South West Water
Innovation & Asset Standards Lead
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Powered by Water, Driven by Purpose
South West Water keeps the South West flowing with safe, reliable drinking water and wastewater services across some of the UK’s most stunning landscapes.
We’re proud to be part of Pennon Group, a leader in the UK water sector, working towards a greener future. Our goals? As well as lowering our carbon footprint, we’re working with partners to plant 300,000 trees, restore peatlands and supporting farmers and landowners to improve water quality and wildlife.
Whether you’re starting out or seeking a new challenge, our scale and ambition create opportunities for you to shape your own career.
Ready to make a splash? Join our team today.
Role Purpose
The Innovation & Asset Standards Lead is responsible for driving innovation across the organisation while maintaining ownership and governance of the company's technical standards framework.
This role acts as the central coordinator for innovation activities, connecting internal teams with external partners, securing funding opportunities, and ensuring successful innovations are scaled across the business. Simultaneously, the role ensures technical standards remain current, safe, practical, and aligned with regulatory requirements, operational learning, and emerging technologies.
The position sits at the intersection of asset management, engineering, operations, and innovation, playing a critical role in improving asset performance, reducing whole-life costs, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
Key Responsibilities
Innovation Portfolio Management
- Lead and coordinate innovation activity across the organisation.
- Manage the innovation portfolio, ensuring visibility, governance, and benefit realisation.
- Coordinate and support Ofwat Innovation Fund submissions and other external funding opportunities.
- Identify and pursue innovation funding from Innovate UK, research councils, and industry partnerships.
- Develop reporting frameworks that demonstrate innovation outcomes and business value.
External Partnerships
- Build and manage relationships with universities, technology providers, consultants, industry bodies, and supply chain partners.
- Facilitate collaboration between business units and external organisations to solve strategic challenges.
- Manage commercial, intellectual property, and governance considerations within partnerships.
- Represent the organisation within sector innovation forums and industry working groups.
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Enabling Business Unit Innovation
- Support business units to develop local innovation capability.
- Provide innovation governance, frameworks, tools, and templates.
- Facilitate cross-business learning and knowledge sharing.
- Establish clear processes for assessing, trialling, and scaling innovation.
- Promote innovation literacy and encourage participation across teams.
Technical Standards Governance
- Own and maintain the organisation's technical standards framework.
- Establish governance processes covering reviews, approvals, deviations, and compliance.
- Ensure standards align with regulatory requirements, safety obligations, and asset management policies.
- Act as the authoritative source of advice regarding standards interpretation and application.
- Lead continual improvement of technical standards and engineering governance practices.
Embedding Innovation into Standards
- Enable safe adoption of innovation through controlled trials, exemptions, and fast-track updates.
- Evaluate new materials, methods, and technologies alongside engineering and operational stakeholders.
- Promote digital engineering standards, modern methods of construction, and emerging technologies.
- Optimise standard solutions to maximise value and reduce whole-life costs.
- Ensure proven innovations are embedded into standards and become part of normal business practice.
Experience Required
Essential Experience
- Significant experience within engineering, asset management, technical governance, or infrastructure leadership roles.
- Experience leading or coordinating innovation programmes or portfolios.
- Experience securing and managing external innovation funding opportunities.
- Strong background in developing or enhancing technical standards and governance frameworks.
- Experience managing relationships with academic, technology, consultancy, and supply chain partners.
- Proven ability to influence and enable others through a collaborative, non-direct management approach.
- Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to a wide range of audiences.
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Desirable Experience
- Knowledge of the UK water sector and regulatory environment.
- Experience with Modern Methods of Construction (MMC).
- Understanding of digital engineering standards and information management principles.
- Experience delivering innovation within regulated utility sectors.
Qualifications
Essential
- Degree qualification in Engineering, Asset Management, Innovation Management, or a related discipline.
- Chartered status or working towards chartership with a relevant professional institution (e.g. ICE, CIWEM, IET, BCS, RICS).
- Knowledge of asset health modelling, resilience planning, and risk management principles.
Closing Date
14th Aug 2026
We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible.
Please note that the successful candidate will be subject to a mandatory DBS check as part of the onboarding process.
Our Culture
Be yourself, we like it that way. Together, we will build a culture of belonging, where inclusion is instinctive. Diversity is our strength and a reflection of our communities. We care, we value everyone, we celebrate uniqueness.
Our core values, which are essential to our success, are:
- Be Rock Solid - Build trust and be trusted. Be the one we all look to and can depend on.
- Be You - We want you to bring your best everyday. Be yourself and make your mark in your individual way.
- Be the Future - Embrace change. Drive Progress. Own the challenge.
We look after the water and wastewater services for 1.8 million customers across Cornwall, Devon, the Isles of Scilly and parts of Dorset and Somerset.
From treatment and maintenance, to innovation and improvements, we're busy every day finding and fixing leaks, unblocking sewers and going bigger and further in our environmental work to be a company you can be proud of.
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