Head of Maintenance

Head of Maintenance

Permanent – 37 core hours per week

Salary – Circa £100,000

Location – Pity Me, Durham / Hybrid

About the role

As Head of Maintenance, you will provide strategic and operational leadership to a team of approximately 300 colleagues delivering maintenance and reliability services across Northumbrian Water and Essex & Suffolk Water.

Working closely with Operations, Asset Investment, HR, contractors and industry partners, you will drive asset reliability, safety, culture, performance and innovation, ensuring maintenance is recognised as a critical partner in delivering sustainable business outcomes

You will be creating a culture where everyone goes home safe every day through visible safety leadership and proactive risk management. Improving asset reliability and performance by leading the transition from reactive to proactive maintenance practices.

You will also develop a high-performing, engaged and accountable workforce with strong technical and leadership capability as well as Influence strategic asset investment decisions to optimise asset health, resilience and whole-life cost. Delivering operational and financial efficiency through effective management of £25m OPEX and £27m CAPEX budgets.

About you

You should have significant experience leading large-scale maintenance, engineering or asset management functions within an asset-intensive environment, delivering both operational excellence and strategic transformation.

With a proven ability to lead cultural and organisational change, creating high-performing teams through leadership, coaching, engagement and accountability.

You have demonstrable experience managing substantial operational and capital budgets, driving efficiency while maintaining performance, compliance and safety standards.

You will need a strong understanding of maintenance strategy, reliability-centred maintenance and asset management principles as well as experience leading geographically dispersed, multi-disciplinary teams through complex operational environments.

You’ll have to have exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build credibility at executive level and across the wider business and also strong employee relations experience, including working effectively with trade unions and employee representatives.

You should be degree-level qualifified (or equivalent experience) in an engineering, business or related discipline. Chartered Engineer status is desirable.

You will also need to have excellent communication, presentation and strategic planning skills, with the ability to translate long-term objectives into clear operational priorities.

Please note this role will require a DBS to be completed prior to employment.