Closing Date
2025-09-26
Job Title: Product Owner
Location: Durrington or Falmer (Hybrid working)
Contract Type: Permanent
Hours: 37 hours per week
Salary: circa £55,000
Storm overflows are not acceptable to us, our customers and stakeholders. We want to lead the charge in resolving the current situation. That’s where our Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force comes in, implementing pioneering and industry-leading solutions to reduce spills and reliance on overflows, whilst also enhancing the environment for our communities. While the team is delivering a £1.5billion programme over the next 10 years, it is vital we keep our customers informed on progress and provide accurate and transparent data. We do this through our service called Rivers and Seas Watch.
Job Overview
As part of the Rivers and Seas Watch (RSW) Product Team, the purpose of the Product Owner role is to support the development and continuous improvements of our Rivers and Seas Watch service. The role involves translating the strategic direction and daily management of the Rivers and Seas Watch service.
1. Working in collaboration with the Senior Product Manager, translate strategic goals and roadmaps for the Rivers and Seas Watch service into actionable product backlog items (PBI’s) and measure progress against defined business outcomes.
2. Acting as the voice to the customer, lead on collaborative sessions with the development (Sprint Planning, Backlog Refinement, Sprint Reviews, Release planning) to ensure quality plans and outcomes that align with the product strategy.
3. Engage with other product people (community of practice) and Digital teams to ensure that IT/business strategy, policy and standards are adhered to, thus achieving commonality and ease of maintenance.
4. Maintain a healthy, prioritised and valuable product backlog of PBI’s that can be implemented by the development team.
5. Champion user-centred design by integrating feedback from diverse user groups including the public, environmental agencies, and internal stakeholders.
About You
You will need to be proficient with product management, stakeholder management, prioritisation, analysing data, UX best practices, people management and great at translating ideas and strategy into reality. The role requires someone who is great at working with stakeholders, software developers, and comfortable working in a dynamic, ever-changing environment.
6. 3+ years’ experience working in a similar product role.
7. Experience of writing clear user stories and acceptance criteria for development teams.
8. Ability to translate high level strategic initiatives and ideas into feasible and elegant solutions with teams.
9. Strong analytical skills: ability to collate, understand and handle data and present it in meaningful ways.
10. Problem Solver: ability to overcome obstacles to complete tasks – anticipate issues, be inquisitive to understand problems, come up with ideas to address them, enlist the support of others where needed.
11. Knowledge of Microsoft office product suite, as well as digital work management tools Jira, Miro, JPD (Jira Product Discovery) etc.
Package
This role will be full time Monday to Friday with a hybrid approach to working between our Durrington or Falmer offices and home. We are offering a salary of circa £55,000 as well as other benefits including:
12. Generous pension up to 11% company contribution
13. 25 days annual leave
14. Life assurance equal to 4x salary
15. Salary sacrifice electric car scheme (after 6 months service)
16. Health Cash Plan
17. Full funded eye tests
18. Two paid volunteering days a year
19. Occupational health service
20. Discounts with over 800 popular retailers
21. Digital GP service
22. Study support may be available for job-related qualifications
23. Competitive maternity leave and flexible return to work options
24. Cycle to work scheme
Join our Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force and see how far your career could progress with a company committed to career progression, training and development opportunities, our customers and the environment.
Does this opportunity excite you but you’re not 100% sure if you meet all the requirements for the role? Or are you concerned that ‘normal’ office hours aren’t possible given your personal circumstances? Whilst we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we’ll try to find a practical solution. So why not engage with us and find out more about this role?
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, because delivering water for life is our core purpose. To achieve this, we need 24/7 support in place to resolve incidents quickly and efficiently. All our employees understand the importance of out-of-hours incident support – because when problems appear, fixing them is our top priority. That’s why our people join together and support when and however needed to make sure our customers get the service they deserve. Joining the Southern Water family means you’ll become part of our incident support team. During your interview, your manager will speak to you about any incident support rotas that apply to your position.
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.
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