About the role
As Customer Policy Manager, you will play a critical role in ensuring NWG meets and exceeds its obligations under the Customer Focused Licence Condition and the Consumer Involvement Rule. Acting as the recognised subject matter expert, you will lead on compliance, assurance and continuous improvement across customer policies, procedures and governance. You will work closely with Regulation & Assurance, Internal Audit and the Group Organisational Compliance teams to horizon scan regulatory change, respond to consultations and calls for evidence, and ensure robust reporting through mechanisms such as Annual Performance Reporting.
You will take ownership of internal audit programmes within the Customer teams, using insight and evidence to identify risks, drive improvement and provide assurance to senior leaders, including the Customer Leadership Team. A key part of the role involves building strong relationships across the business to ensure responsibilities are clearly understood, issues are identified early and appropriate escalation routes are in place. You will prepare and agree compliance statements, brief senior stakeholders on regulatory developments, and lead on reviewing and updating customer policies and related literature to ensure they remain compliant, relevant and customer focused.
Alongside this, you will build strong and positive relationships with stakeholders such as Ofwat, CCW and industry peers, and contribute to wider customer excellence initiatives including ServiceMark, BSI Service Excellence and UKCSI. Your work will directly support the delivery of our Unrivalled Customer Experience Strategy and strong performance against C-MeX, embedding learning and best practice into a culture of continuous improvement.
About you
You will bring proven experience of auditing within a regulated environment, with the ability to interrogate systems, analyse data and produce clear, high-quality reports for senior and regulatory audiences.
You will have strong knowledge of customer-focused regulatory requirements, along with experience of writing and reviewing policies, identifying risk and delivering sustainable improvements. Your ability to build credibility and influence at all levels, including with senior managers and directors, will be essential to your success in this role.
Highly organised and confident managing audits as projects, you will be skilled at prioritising workload and working to deadlines while maintaining exceptional attention to detail. You will be a clear and persuasive communicator, comfortable delivering training, leading discussions and constructively challenging where needed. Strong analytical skills, sound numeracy and confidence using tools such as Excel, PowerPoint and wider Microsoft Office applications will underpin your day-to-day work.
Most importantly, you will demonstrate authentic leadership, emotional intelligence and resilience, with a strong customer mindset and a drive to make things better. Whether working independently or leading across the business, you will combine evidence-based decision making with adaptability and initiative, helping to ensure the organisation remains compliant, forward-looking and focused on delivering positive outcomes for customers.
Here at Northumbrian Water/Essex & Suffolk Water, we embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, and encourage all colleagues to bring their most authentic self to work.
Our colleague network groups include our Rainbow Support Network (LGBTQIA+), REACH (Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Heritage), WiSTEM (Women in STEM) and Thisability (disability and neurodiversity) networks. They provide a safe space for colleagues from diverse backgrounds, welcoming all colleagues regardless of their personal characteristics to participate in valuable conversation that improves our organisational awareness, understanding and inclusivity.
We encourage and welcome all applications, as we strive to be an equal opportunity employer, committed to having diverse communities represented within all our teams, structures, and organisation.
Please note this role will require a DBS to be completed prior to employment
NWG are an inclusive employer who support the rehabilitation of offenders, we will not, however consider candidates who have certain unspent convictions to ensure our commitment to fostering a safe and secure working environment for all OR colleagues, suppliers, customers and third parties.
About us
Here are NWG we strive to make Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) a Great Place to Work, for all. We embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity and encourage you to bring your full self to work. As an equal opportunity employer we’re committed to having a diverse community represented across our business.
We’re aware that not everyone will have every skill listed in the job description, however if you have some of the skills listed, we'd encourage you to apply
NWG at a glance:
Our purpose at NWG is caring for the essential needs of our communities and environment, now and for generations to come.
We do this by providing reliable and affordable water and wastewater services for our customers.
We make a positive difference by operating efficiently and investing prudently, to maintain a sustainable and resilient business.
Our vision is to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and wastewater services. To support us in achieving our vision, we have five core values which are the guiding principles, defining who we are, what we do and how we do it.
Our benefits
We’re a Great Place to Work because of the amazing people who work for us, and to say thank you we offer a range of benefits to colleagues. Our ‘Tap Into’ benefits include:
1. Generous holiday entitlement starting at 26 days, plus bank holidays and additional time off on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. There’s also the option to buy or sell holidays.
2. Company pension scheme, where we’ll double match your contributions up to an employer contribution of 11%.
3. Free access to local attractions.
4. A fantastic discount scheme, with savings on days out, shopping, travel and more.
5. Award winning ‘Living Well’ wellbeing support, including access to a digital GP service for you and your family members.
6. Support with sustainable travel – through salary sacrifice cars and a cycle to work scheme.
7. Financial wellbeing support – access our community savings scheme, financial education and low cost loans through Salary Finance. We also provide 4 x Life Assurance and an Income Protection Scheme.
8. Support with your development – we offer a range of development opportunities, can support you through an interest free qualification loan and we’ll even pay for any relevant professional body subscription.