United Utilities
County Planning Lead
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County Planning Lead | Shell Green | Hybrid | £46,359
Are you energised by complex problem solving, confident in planning at scale, and motivated by keeping essential services running smoothly? We are looking for a proactive and highly organised County Planning Lead to join our fast paced and collaborative Bioresources Planning Team.
This is a role where your analytical thinking, communication strengths, negotiation skills, and natural team spirit will shine. You will work alongside other County Planners, the Regional Bioresource Production Planning Manager, and colleagues across multiple hubs to ensure sludge movements are optimised, compliant, and cost effective.
You will join a team that works brilliantly under pressure, supporting one another and tackling challenges together with confidence and energy. This is the perfect role if you enjoy coordinating across different departments, influencing decisions, and keeping operations moving with precision and pace.
About This Role
As a County Planning Lead, you will take ownership of planning activity for your appointed county, ensuring sludge is routed and managed effectively to protect compliance across Water, Wastewater, and Bioresources. You will coordinate the day to day production plan, adjusting schedules as priorities evolve and ensuring the right decisions are made at the right time.
You will act as the central point of contact for planning discussions, using data, insight, and clear communication to help set priorities, respond to emerging risks, and guide operational teams through changing circumstances. You will monitor system performance, provide meaningful analysis, and work closely with hubs to keep activity aligned to the regional strategy.
This role offers significant scope to build skills in operational planning, cross functional collaboration, and performance analysis. If you enjoy variety, thrive in a fast moving environment, and take pride in helping complex operations run smoothly, you will make a real impact from day one.
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Key Responsibilities
- To be the point of contact for sludge movements across the region and the subject matter expert for the appointed county.
- Creating an annual production plan and modifying weekly to maintain Wastewater and Water compliance in the most cost effective way.
- Monitoring and tracking progress of all work that is scheduled via the scheduling system and key levels across the import sites to proactively manage any headroom shortfalls that could impact the production plan.
- Liaising with the county hub to manage shortfall and mitigate compliance risk.
- Managing any conflicts that arise around job priorities and working with the county hub to resolve these.
- Act as the key point of contact for responding to changes to the regional production plan via escalations and responsible for updating the outage tracker.
- Working closely with the wastewater network and hubs to ensure that work is prioritised based on risk and export performance is proactively challenged and managed.
Technical Skills & Responsibilities
- Strong understanding of systems thinking, with the ability to recognise how decisions and processes influence both Bioresources and Wastewater performance.
- Solid working knowledge of wastewater treatment processes and networks, enabling confident and informed conversations with operational teams and an effective understanding of company policies and procedures.
- Excellent analytical capability, with the skill to interpret data, draw meaningful insights, and present information clearly to a range of audiences.
- Awareness of key transport legislation and regulatory requirements, particularly those relevant to sludge logistics and movement.
- Highly organised and able to manage competing priorities, maintaining accuracy, structure, and focus in a fast moving environment.
- A valid driving licence, as some travel will be required across the region.
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What You'll Get In Return
You will be joining a supportive and passionate team of professionals dedicated to delivering high standards across Water, Wastewater, and Bioresources. You will be joining a team that values collaboration, clear communication, and shared success, creating an environment where everyone can thrive.
The environment is dynamic, fast paced, and reactive, offering constant opportunities to learn, adapt, and problem solve. You will work closely with other County Planners and colleagues across the wider organisation, giving you exposure to many different teams and operational areas. This is a place where your communication, teamwork, organisation, planning ability, and negotiation skills will be valued every day, and where your contributions will make an important impact.
Benefits:
- 26 days’ annual leave (rising to 30 after four years) plus 8 bank holidays
- Competitive pension with up to 14% employer contribution and life cover
- Up to 7.5% performance‑related bonus and recognition awards
- Company‑funded healthcare plan
- MyGymDiscounts – savings on gyms and digital fitness
- Access to Best Doctors, Salary Finance and Wealth at Work
- Retail deals and discounts
- EVolve car scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme and mental health first aiders
- ShareBuy scheme
- MORE Choices flexible benefits
- Enhanced parental leave
If you are motivated, confident in fast paced environments, and excited to join a team that works together to solve problems and deliver great outcomes, we would love to hear from you.
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