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 currently have an opportunity available for a Water Treatment Technician to join our team based in Plymouth.

You will join us on a full-time, permanent basis, and in return, you will receive a competitive salary of £28,019 - £36,011 per annum plus a range of excellent company benefits and rewards, including excellent development opportunities.

As a Water Treatment Technician, you’ll play a critical role in delivering safe, clean drinking water to customers. You’ll work hands-on with plant, equipment, and processes to ensure water quality and supply consistently meet high company standards. This is a dynamic role suited to someone who enjoys practical work, problem-solving, and being part of a collaborative team. You’ll also participate in an out-of-hours standby rota, ensuring operational continuity across the site.

About the role:

In this role you'll play a critical role in delivering safe, clean drinking water. You'll operate complex water treatment sites and work hands-on with plant, equipment and processes to ensure water quality and supply consistently meet high company standards.

You will always achieve the highest quality for our customers, colleagues, the environment, and all stakeholders by putting 'Quality First'.

Although this is predominantly a day worker role there are opportunities to be work outside of normal working hours and provide standby cover in the event of emergencies.

What you'll be doing:

• Liaising with company control room in accordance with operational procedures

• Ensuring all chemicals are stored, handled and used safely, effectively and efficiently, in line with company requirements. This includes the use of Breathing Apparatus.

• Carrying out operational maintenance on equipment and instrumentation in accordance with work schedules and task instructions.

• Taking water quality samples and carry out on site analyses as required in accordance with work instructions.

• Completing water quality and operational procedures, records/log sheets.

• Performing routine and non-routine tasks in accordance with the operational requirements of sites. This may include grounds maintenance, river/intake maintenance, security checks, reservoir and tank cleaning.

• Ensure that all abnormal events are dealt with in accordance with company procedures and are reported to the Resources & Production Area Manager/Duty Manager.

• Carrying out automated maintenance tasks scheduled to the team.

• Be comfortable working from heights and within Confined Spaces (appropriate training will be given).

What we're looking for:

• 5 GCSEs or equivalent at grade A to C in Maths and English.

• NVQ 2 in Operating Process Plant – or willing to work towards it

• Full UK Driving Licence

• Experience in Water Treatment or other relevant process.

• Use of computer systems for works SCADA.

• Use of computer systems for standard software packages such as e-mail, Word and Excel, PDA devices.

• Understanding of principals of COSHH, Lone Working procedures and Basic First Aid.

• Comfortable with administrative duties such as completing site logs, task sheets, work orders, etc

• Alarm response and interpretation, understanding of priorities.

• Skilled communicator with the ability to build strong relationships with people at all levels of the business.

• Excellent organisation skills with the ability to adapt and organise/adapt workload to changing priorities

• Ability to reach sound judgements and decisions when dealing with often complex issues and operating in highly pressurised situations

• A flexible approach to working hours which includes working evenings and weekends as part of the event of an emergency where there is a business requirement. This includes participation in a standby cover, additional hours or even weekend working.

• Participate in technician progression scheme.

What's in it for you:

We offer an excellent range of benefits:

• Generous holiday allowance plus bank holidays and the ability to buy or sell annual leave to offer you extra flexibility

• Competitive Contributory Pension scheme

• Access to thousands of retail discounts and everyday savings through Pennon Perks

• Cycle to Work scheme

• Invest in Pennon Group plc through our employee share schemes

• Free, confidential Employee Assistance Programme with 24/7 support

• A discretionary Bonus

• And plenty more!

Closing Date:

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.