Ofwat
Principal Governance Lead
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Join Ofwat’s Supervision Team as a Principal Governance Lead
We have three opportunities for Principals to join our Delivery Directorate.
Office Location: Birmingham (B5 4UA) or London (E14) with hybrid working
About Us
We are Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority, a non-ministerial government department responsible for regulating the water sector in England and Wales.
The water sector is entering a new chapter. The government has set out a bold new direction, bringing together expertise from across the sector to deliver better outcomes for customers and the environment. We are collaborating with fellow regulators to respond to recommendations in The Independent Water Commission Report, the Welsh Government’s response to the Green Paper, Shaping the Future of Water Governance in Wales, and the Government’s White Paper, A new vision for water.
Ofwat is working with the government and other regulators to help create a new body for England, bringing together our strengths with those of the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Environment Agency and Natural England. We are also continuing to work with the Welsh Government to support decisions on the future arrangements for Wales.
While these changes take shape, our mission remains the same: to hold water companies to account, drive performance, and ensure the sector delivers real value for customers, communities, and the environment. If you’re passionate about making a difference, this is a unique moment to join us and help shape the future of water, and together we can continue to make a positive impact.
The Role
We have an exciting new opening for a Principal - Governance Lead to design and implement key programme management processes, including:
- Designing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the supervision programme of work and implementing and managing internal monitoring and reporting of these, and wider supervisory activities and outcomes, for all levels of internal decision-making oversight and scrutiny
- Devising approaches to capturing key risks and dependencies for the supervision programme of work and tracking and reporting them through the organisation.
- Designing and managing internal governance processes to support tracking of supervisory activities and regulatory actions/outcomes across Ofwat's range of policy teams, aligning with related work in the Company Engagement team.
- Continuing to develop, evolve and manage the overall governance approach that will be in place to support supervisory policy and supervision-related regulatory decision-making during the transition period, including as we better integrate our regulatory approach across all regulators
- Providing advice and support to Defra and early appointees for the new integrated regulator on the development and implementation of the supervisory governance approach for the new regulator.
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About You
Below are some of the key essential experience, skills & knowledge required for this post:
- Lead criterion: Experience of designing, implementing and overseeing organisation-wide governance and reporting processes within a regulatory environment.
- Experience of identifying, managing and reporting programme level risks across a complex organisation.
- Experience of evaluating, improving and embedding governance, reporting or assurance frameworks to support organisational effectiveness and decision-making.
- Understanding of regulatory, supervisory, assurance or performance oversight frameworks and the role these play in organisational accountability and decision-making.
- Experience of producing and confidently presenting regular insightful, high-quality governance reports and management information to senior stakeholders.
- Proven experience of embedding change across an organisation's operating model.
- Experience of working collaboratively with internal and/or external stakeholders to deliver shared outcomes and influence decision-making
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Why You Should Join Us
- Excellent employer pension contributions of nearly 29%.
- People Centric: Our people are at the heart of Ofwat and everything we do - we ensure all voices are heard and treat each other with respect; you'll be given the autonomy and the support to do your role in the best way.
- Innovative Work Environment: We embrace agile and new ways of working and have a culture build on trust, flexibility, and collaboration.
- Development Opportunities: Gain valuable experience and develop your skills in a supportive and dynamic setting.
- Work-Life Balance: Enjoy the flexibility of working from home combined with the benefits of in person collaboration in our Birmingham and London offices.
- 25 days’ annual leave, increasing to 30 with each year of service, plus bank holidays and an extra 2.5 days of privilege leave.
- Access to exclusive discounts on a variety of goods and services, including retail outlets, theatre tickets, holidays, insurance, and a gym membership.
- Fees paid for membership of relevant professional bodies.
- Up to 3 volunteering days per year.
- Recognition vouchers scheme rewarding your hard work.
- Generous shared parental leave and pay supporting your family life.
Follow the link to apply for full details about the role. Please ensure you have submitted your application in full before the below deadline.
Closing date: 23.55 on 30 July 2026
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