Water Operations 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

Our Water Ops teams are responsible for operating, monitoring and maintaining water assets from source to tap, so that we can deliver a reliable supply of the fresh water to customers from Stranraer to Shetland. It’s a beast of an operation, with thousands of water assets across the country– over 200 dam impounding reservoirs, nearly 250 water treatment works, over 1,000 service reservoirs, nearly 500 water pumping stations and over 25,000 miles of water pipe.

You’ll gain in-depth understanding of the Water Operations assets, technology and processes. You’ll be trained up to be able to act as a Multifunctional Treatment Team Leader so that you can support current Team Leaders during incidents and provide cover when needed. You’ll also be working with teams across the North of Scotland to identify and deliver improvements and embed changes.

This isn’t the programme for you if you want a comfy office-based existence. This is a front line operations role, so expect your PPE kit to get plenty of wear and be prepared to be out and about in all weathers!

Over the course of 2 years, you’ll rotate roles every 6 months, with the goal of getting you ready to step into a Water Ops project management or team leader role.

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.
• This programme may require you to be on call during some weekends and evenings in case you’re needed to deal with an incident or emergency. This would be compensated through an additional monthly “standby” allowance and overtime pay.

What you’ll need

You’ll have graduated in the last three years (or be on track to graduate next summer). Your degree should be in a practical discipline like Mechanical Engineering, Science or Chemical Engineering – or a related subject.

You’ll need to live within commuting distance of Inverness, our main hub in the north of Scotland, and be happy to travel to Water Ops sites across the Highlands and Islands (with occasional trips down to the central belt).

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 Engineering 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 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.