Yorkshire Water Graduate Scheme – Water Quality Scientist
Salary & Benefits
1. Starting salary: £32,000, rising to £37,000 by end of year 2
2. Extras: £2,000 signing bonus, annual bonus, 25 days holiday + bank holidays + wellness day
3. Pension: Up to 12% company contribution
4. Life assurance: 4x pensionable salary
5. Permanent substantive role offer upon completion of programme subject to performance
Flexible Benefits Package
Includes health cash plan, critical illness and dental insurance, life assurance flex (with partner cover), retail discounts, online GP access, cycle-to-work scheme, gym membership savings, and more.
Location: West Yorkshire with requirement for flexible travel across Yorkshire & Humber.
Work type: 37 hours per week between a working window of 8:00am-6:00pm Monday – Friday
Why Yorkshire Water?
Yorkshire Water delivers essential water and wastewater services to over million people. But we’re more than taps and toilets—we protect the environment, support communities, and help shape Yorkshire’s future. From tackling climate change to planning for droughts and floods, we’re solving some of the biggest challenges facing our region and we need talented graduates to help us do it.
Your Graduate Programme
Our two-year programme offers you five placements across your allocated business area, complemented by a choice of placements to suit your personal development needs in core functions such as Finance, Health & Safety, People, and Procurement, enabling you to have a balanced understanding of the business. You’ll gain hands-on experience, technical and leadership training, and support from mentors, managers, graduate alumni, and our Early in Careers team to support you from the day you make the decision to join us.
By the end of the scheme, you’ll be ready to step into a permanent role and make a lasting impact.
Your Team:
The variety within the programme will see you working across our business and undertaking activities alongside your colleagues to meet the challenges faced by our industry ranging from how to achieve net zero carbon emissions through to how we plan for drought or flood events. The Water Quality function covers a number of connected, yet discrete areas, with the opportunity to work across exciting areas, such as identifying and delivering innovation opportunities, championing nature based solutions, through to contributing to strategies central to Yorkshire Water achieving our vision.
We look after communities, protect the environment, and plan to look after Yorkshire’s water, today, tomorrow 24/7, 365 days a year. We provide essential water and wastewater services to every corner of the Yorkshire region, and play a key role in the region’s health, wellbeing, and prosperity.
New environmental legislation, unprecedented levels of investment and changing expectations from customers means that this is an exciting time to discover opportunities within the water industry.
Water Quality is a key part of how we plan to meet the changing expectations of customers and regulators.
Your Role
The role of a Graduate Water Quality Scientistis a vital one as you will help ensure that water quality targets and standards relating to specific legislation are met. This will ensure that we provide our customers with a wholesome water supply that everyone can enjoy.
As a Graduate Water Quality Scientist you will:
6. You help will optimise, assets, systems, processes, and procedures in line with continuous improvement in water quality performance and protection of public health at all times both (water distribution and production sites). You will work towards minimising water quality related contacts and to help deliver our vision of taking responsibility for the water environment for good.
7. You will support a co-ordinated, planned and effective response to incidents across the business, and to ensure that processes, procedures are followed and agreed actions or requirements are implemented.
8. You will help prepare reports for submission to our regulator/Senior Managers and investigatory reports and review of exception reports provided by the team of scientists.
9. You will ensure compliance with our Performance Commitments – specifically the Compliance Risk Index (CRI), the Event Risk Index (ERI), Drinking Water Customer Contacts and Unplanned Outage (UPO) commitments.
10. You will support and deliver key initiatives and projects in relation to Water Quality Compliance, Customer Contacts, Network, Production and Capital support.
What you’ll need to be successful:
11. Minimum 2:1 Bachelors degree in a Science or similar (environmental) discipline.
12. Enthusiasm and a drive to succeed
13. UK Driving License and access to own vehicle
If you have an enquiring mind and want to join our business at a time where you can make a difference to our customers, our environment and join our sustainability led efforts – please apply!
Please click on the button to apply and complete out graduate application form.
Recruitment Process –
Closing date: 9th November 2025
Assessment Centres: between 17th November 2025 to 5th December 2025
Start date: 14th September 2026
We are proud to serve the Yorkshire region and are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment that is reflective of the communities we serve. We strongly encourage candidates of all different backgrounds to apply.
If successful for the role, you will be required to undergo pre-employment checks that will include a Basic Disclosure Check, carried out through a Third Party Company, prior to commencing employment. Depending on the role, you may also be required to go through the security vetting process for either a Counter Terrorist Check or Security Check clearance.
Kelda Group reserve the right to close this position before the published closing date, should the need occur. We therefore advise that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible.