The posting
Job Description
Protect public health and help shape the future of drinking water quality regulation in Scotland.
Join the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland (DWQR) as a Team Manager, leading a team of highly skilled scientific and technical specialists within the organisation responsible for independently regulating public drinking water supplies across Scotland. The team plays a vital role in ensuring drinking water remains safe, high quality and compliant with statutory requirements, helping to safeguard public health and maintain public confidence.
In this role, you will provide strategic leadership and technical direction across the regulation of public drinking water supplies, applying specialist expertise to complex regulatory, legal and operational matters. You will ensure robust regulatory oversight, support evidence-based decision-making and drive effective outcomes that protect consumers while promoting continuous improvement across the water sector.
Responsibilities
Responsibilities:
- Lead a team of technical and scientific specialists, ensuring effective resource management and the successful delivery of team objectives.
- Assess Scottish Water's performance in meeting its statutory duties and protecting public health, advising the DWQR on appropriate regulatory and enforcement action where required.
- Lead, where necessary, investigations into operational events and incidents, producing independent reports and recommendations to prevent recurrence.
- Provide expert advice on drinking water quality, including private water supplies, and contribute to the development of regulatory policy and guidance.
- Build and maintain effective relationships with Scottish Water, other water companies, local authorities, regulators, industry bodies and research organisations.
Qualifications
Qualifications
- Candidates should be qualified in a scientific discipline related to drinking water quality (e.g. biology, biological sciences, chemistry, environmental health or engineering).
- As a minimum, candidates should be working towards chartered status with a relevant professional body (e.g. Chartered Scientist (CSci) through the Institute of Water.
Please confirm in your CV that you hold these qualifications. If you do not hold all of the above qualifications, your application will not be considered.
Success profile:
Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of behaviours, experience and technical criteria (if applicable) that candidates will be assessed on.
Professional / Technical Skills:
Technical oversight and management:
- Is a leader in their team, area, and/or technical community. Supports and develops others, promotes role models and good practice, and helps build others’ technical knowledge and/or supports their career progression. Understands the limitation of own knowledge, knowing when to gather advice, escalate issues and seek learning and development opportunities.
- Brings about continuous improvement and contributes to and promotes good practice. Identifies problems and formulates scientific, technical or engineering approaches to solutions, ensuring safety and sustainability. Speaks up when there is an opportunity for science and engineering to benefit other areas of government and helps implement changes that will provide sustained benefits.
Building and applying knowledge:
- Understands and objectively, and effectively, applies scientific and engineering approaches with rigour and integrity. This may be through gathering and analysing information, producing effective literature reviews, critiquing techniques, designing or conducting research, undertaking fieldwork, computational modelling, writing evaluations and / or contributing to knowledge sharing including peer reviewed journal papers.
- Understands the relevance of, and complies with, statutory and/or non-statutory requirements relating to legislation, voluntary codes of practice/conduct guidance, and quality assurance processes. May be responsible for explaining such requirements to colleagues, or responsible for contributing to the development of these requirements. Understands and applies the concordat on research integrity and professional institutes standards.
Experience:
- Significant experience in drinking water quality regulation, water supply operations or a closely related field, with a strong understanding of drinking water legislation, compliance assessment, risk management and regulatory enforcement.
- Demonstrable experience of leading technical or scientific professionals, managing complex investigations, audits or regulatory activities, and influencing senior stakeholders across regulated organisations, government, public health bodies and other regulatory agencies.
Behaviours:
- Seeing the Big Picture – Level 4
- Making Effective Decisions – Level 4
- Working Together – Level 4
You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours here Behaviour levels - Success profiles: candidate guide - gov.scot
How to apply:
Apply online, providing a CV and supporting statement (of no more than 1000 words) providing evidence of how you meet the behaviours, experience and technical skills listed in the Success Profile above. Both the CV and the supporting statement provided will be assessed against the criteria for the role.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment.
Skilled Worker sponsorship is not available for this role. As a result, we are unable to appoint candidates who require Skilled Worker sponsorship now or in the future. Applicants must have an existing and ongoing right to work in the UK.
If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and presentation.
Assessments are scheduled for w/c December, dates to be determined however this may be subject to change.
Recruitment Principles:
As a government organisation, we adhere to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles and we investigate any complaints received in relation to the recruitment cases.
About us:
The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland. We have responsibility for a wide range of key policy areas including: education, health, the economy, justice, housing and transport. We offer rewarding careers and employ people across Scotland in a wide range of professions and roles.
Our staff are part of the UK Civil Service, working for Ministers and senior stakeholders to deliver vital public services which improve the lives of the people of Scotland.
We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer.
As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Working pattern:
Our standard hours are 35 hours per week and we offer a range of flexible working options depending on the needs of the role, including Flexi-leave. Scottish Government staff in hybrid-compatible roles should aim to work in-person 40% of the time, either in an office or other agreed work location. If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact us.
Security checks:
Successful candidates must complete the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), before they can be appointed. BPSS is comprised of four main pre-employment checks – Identity, Right to work, Employment History and a Criminal Record check (unspent convictions).
You can find out more about BPSS on the UK Government website, or read about the different levels of security checks in our Candidate Guide.
Equality statement:
We are committed to equality and inclusion and we aim to recruit a diverse workforce that reflects the population of our nation.
Find out more about our commitment to diversity and how we offer and support recruitment adjustments for anyone who needs them.
Further information:
Find out more about our organisation, what we offer staff members and how to apply on our Careers Website.
Read our Candidate Guide for further information on our recruitment and application processes.
