Closing Date
10/06/2025
Why Water?
Without water, life as we know it would be impossible. Every day, we rely on it for drinking, washing and cleaning. It helps create the energy we need for heat and light. It’s also essential to the products we enjoy and the natural world we depend upon.
Yet the South East faces a future of more people and less water. Our population is growing fast, and climate change is bringing greater risk of both drought and flooding.
In the water industry, your work will help to address these challenges and give people access to sustainable, high-quality water and wastewater services for decades to come.
The South East is also home to over 700 miles of coastline, two National Parks, four Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and some of the world’s rarest chalk streams. As well as working within these breath-taking environments, your activities will help preserve them for generations to come.
Why Southern Water?
Each day, over four million people across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight count on us for their essential water or wastewater services. Our work is vital, because we’re providing water for life.
Do you want to make a difference? At Southern Water, you work will help to enhance health and wellbeing, protect and improve the environment and sustain the economy. You’ll also play an important role in helping us deliver a resilient water future for the South East.
Are you a natural collaborator with a strong moral compass and high standards? If so, you’ll fit right in. Everything we do is underpinned by three values: succeeding together, doing the right thing and always improving.
Do you want to bring your authentic self to work every day? We do too. That’s why we’re building an inclusive culture and are proud to offer equal opportunities regardless of age, cultural background, disability, gender, marital status, nationality, political belief, race, religion or sexual orientation. We believe the unique perspectives and experiences each of us brings make us stronger.
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About the Role:
Job Title: Tankering Technician
Location: Falmer
Perm/FTC: Permanent
Hours: 48 hours per week. 4 days, 4 off, 4 nights, 4 off
Salary: Up to £34,800 per annum depending on skills and experience (not including shift allowance).
Role Overview:
Southern Water are excited to be recruiting Tankering Technicians to help build a brand new team at our Falmer depot. Southern Water’s Tankering capability is tasked with using resources efficiently (primarily tankers) to restore and maintain water supply to customers during an interruption to their mains supply. The main aim of this team is to keep customers in piped supply and minimise the financial, reputational, and regulatory impact of supply interruptions.
The driver’s primary purpose is to drive and operate the tankers and undertake activities to connect into existing network infrastructure in order to restore/maintain supply, either during events/incidents or supporting planned works. To enable a rapid and effective response, the team must remain in a state of readiness: the drivers must maintain their vehicles/equipment and keep them in good working order, and partake in operational planning and readiness testing. This position comes with a competitive salary and shift payments plus a comprehensive benefits package including access to business needs use vehicles and eligibility for a company bonus
Accountabilities and Estimated Time Spent
Maintain vehicles and ancillary equipment to ensure they are in a state of operational readiness 15%
2. Partake in response preparedness activities (contingency planning, fill/injection point assessments and readiness testing) 20%
3. Drive and operate tankers to restore/maintain piped supply to customers in a safe and compliant manner 40%
4. Maintain records and ensure compliance with all legislative and company-specific regulations (driving hours, sampling, health and safety, vehicle maintenance etc) 15%
5. Complete training and professional development activities to meet regulatory requirements and drive high performance 5%
6. Complete admin activities and maintain facilities at depot 5%
Person Specification:
We are looking for individuals who have at least 1 years’ experience in driving and operating tankers (preferable) or HGV’s. This role is not just about driving, therefore we are looking for people who have the ability to manage internal and external stakeholders and who are effective at planning and preparation. The role requires people who have excellent interpersonal skills and can handle less than ideal situations. You will be required to have excellent customer service skills as you will be regularly communicating directly with Southern Waters customers. You will be expected to have a good knowledge of health and safety regulations and vehicle maintenance. If this role sounds appealing and you have the required driving qualifications we would love for you to apply for one of the positions.
Qualifications and skillset
Essential
• Full, valid driving licence (category CE), clean driving licence with no points/convictions desirable, maximum 6 penalty points and no DG, DR, DD or IN convictions
• Full Driver CPC qualification
• Willing to work rotational shift pattern
Desirable
• Experience of working in the water/wastewater industry
• Calm network trained and EUSR Water Hygiene Card (Blue Card) holder
• Additional driver training qualifications e.g. advanced driver training/Institute of Advanced Motoring
• Customer service experience • Excellent understanding of Transport Law, Working Time Directive, Driver Hour rules
• Competent in Microsoft Office suite and use of Google Cloud applications
• Strong oral and written communication skills, exchanging information and communicating in a clear and concise way
• Ability to prioritise tasks and manage high pressure situations
• Ability to deliver to deadlines/targets and manage own work, with strong organisational and time management skills
• Strong team player
• Self-starter
Privacy Statement:
Please note: If you are an existing Southern Water employee, you will need to confirm within your application that your Manager is aware of your application.
All applicants must be eligible to live and work in the UK. You will need to provide evidence of eligibility (e.g. a passport or long birth certificate and proof of NI) and current proof of address (dated within the last 3 months), will be required as part of the recruitment process. If you do not meet these criteria, your application will not be considered
By submitting your details to this position at Southern Water, you are also agreeing to share your details with Gattaca PLC who are the managed service provider for all recruitment with the Southern Water Business. Should you wish to see the Gattaca PLC privacy policy please go to