Senior Associate, Customer Enquiries & Licensing

This role is in the Casework and Enforcement team within Ofwat’s Casework, Enforcement & Customers Directorate.

The Casework and Enforcement team is the “front door” for many of the customers and stakeholders who contact Ofwat with enquiries or complaints about the sector or their water company. Where we have the legal powers to do so (typically under the Water Industry Act 1991, or the Competition Act 1998), we investigate and resolve customer disputes or water company failures, to ensure that water and wastewater companies meet their legal obligations to their customers, society and the environment. Our work can range from helping an individual customer resolve a dispute with their water company, to imposing multi-million pound fines on a water company where it has failed to meet its legal obligations.

The Casework and Enforcement team also assesses applications from companies wanting to be granted a licence to serve customers in the water sector. In deciding on these applications, we aim to ensure that customers can benefit from having a choice of provider, whilst being sufficiently protected for the provision of their water and wastewater services.

Our team works with a diverse range of stakeholders, including water companies, new entrants to the sector, Government, other regulators, investors, environmental groups and customers and their representative bodies. Communicating effectively with our customers and internal and external stakeholders is central to our team’s success.

As a Senior Associate in the Casework and Enforcement team you will work across a number of our workstreams. You will respond to customer enquiries and complaints that Ofwat receives and deliver small scale investigations, where we have legal powers to determine a dispute between a customer and their water company. You will also lead the assessment of licence applications we receive from companies wishing to operate in the water sector.

The successful candidate will have strong customer service and planning skills; be able to identify and assess relevant information to make evidence-based recommendations; and be great at working with others to gather and share information clearly in writing or verbally.

You will be responsible for managing a varied caseload of customer enquiries and complaints and licence applications. Alongside leading the delivery of pieces of work yourself, you will sometimes guide or support the work of others in the team.

Your responsibilities will involve:

• Being responsible for assessing and responding accurately and effectively to customer enquiries and complaints received by Ofwat, including contacts made to our Chief Executive and Chair.
• Leading on the delivery of small-scale investigations (where we have legal powers to determine a dispute between a customer and their water company), compiling and assessing the relevant evidence and legal framework.
• Making recommendations to senior decision-makers on the next steps in considering a customer complaint, investigation or licence application.
• Proactively and independently planning, prioritising and managing various work items in parallel in order to provide a high-quality service to customers and meet our service level timeframes.
• Working with internal and external stakeholders, including those from other professional disciplines (for example legal, engineering, communications), to gather and share information relevant to each others’ work.
• Maintaining accurate and up-to-date case / project files.
• Working with colleagues to identify and consider trends, insights and lessons learnt from your day-to-day work, to feed into improvements in how Ofwat and water companies can better deliver for customers, society and the environment.
• Sharing your technical knowledge and support with colleagues, including through the support of more junior members of the team.
• Adapting and responding to changing workloads and priorities.

You will be a self-starter and expected to take strong ownership of the work you are responsible for, demonstrating Ofwat’s SAILOR values and ways of working. Ofwat is a learning organisation and you will have opportunities to further develop your knowledge and experience. We have a well-supported, agile working environment, and have a trust-based culture intended to help empower you and enable and support you to succeed within Ofwat. 

Please see the attached candidate information pack for further information on the key deliverables for this role. 

Essential Skills, Experience and Knowledge required 

• Degree level qualification in an analytical discipline or demonstrable relevant experience in a customer facing role.
• Significant experience of working directly with customers and external stakeholders to provide a frontline service.
• Experience of managing your work to deliver a service to defined timescales and quality standards.
• Experience of handling difficult conversations with and conveying complex information to customers, including vulnerable customers by phone and in writing.
• Experience of working under pressure, effectively planning, prioritising and managing a varied and changing workload to meet different, and often tight, deadlines.
• Responsibility for maintaining accurate and up-to-date records / project files, with exceptional attention to detail.
• Experience of gathering and assessing complex information to make evidence-based conclusions and recommendations.
• Ability to clearly communicate complex information in writing and verbally.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work with internal and external stakeholders to gather and share information and to deliver a common objective.
• Experience of contributing to improve ways of working. 

Attributes

• Promotes collaboration
• Adaptable thinker
• Creates clarity
• Delivers outcomes 

You can read more about Attributes in Ofwat’s Framework for Success

• A generous Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• 25 days annual leave (increasing to max 30 with each year of service) plus bank holidays and 2.5 days privilege leave days
• access to exclusive discounts on a range of goods and services such as retail outlets, theatre tickets, holidays, insurance and gym membership;
• flexible working arrangements;
• fees paid for membership of relevant professional bodies;
• up to 3 volunteering days per year
• generous shared parental leave and pay
• cycle-to-work scheme;
• season ticket loan for travel between home and office;
• regular professional development;
• health and well-being initiatives

Job contact :

• Name : recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk
• Email : recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk