Powered by Water, Driven by Purpose

South West Water keeps the South West flowing with safe, reliable drinking water and wastewater services across some of the UK’s most stunning landscapes.

We’re proud to be part of Pennon Group, a leader in the UK water sector, working towards a greener future. Our goals? As well as lowering our carbon footprint, we’re working with partners to plant 300,000 trees, restore peatlands and supporting farmers and landowners to improve water quality and wildlife.

Whether you’re starting out or seeking a new challenge, our scale and ambition create opportunities for you to shape your own career.

Ready to make a splash? Join our team today.

We’re looking for an exceptional leader to join us as Director of Asset Reliability & Performance, based in Exeter with a hybrid working model. This is a pivotal role responsible for driving the reliability, resilience, and performance of vital water and wastewater assets.

This is an opportunity to lead at scale—delivering measurable improvements in asset health and operational performance while ensuring we meet regulatory expectations and deliver outstanding outcomes for customers and the environment. Working at the heart of the business, you’ll play a key role in delivering our Asset Management Plan (AMP) commitments and shaping future investment decisions through data-driven insight and continuous improvement.

What you’ll be doing:

• Leading the development and delivery of our asset reliability strategy across water and wastewater infrastructure and non-infrastructure assets

• Driving improvements in asset availability, resilience, and predictability through preventative and predictive maintenance approaches

• Owning and evolving reliability engineering practices, including failure modes analysis and root cause methodologies

• Establishing and embedding performance frameworks, KPIs, and standards aligned to regulatory and customer outcomes

• Using data and insight to identify trends, benchmark performance, and target interventions

• Ensuring asset performance insights inform investment planning, operational decisions, and AMP priorities

• Providing performance assurance to senior stakeholders, regulators, and governance forums

• Collaborating with Digital, Engineering, Operations, and Finance teams to embed end-to-end asset performance thinking

• Enhancing data quality, analytics capability, and predictive tools to support smarter decision-making

What we are looking for:

You’ll be a proven senior leader with deep expertise in asset management and a passion for delivering performance improvement at scale.

You'll bring:

• Significant experience in asset management, reliability engineering, or asset performance (ideally within utilities or a regulated environment)

• Strong understanding of asset lifecycle management and ISO 55000 principles

• Demonstrated success in improving asset reliability, resilience, and operational performance

• Experience of AMP delivery and regulatory frameworks

• Ability to translate complex technical insight into strategic and commercial decisions

• A track record of leading and developing high-performing specialist teams

• Experience with risk-based investment planning and asset health modelling (desirable)

• Exposure to digital asset tools, predictive maintenance, or advanced analytics (desirable)

Qualifications:

• Degree in Engineering, Asset Management, or a related discipline

• Chartered status (CEng/IEng) or equivalent (desirable)

What's in it for you:

We know our people drive our success — so we’re committed to offering an excellent range of benefits, including:

• 30 days annual leave + bank holidays

• Bonus Plan

• Private Healthcare

• Company car or cash for car allowance

• Competitive contributory pension

• Share-save scheme

• Health benefits & wellbeing support programmes

• Group discounts

• Cycle to Work scheme

• Financial support services

• Development and training opportunities
  … and much more!

Closing Date: 29th May 2026

We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

Please note that the successful candidate will be subject to a mandatory DBS check as part of the onboarding process.

Be yourself, we like it that way. Together, we will build a culture of belonging, where inclusion is instinctive. Diversity is our strength and a reflection of our communities. We care, we value everyone, we celebrate uniqueness.

Our core values, which are essential to our success, are:

Be Rock Solid - Build trust and be trusted. Be the one we all look to and can depend on.

Be You - We want you to bring your best everyday. Be yourself and make your mark in your individual way.

Be the Future - Embrace change. Drive Progress. Own the challenge.