Water Treatment Operations Manager

Job Description

This role can be based in Clonmel or Nenagh, it will cover the Tipperary Region.

We are Uisce Éireann. Every day, we are responsible for the delivery of secure, safe, and sustainable water services for the people of Ireland. As Ireland's national regulated water utility, our vision is a sustainable Ireland where water is respected and protected, for the planet and all the lives it supports.

Our purpose at Uisce Éireann is to rise to the challenge of delivering transformative water services that enable communities to thrive. That means we are proud to take on the responsibility of protecting our water supply and passing on a safe and secure water system to a rapidly growing population and empowering Ireland's social and economic growth.

We are passionate about empowering our people, enabling them to make a positive impact on communities across Ireland. We are guided by a shared vision and purpose, grounded in values that define who we are and shape how we work, where we deliver for customers and communities, we work better together, we do the right thing, we aim high, and we keep each other safe. Our behaviours define how we interact, communicate, and succeed together. These values and behaviours apply to each one of us, across every role, location, and level.

Our goal is to attract and develop skilled and talented people from diverse backgrounds, who bring a dynamic range of expertise and insights to our work. With a strong, values-driven workforce, we ensure Uisce Éireann can continue advancing Ireland's water services and meeting the needs of the communities we serve for generations to come.

The Role:

The Asset Operations function forms the cornerstone of service delivery to customers, protecting the environment and meeting regulatory standards as well as managing the majority of operational expenditure. The Asset Operations function has responsibility for operational and maintenance strategy, policies, planning and standard operating procedures for Water and Wastewater operations both nationally and regionally, ensuring that value for money and customer service is delivered. The O&M team is responsible for the national delivery of water and wastewater operational services through the operation, inspection, maintenance & repair of the water and wastewater treatment and network assets.

The Regional O&M Team has a regional remit and is responsible for the regional operational management of water treatment and the associated delivery of water services through operational, maintenance and repair activities, while managing health and safety. The team is also responsible for the implementation of the regional operations, maintenance and repair plan that forms part of the national operations, maintenance, and repair plan, contributing to the development, management, implementation, and approval of same. Managing change and transformation activities is a key aspect of this team's responsibility particularly in the initial phases as the regional operations team splits into separate water and wastewater teams and ways of working are standardised.

The Water Treatment Operations Manager will have direct management of field-based teams and will be responsible for the implementation of the Employer's policies and procedures in relation to HSQE at Work, Incident Reporting and management of Operational Contractors working on our Assets and Networks. They will support IDD and Minor Capital programmes in terms of ensuring that they are facilitated by Asset Operations. They will also identify operational standards deficits and areas for improvement and will coordinate the investment processes.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Assess Manage the provision of water treatment and network services within a region, including the maintenance and repair of water assets to ensure regulatory compliance and customer service standards are met.
• Responsible for management and oversight of the effective provision of operational services in water, above ground, in the region through management of the operation of the assets and of the field-based water treatment teams.
• Liaise with Local Authority management and oversee the requirements for efficient maintenance of service and ways of working in the transition from the Service Level Agreement to the renewed Contract for Services.
• Oversee the extended rollout of Uisce Éireann systems for Work Management, including Maximo, and advocate for the use of their complete functionality throughout the Field Force
• Oversee, in strong liaison with the Portfolio Operations Specialists, the integration and commissioning of new assets from capital investments into operational phase.
• Develop operational plans for Water Treatment, liaising with WS LA Staff to ensure a clear set of plans is in place at all times, reflecting the drive for continuous improvement.
• Coordinate activities to ensure operational considerations are captured in proposals and support strategic investment planning.
• Manage event response and ensure the prompt response to alarms, the provision of emergency cover and resolution of issues and incidents in conjunction with the Local Authorities to minimise the impact on the customer or the environment. Also NOMC engagement.
• Regular liaison & collaboration with the Water Network Manager ensuring the effective treatment & delivery of water in the geographical areas.
• Provide regular reports on regional operational progress to the Regional Water Operations and Maintenance Manager as may be required.
• Keep up to date with best practice, ensuring operations lessons are captured and improvement plans are kept up to date, including liaising with other Regional Teams
• Ensure the Water Treatment Operations and Maintenance & Repair teams implement and work in accordance with defined levels of operational competence, health and safety requirements and legislation, QA systems and standard operating procedures.
• Lead, support and develop the Water Treatment Operations and Maintenance & Repair teams and provide them with the necessary direction and skills in order to ensure the safe operation and maintenance of water assets.
• Oversee the coordination of teams to ensure the effective and efficient use of resources, through team meetings, productivity reporting and monitoring through water treatment operation and maintenance & repair key performance indicators.
• Manage the overall budget allocated to the Water treatment teams to ensure delivery of services within budget and identify and manage any risks to budgets ensuring necessary approvals process is followed and Finance function is engaged with to mitigate risks. This will include overall material consumption and inventory management, including identifying efficiencies and balancing conflicting priorities as required. Approve purchase requisitions, including reactive and retrospective requests in line with procurement policies and processes.
• Manage the provision of water treatment services by developing and contributing to operational, maintenance and repair plans for the water treatment assets in a region.
• Set, review objectives, and manage the performance of Water Treatment Operations, Treatment Maintenance Team Leads and Frontline Technical Leads (Water) within the region.
• Responsible for effectively leading and managing direct reports to achieve business goals.
• Liaise and collaborate with Asset Planning to support the definition and management of the investment plan, specifically; understanding the asset base (performance & condition), conducting risk assessments, needs identification and intervention generation.
• Support operational and strategic change initiatives and develop solutions for improvements, liaising & collaborating with Operational Control & Support Teams.
• Ensure adherence and compliance with all health and safety procedures, legislation, practices (including risk assessments, Safe System of Work Plans etc.), PPE, the closure of Health and Safety items and training required under the Construction Regulations.
• Responsible for the management and resolution of escalated issues from the Team Leads. Responsible for either managing or supporting with incident response as required and escalating issues and incidents as required to the Water Regional Operations & Maintenance Manager.
• Responsible for managing regional relationships with internal and external stakeholders on water quality issues.
• Responsible for effective third-party contract management liaising with Operations Contract Management.
• Ensure adherence of teams to allocated task schedules, standard operating procedures and close out of work orders on completion of task, supporting the roll out and development of standard operating procedures when required.
• Support Key Account Managers with any queries relating to issues affecting Key Accounts in their regional area including site visits where required.
• Support the Customer Contact Centre/Customer Contact Technical Specialist with any escalated customer issues/queries including site visits as required.
• Participate in out of hours and escalation standby working as required.
• Provide emergency cover as required.
• Responsible for the provision of appropriate resourcing to operate the asset pre and post-handover while working with Asset Delivery project managers to verify and manage the handover of assets from Asset Delivery into Asset Operations
• Monitor and report KPIs for processes over which they have ownership.
• Responsible for managing field-based teams, preparing, and delivering timely internal communications.
• Engage with or support the engagement with regulatory or other stakeholders as required.

General Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaboration with key internal stakeholders across the UÉ business
• Responsible for promoting and delivering health and safety commitments across UÉ and its supply chain, reinforcing positive behaviours and delivering health and safety objectives and requirements to the highest industry standards.
• Support the delivery of the Uisce Éireann Transformation Programme, driving results required within the Directorate and supporting organisation-wide objectives.
• Provide visible leadership for your team, coaching and developing them to achieve their full potential and deliver business objectives, promoting collaboration and highlighting the behaviours that are expected from everyone in the team.
• Conducts duties and responsibilities in accordance with Uisce Éireann's Information Security policies, standards, processes and controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of UÉ business information, and delivery of critical services, in accordance with the NIS Directive and any other relevant cybersecurity regulation.
• Carry out other duties deemed necessary and /or required which your line manager may reasonably request.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Relevant third level qualification and or accreditation is desirable (e.g. civil, mechanical, electrical, engineering).
• A minimum of 7 years' experience in a managerial role involving technical and administrative work in a Local Authority, utility or regulated industry, ideally in Water or Wastewater treatment
• We deliver for customers & communities - technical knowledge of water/wastewater infrastructure
• Large-scale budget (OpEx and/or CapEx) management experience
• Leadership ability, proactive development, motivation and engagement of staff.
• Experience managing a large team, with strong people, change management and conflict resolution skills.
• We work better together - experience of developing and maintaining effective strategic partnerships with key stakeholders
• Proven track record with dealing with complex issues, proactively and in a timely fashion along with the ability to communicate complex information to others.
• We do the right thing - experience of supporting policies, systems and controls and driving the implementation of progressive policies.
• You will have a proven track record in leadership, change & transformation experience ideally in a similar utility, regulated industry or multi stakeholder environment.
• We aim high - able to work to deadlines and adapt to changing conditions and ambiguity generating effective and pragmatic solutions to new situations and problems as they are presented

The closing date for receipt of applications for this vacancy is 19/08/2026.

Please note that applications submitted after this closing date will not be accepted.

Uisce Éireann is an equal opportunities employer.

We are committed to providing a diverse and inclusive place of work and have a robust strategy and framework called ibelong to enable this. We are an equal opportunity employer and through our recruitment process we welcome and encourage applications from interested and suitably qualified individuals regardless of gender, age, racial or ethnic origin, membership of the traveller community, religion or beliefs, family or civil status, sexual orientation/gender identity or disability.