Performance Partner

About the Role

National Energy System Operator (NESO) recognises the potential of bright and talented individuals, and we encourage you to join us as Great Britain’s energy system undergoes an ambitious, exciting, and vital transformation. Together with industry, we are creating a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.

The Performance Partner is a strategic partner to Directors and their leadership teams, working alongside the Head of Performance Partnering to improve performance and delivery of NESO outcomes. The role connects strategy, finance, risk, delivery and value for money, turning the complex into clear insight, constructive challenge and evidence based actionable recommendations.

Operating across directorate boundaries, you will build a holistic view of performance, identifying the connections, trade-offs and systemic risks that affect NESO’s outcomes. You will lead senior performance conversations, influence Directors and proactively surface emerging risks, issues and opportunities before they affect delivery.

This position requires sound judgement, commercial and regulatory awareness, and the confidence to operate through ambiguity. You will be expected to take ownership of complex, cross-cutting issues; challenge senior stakeholders constructively; hold your position when evidence supports it; and remain resilient when navigating competing priorities, uncertainty and difficult messages.

If you’re passionate about making a difference, eager to own problems from start to finish, and ready to contribute to a culture of continuous improvement, this is your chance to help NESO achieve its ambitious goals and drive long-term success.

This role can be based from Wokingham or Warwick, and we continue to offer hybrid working from office and home. We are open to full time, as well as flexible working arrangements.

Key Accountabilities

Trusted Advisor

• Acting as a trusted strategic partner to Directors and their leadership teams, shaping performance conversations and influencing decisions that affect delivery of NESO outcomes.
• Building credibility and trusted relationships that enable candid, evidence-based conversations, including constructive challenge where priorities, assumptions or delivery confidence are unclear.
• Connecting perspectives across directorates, surfacing dependencies, trade-offs, systemic risks, opportunities and efficiencies that may not be visible within individual teams.

BPR (Business Performance Review)

• Leading the application of NESO’s value and performance frameworks within assigned directorates, ensuring discussions focus on outcomes, delivery confidence and value for money.
• Synthesising financial and non-financial data, risks, milestones and stakeholder perspectives into a coherent, forward-looking view of performance.

Investment Appraisal

• Leading strategic analysis and appraisal of significant initiatives, enabling Directors and governance forums to understand whole-system implications, affordability, risk and value for money.
• Shaping robust, evidence-based papers and recommendations by bringing together business, finance, regulatory and delivery perspectives.
• Providing independent and courageous challenge to assumptions, benefits, costs and delivery confidence, escalating material concerns when they remain unresolved.

Business Planning

• Partnering with Directors through the Corporate Business Planning process, connecting directorate plans to NESO strategy and outcomes, testing deliverability and identifying strategic financial and non-financial risks, dependencies and mitigations.

External Reporting

• Leading and coordinating performance narratives for key regulatory publications, including incentive, mid-scheme and end-of-scheme reporting outputs.
• Exercising judgement to ensure reporting presents a clear, balanced and evidence-based account of performance, aligned with regulatory expectations and NESO’s outcomes.

Continuous Improvement

• Maintaining a strong understanding of regulation, the energy system and NESO’s strategic context, using this to anticipate implications and advise Directors on performance and delivery choices.
• Leading improvements to performance, reporting and value for money approaches, establishing consistent standards and embedding learning across directorates.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK by the start of employment. Visa sponsorship may not be available for this role and will be considered in line with business requirements.

About You

We’re forging the path, and we know we can’t do it alone. That’s why we need visionary minds like yours to join us on this transformative journey. In this case, we’re looking for someone who has/is:

• A strategic and holistic thinker who can connect strategy, finance, risk, regulation and delivery, seeing beyond individual issues to understand impacts on NESO’s outcomes.
• A credible and skilled influencer, able to build trust with Directors, frame complex messages clearly and shape decisions without relying on formal authority.
• Brave and constructive in challenge, willing to ask difficult questions, surface inconvenient evidence and hold a clear position while remaining open to other perspectives.
• Resilient and composed when navigating ambiguity, competing priorities and senior-level challenge, maintaining momentum and relationships through difficult conversations.
• Strong commercial and regulatory judgement, with the ability to balance pace, risk, affordability and long-term value.
• An excellent communicator who can distil complexity into compelling written and verbal narratives for senior and external audiences.
• Takes end-to-end ownership of complex, cross-cutting issues, mobilising others and following through from diagnosis to measurable resolution.
• Intellectually curious, humble and collaborative, with experience operating at senior level in a government, regulated or similarly complex organisation.

What You'll Get

NESO's flexible benefits programme provides you with more flexibility around your health, lifestyle and protection benefits, here's just a few available:
- Flexible Bank Holidays & Holiday Trading
- Additional Birthday Day Off
- Cycle to Work Scheme, Retail & Gym Discounts
- Private Medical Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance & Personal Accident Insurance

About Us

At the National Energy System Operator (NESO), we play a vital role in tackling climate change and securing Great Britain's energy future. We already operate the world's fastest decarbonising electricity system and are working towards our ambition to run it carbon-free for a short period this year - provided the market supplies electricity exclusively from renewable sources. Alongside this, we provide expert advice to government on how to deliver a clean power system by 2030.

In autumn 2024, the Electricity System Operator (ESO) transitioned to become NESO - an independent, expert public corporation with a whole-system view across electricity, gas, and hydrogen. NESO operates independently and transparently, always acting in the best interests of all energy users.

Licensed and regulated by Ofgem, we make impartial decisions that balance sustainability, affordability and security. Our organisation is fully independent from government, the regulator and all commercial interests, with a clear focus on system-wide benefit, long term thing and public value.

The time to deliver is now. Join the energy transformation and help shape the future.
Your energy. Our future. Together

National Energy System Operator (NESO) recognises the potential of bright and talented individuals, and we encourage you to join us as Great Britain’s energy system undergoes an ambitious, exciting, and vital transformation. Together with industry, we are creating a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.

More Information

Research shows that some people may hesitate to apply unless they meet every single requirement. At NESO, we believe potential comes in many forms and we're committed to a fair, inclusive recruitment

We're committed to building a workforce that represents the communities we serve, and a working environment in which each individual feels valued, respected, fairly treated, and able to reach their full potential. If this role sparks your interest but you're not sure you tick every box, we still want to hear from you. process where everyone has the opportunity to show their talents. We celebrate the difference people can bring into our organisation, and welcome and encourage applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds.

About Us

At the National Energy System Operator (NESO), we play a vital role in tackling climate change and securing Great Britains's energy future. We already operate the world's fastest decarbonising electricity system and are working towards our ambition to run it carbon-free for a short period this year - provided the market supplies electricity exclusively from renewable sources. Alongside this, we provide expert advice to government on how to deliver a clean power system by 2030.

In autumn 2024, the Electricity System Operator (ESO) transitioned to become NESO - an independent, expert public corporation with a whole-system view across electricity, gas, and hydrogen. NESO operates independently and transparently, always actin in the best interests of all energy users.

Licensed and regulated by Ofgem, we make impartial decisions that balance sustainability, affordability and security. Our organisation is fully independent from government, the regulator and all commercial interests, with a clear focus on system-wide benefit, long term thing and public value.

The time to deliver is now. Join the energy transformation and help shape the future.
Your energy. Our future. Together