summer). Your degree should be in Biology, Chemistry or Environmental Science – or a similar field of study. Ideally, it will be a 2:2, or higher.

You’ll need to live within commuting distance of one of our main office hubs, e.g., Edinburgh, Stepps, Dundee, Inverness.

And you’ll need a full UK-issued (DVLA) driving license – or be on track to pass your test.

In terms of essential requirements? That’s it.

But here’s the thing: We get thousands of applications for our Graduate roles each year. What makes the best candidates stand out?

Here are a few things we love to see:

• CVs that tell us more than what grades you earned over the years. Show us what you’ve learned. What you love. What your aspirations are.
• Cover letters that tell us why you’re interested in Scottish Water (and in Waste Water in particular)
• People who use their application to show that they are Bold, Responsible, Inspiring and Caring.

Looking out for you

While the work we do is important, it’s not the only thing that matters. That’s why we make sure you have everything you need to find a good work-life balance.

You’ll get plenty of time to recharge with 38 days of holiday every year (including public holidays). And you can even buy five more if you need a little extra time. You can also take paid time off to volunteer in your community.

When it comes to major life events we have family-friendly policies around adoption, maternity, and parental leave. And for the everyday? We embrace flexible working.

For your future, there’s our pension (the ‘know-what-you’ll-get-when-you-retire’ kind), as well as life assurance.

As for some nice extras? You can expect an annual company bonus. Not to mention access to SW Splash – handy rewards that can save you money on holidays, bills, and shopping.

What happens next?

• The closing date for applications is Sunday 17th December
• Assessment activity will kick off in January with some surprisingly fun (no, really!) online testing.
• Final face-to-face interviews will happen during February. Where you can give us a good grilling too.
• If you accept a place on the programme, you’ll go through some pre-employment screening during the Spring, including a criminal record check.
• All our new Graduates will start together in September with a week-long induction event in Glasgow. You’ll learn more about the organisation, meet our leaders, visit some of our operational sites, start making friends, and have a lot of fun.

A few final things worth knowing…

Research shows that some people avoid applying for jobs unless they can meet every single criteria. If you’re interested in this job, but don’t tick all the boxes, apply anyway! We hardly ever hire people who can do every part of a job from Day One. Everyone has a learning curve. So don’t rule yourself out!

Let us know if there are any changes we can make to our recruitment process to help you perform at your best. Lots of our people have disabilities or neurodiverse conditions (including some of our recruiters!). We’re very used to making adjustments, so please don’t be afraid to ask.

As part of our commitment to developing a flourishing Scotland, it’s important that all our employees are Scottish taxpayers. If you join us, your home address will need to be in Scotland. If you don’t already live here, you'll need to commit to moving here within your first three months.

Finally (finally!), candidates who haven’t submitted an application in the last 12 months will have their records removed from our recruitment database. You won’t need to do anything. Your data will be automatically deleted.