Programme Reporting Manager

We are Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority, a non-ministerial government department responsible for regulating the water sector in England and Wales. Following the Independent Water Commission’s final report, the UK government has set out a bold new direction - one that brings together expertise from across the sector to deliver better outcomes for customers and the environment.

We are working in collaboration with the government and other regulators to help establish a new body for England, combining our strengths with those of the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Environment Agency, and Natural England. We’re also continuing to engage with the Welsh Government to support future decisions 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 Major Projects team is part of Ofwat's Major Projects and Markets directorate. We are a multidisciplinary team that has a wide remit, working with the industry on some of the largest and most complex major water infrastructure projects the sector has seen in over thirty years, ranging between several hundred million pounds to several billion pounds. Our aim is to ensure companies are developing and delivering them in a timely and efficient manner, while protecting customers and the environment.

The Role:

We are seeking a Programme Reporting Manager to support our growing Major Projects Team at Senior Associate level this is a new role within the Major Water Infrastructure Programme Delivery Office (MWIPDO) team that supports both the Major Project team and RAPID team in the regulatory oversight of the overall Major Water Infrastructure programme. You will play a key role in not only delivering Ofwat's strategy, but also in the development of our approach to the delivery of the Programme. As part of the Delivery Office, you will co-ordinate the effective planning and production of high-quality reporting products for the programme, which reflect the programme status and priorities.

This is a unique opportunity for someone with experience of working within complex programme and project delivery, and to play a role in the delivery of some of the most important capital projects in the water sector which are vital for the environment, resilience and growth. The portfolio of projects within the Major Water Infrastructure Programme is also essential to meet the needs of current and future customers—and your work will directly impact how companies deliver for them. You will work with a dedicated team of programme/project managers to drive the reporting cadence and will have direct involvement reporting to all stakeholders (both internal and external) including across government. You will maintain good data governance in line with organisational and government standards, which will require liaison with the Data and IT teams. This is an evolving space so would suit someone who is a flexible thinker, able to balance the immediate priorities and help shape the future vision for programme reporting.

You will need to be proactive and respond flexibly in support the wider work of the programme. You will be involved with the embedding of the Delivery Office as we grow, which includes supporting programme governance, risk management and planning.

To be successful as well as working closely with the Major Projects and RAPID teams you will develop strong working relationships with partner Regulators (Environment Agency and Drinking Water Inspectorate) and Defra. You will be expected to uphold high standards of delivery and collaborate with water and wastewater companies to support them to deliver the best value for customers. You will have a high degree of autonomy and responsibility, and with our support you will continue to hone your judgement and be expected to exercise it responsibly in line with our strategy and ways of working.

Ofwat is a learning organisation, and you will have ample opportunities to further develop your knowledge and experience, as well as consolidate your skillset. We have a well-supported, agile working environment, and a trust-based culture intended to help empower you and enable and support you to succeed within Ofwat. In turn, you will be expected to provide support to colleagues across the organisation, proactively sharing skills and knowledge, and equally will be supported by coaching and mentoring.

In this role you will be expected to:

• Lead the development and delivery of programme reporting to support the management of the projects within the Major Water Infrastructure Programme.
• Be the champion for good data governance, set up and oversee good practice to ensure data integrity and maintenance “one version of the truth” across regulators.
• Analyse project and programme data to produce insights into risks and issues and identify programme trends.
• Analyse data to support planning and pipeline analysis working with specialists within the partner regulators and companies.
• Support the Delivery Office to ensure robust processes are in place to support and drive the programme forward including wider PMO activities.
• Work collaboratively with partner regulators, Defra and water and wastewater companies to continue to bring consistency across reporting and apply continuous improvement.
• Provide wider support to the Major Projects team in delivering its programme of work.

Our culture is collegiate and will require you to collaborate with others and work seamlessly across Ofwat and beyond (e.g. with colleagues in RAPID) to ensure an end-to-end policy framework is in place to deliver high quality and successful outcomes for the projects and programmes in question.

About you:

To be successful in this role you will need the below essential attributes, experience, skills and knowledge:

Experience, skills and knowledge

1. Lead Criterion: Knowledge and experience of working in a PMO role within complex programme and project delivery environments, possibly within large infrastructure projects and/or large capital programmes, water sector supply chain organisation, consultancy, regulators, Government, or in another similarly relevant position.
2. Lead Criterion: Knowledge and experience of creating programme reports for multiple audiences, both within the companies and for public viewing.
3. Knowledge and/ or experience of managing data governance within a programme and experience of using Microsoft Power Platform (Aps, BI automate and SharePoint lists).

Attributes

• Champion and leader of change
• Promotes collaboration
• Adaptable Thinker
• Delivers Outcomes

Attributes as per Ofwat's Framework for Success for the relevant salary grade. You can read more about Attributes here.