Regulatory Policy Lead

Job Description Summary

Do you have the insight and drive to turn complex regulatory changes into real-world business solutions?

Are you a strategic thinker with a passion for shaping the future of the water sector?

As our new Regulatory Policy Lead, reporting directly to the Strategic Planning Manager, you will play a pivotal role in helping us look toward the future. In this dynamic position, you will identify, influence, and shape emerging regulatory policy and reform across the industry.

Acting as the company’s leading voice, you will craft strategic responses to critical industry consultations and represent our organisation at key national forums. Crucially, you will bridge the gap between strategy and execution—working closely with internal stakeholders to translate new regulatory direction into robust, business-as-usual systems and processes.

What to expect from our recruitment process:

• Visa Sponsorship: Please note that we are unable to provide Skilled Worker Visa sponsorship for this role.
• Right to Work: You must provide proof of your Right to Work in the UK during onboarding.
• Background Checks: Any offer of employment from South East Water will be conditional upon satisfactory completion of identity, employment referencing, and DBS checks.

Main responsibilities:

• Shaping regulatory reform: Coordinate and lead our engagement with the reform of the water sector, maintaining our key objectives and overseeing programmes of work against our top policy priorities.
• Consultation responses: Lead the drafting and coordination of formal, high-quality responses to regulatory and government consultations, ensuring our strategic interests are strongly represented.
• Translating to BAU: Partner with teams across the business to ensure new regulatory policies are understood, embedded, and successfully translated into everyday operations.
• Industry representation: Attend and actively participate in relevant industry forums, working groups, and regulatory events to influence policy and build collaborative networks.
• Horizon scanning: Keep a pulse on the outside world, looking for emerging policy trends, legislative changes, and strategic risks to keep us one step ahead.
• Strategic collaboration: Work with a wide range of internal and external partners to co-create policy positions, ensuring that customer and stakeholder insights help direct our strategic thinking.
• Simplifying the complex: Ensure all policy-related communications, strategy documents, and briefings are consistent, high-quality, and easy for diverse audiences to understand.

You'll need:

Skills / Qualifications / Experience

• Good standard of secondary education and able to demonstrate a good standard of numeracy and literacy skills.
• Policy analysis & data Literacy: Ability to work with complex data and regulatory publications to identify trends, draw conclusions, and think through future policy implications.
• Writing & presentation: Outstanding written communication skills, with a proven ability to write persuasive consultation responses and make complex regulatory policy simple for the reader.
• Collaboration: The ability to work with a range of people within and outside of the company to co-create policy and strategy. Comfortable initiating external contact and establishing collaborative working relationships.
• Project management: Strong skills to manage the policy-related programmes and projects that we put around our work.
• Industry knowledge: A deep understanding of the water industry regulatory landscape, including key regulators (such as Ofwat, Defra, and the Environment Agency) would be a definite advantage.
• Positive mindset: A proactive, can-do attitude with a strong focus on collaborative problem-solving.
• Time management: Effective time management and used to working on several projects at once.
• Previous experience in the water sector or a similarly complex regulated utility environment (e.g., energy or telecoms).
• Involvement in developing strategic documents and have mastered the art of making complex concepts simple for the reader.
• Experience in the submission of five-year regulatory business plans (e.g., Price Reviews like PR24) and a strong understanding of the regulatory framework.

Employees are required to be flexible and to be prepared to perform duties and other tasks within their capabilities. The nature of our business is such that the contents of any job profile are subject to change from time to time.

Pay: Up to £65,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Health & wellbeing programme
• Life insurance
• On-site parking
• Sick pay

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Snodland ME6 5AH