Area Services Manager

Do you enjoy working in a team, driving high Health and Safety standards that make you proud, driving performance of not only yourself but also your team, communicating with others at all levels, but most of all love working in an environment where every day is different, and offers you unknown challenges that put our service as one of the key essentials to us all.

Then we could have the job for you.

With the rapidly changing environment and all the complexities this brings, working as an Area Services Manager will provide you with a wealth of different activities to sink your teeth into.

You will lead a team that will provide specialist technical support to Performance Managers across the Cotswolds, Cherwell, and Oxford areas with a particular technical specialism in maintenance to ensure that the agreed compliance, statutory inspections, and service levels are achieved now and, in the future, and enable us to drive strategic change in maintenance.

You will operate out of the site at Banbury or Witney but will visit other sites making a driving licence and car owner essential as you will need to travel throughout your working week. You will work 36 hours a week Monday to Friday, along with participating in an out-of-hours rota for escalations and advice as we are a 24-hour business.

If this is you, we are looking for someone to join our Thames Valley North Operations Team in Wastewater which offers a brilliant opportunity for you to establish a career with Thames Water in frontline operations.

What you will be doing as the Area Services Manager

• Focus on maintenance strategies to support driving asset efficiencies, reduced failure rates and overall site resilience. Deliver a consistent approach to asset operation and maintenance to demonstrate a cost-efficient, robust, and safe operation 24/7.
• Responsible for technical input to site improvement projects to secure effective and efficient solutions identified and supported.
• Responsible for identifying, mitigating, resolving, and escalating risk across the site and team and acting as a point of escalation where required.
• Own and optimise the maintenance delivery plan in conjunction with the process delivery plan.
• Monitor and review plant performance and reliability, investigate critical plant failures and ensure corrective actions are taken.
• Drive improvements to give a reduction in the maintenance serviceability cost by asset type.

The main objectives of the role

Health and Safety – This is our number 1 priority for everyone in our team and you will Effectively lead the Health, Safety and Well-being culture of the team as well driving and create an environment where good practices are a way of everyday life and total compliance is adhered to in line with Health & Safety Policy. Lead your team to ensure compliance with our statutory inspection programmes.

People - Lead, manage and develop staff to achieve agreed objectives, providing strong leadership aligned with the Thames Water Values. To act as a coach, hold developmental conversations and continually coach and mentor teams.

Performance Management – Driving the team to achieve optimal performance in terms of work management, along with being responsible for developing the team and introducing new skills and Health & Safety awareness.
Financial Management – owning and managing the budgetary and financial activities of the team and driving efficiencies into the overall operational budget.
Customer & Stakeholder Management - ensuring exceptional service to our customers with early personal interventions as required.

What you should bring to the role as an Area Services Manager

• We are seeking an individual with a background in industrial mechanical/electrical maintenance including planned and preventative maintenance.
• You will ideally have a minimum of a BTEC / NVQ L3 or equivalent in Mechanical / Electrical and a BTEC HNC Electrical / Mechanical or have an ICA background.
• You will be an experienced people manager with a proven history of engaging and developing a team and ideally will have been a technical mentor to apprentices in a previous role.
• You will be used to taking the lead and achieving results, with a strong focus on and a broad range of H&S skills, H&S legislation, and application.
• A facilities background would be desirable, and NEBOSH would be ideal. You will be required to have this qualification if you do not already.
• You will have excellent communication skills as well as excellent IT skills, especially Excel, and the ability to interrogate data via SAP is desirable.

What you should bring to the role

• Competitive salary Offering Between £39,000 - £45,000 per annum subject to your level of experience.
• Annual Leave 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service. (Plus, bank holidays)
• Contributory pension – Defined Contribution - Maximum of 12% -2x employee contribution.
• Personal Medical Assessments – Open to all once a year.
• Wider benefits scheme including our benefits hub, which is packed full of offers and information to save you money and support your wellbeing.

Who are we?

At Thames Water, our purpose is crystal clear - to deliver life’s essential service so our customers, communities and planet can thrive. Water is life’s great leveller. Every living thing needs it, every single day. From people to plants, birds to bees, farms to factories, we all need it to thrive, and we’re committed to taking care of it for us all. But keeping water flowing is becoming harder. From scorching summers to wetter winters, extreme weather affects everything from our pipes to our local rivers. We need to keep millions more kettles boiling, public services operating, washing machines spinning, showers running and more, so every drop is more precious than ever. Are you ready to play your part?

Working at Thames Water

At Thames Water, we recognise that people are at the heart of our business. To help us succeed in providing life's essential service, we need a range of skills and capabilities, representative of society throughout our business.

We seek to attract and retain a cultural mix of people who can offer different but complementary attitudes, values, talents, and knowledge. We understand the importance of appreciating and harnessing the unique skills, experiences, backgrounds, and differences that each individual brings.

Our over-arching diversity and inclusion aim is to ensure Thames Water is a diverse and inclusive great place to work. We encourage applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process. Find out more about working at Thames Water.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business, meet colleagues and earn some extra money along the way.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.