Together we are Trusted to Serve Scotland.

Operational Excellence Manager

Help Shape How Scottish Water Performs, Improves and Delivers for the Future

Scottish Water is embarking on one of the most ambitious transformation and efficiency programmes in its history.

We're looking for an exceptional Operational Excellence leader to define and embed the systems, standards and culture that will help us deliver our SR27 ambitions, improve performance at scale and realise tens of millions of pounds of efficiency opportunities.

This isn't a traditional continuous improvement role.

This is an opportunity to shape how a national organisation manages performance, solves problems, delivers change and continuously improves. You'll work across operational, customer, asset and corporate functions, influencing leaders at every level and building the capability needed to sustain improvement long after individual projects have finished.

The Opportunity

As Operational Excellence Manager, you'll lead Scottish Water's enterprise approach to operational excellence, performance management and continuous improvement.

Reporting to the Head of Transformation, you'll be responsible for developing and embedding a single operational management and improvement system across the organisation. You'll establish the standards, routines and behaviours that help teams deliver better outcomes, improve productivity and realise sustainable efficiencies.

You'll lead a team of Operational Excellence specialists while influencing hundreds of colleagues through communities of practice, capability frameworks and leadership engagement. You'll also shape the methods and standards used across transformation delivery, ensuring consistency, transparency and value realisation across our investment portfolio.

What You'll Be Doing

As Head of Operational Excellence, you will lead the development and deployment of Scottish Water's enterprise operational excellence and performance management system. You will drive measurable improvements in productivity, flow, service performance and cost efficiency, while building and leading high-performing operational excellence and continuous improvement teams.

A key part of the role will be coaching senior leaders to own performance, problem solving and continuous improvement within their areas. You will develop and embed Lean-based management systems, visual management, standard work and structured problem-solving approaches, helping to create a consistent and sustainable approach to performance improvement across the organisation.

You will establish and maintain enterprise standards for continuous improvement, project management and agile delivery, ensuring a clear framework for delivering change. Working alongside Finance and business leaders, you will strengthen benefits realisation and efficiency delivery, helping to ensure improvement activity translates into measurable business outcomes.

Supporting the delivery of Scottish Water's SR27 ambitions, you will enable sustainable operational and financial improvement across the organisation. You will also focus on building organisation-wide capability so that improvement becomes part of everyday work rather than a separate initiative, creating a culture where continuous improvement is embedded in the way we operate.

What We're Looking For

We're interested in leaders who have delivered operational excellence at scale, not just improvement projects.

You'll bring significant experience leading operational excellence, Lean, continuous improvement or business transformation programmes within large, complex organisations, along with a strong track record of delivering measurable operational and financial performance improvements.

You will have deep expertise in Lean, visual management, daily management systems, standard work and structured problem solving, as well as experience building enterprise-wide operating systems, management frameworks or improvement approaches. You'll have the credibility to influence executives, operational leaders and frontline teams alike and the ability to build alignment across a diverse range of stakeholders.

Strong commercial awareness is essential, including experience of benefits realisation, prioritisation and business case development. You'll also bring experience leading teams and building capability through coaching, mentoring and communities of practice.

Ideally, you'll hold relevant professional qualifications such as Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, or be able to demonstrate equivalent experience. Above all, you'll be passionate about creating a culture of continuous improvement and helping the organisation deliver sustainable operational and financial performance.

Why This Role Matters

This role sits at the heart of Scottish Water's Transformation Strategy and will play a key role in enabling efficiencies through of operational excellence and continuous improvement benefits as part of our SR27 programme.

The impact you'll have won't be measured by the number of projects you run. It will be measured by the capability you build, the behaviours you embed and the lasting improvements you help our organisation achieve.

Looking out for you

While the work we do is important, we know it’s not the only thing that matters. That’s why we make sure you have everything you need to find a good work-life balance.  

You’ll get plenty of time to recharge with 38 days of holiday every year (including public holidays). And you can even buy five more if you need a little extra time. You can also take time off to volunteer in your community.

When it comes to major life events we have family-friendly policies around adoption, maternity, and parental leave. And for the everyday? We embrace flexible working.

For your future, there’s our pension (the ‘know-what-you’ll-get-when-you-retire’ kind), and life assurance.

As for some nice extras? You will participate in a company bonus scheme. Not to mention access to SW Splash – handy rewards that can save you money on holidays, bills, and shopping.

The not-so-small print

This role will be at M1 Level. A competitive package is on offer which includes a salary starting from £69,247 with the ability to advance to £86,887 based on consistent out-performance. 

If you’re interested in this role – or know someone else who might be - we’ll be accepting applications until midnight on the 8th September 2026

We operate Balanced Hybrid working at Scottish Water and we encourage people to work half their time in a Scottish Water location. 

Job offers at Scottish Water are conditional, and will be confirmed on completion of our pre-employment screening, e.g. referencing, criminal record checks, license checks, etc. Screening is conducted on our behalf by a third party, and must be completed before your start date. Don’t worry - we’ll only start these checks once you’ve accepted an offer.

A few final things worth knowing…

Research shows that some people avoid applying for jobs unless they can meet every single criteria. If you’re interested in this job, but don’t tick all the boxes, apply anyway! We hardly ever hire people who can do every part of a job from Day One. Everyone has a learning curve. So don’t rule yourself out!

Let us know if there are any changes we can make to our recruitment process to help you perform at your best. Lots of our people have disabilities or neurodiverse conditions (including some of our recruiters!). We're also aware that some people might be experiencing temporary challenges because of life events, like menopause. We’re very used to making adjustments, so please don’t be afraid to ask.

As part of our commitment to developing a flourishing Scotland, it’s important that all our employees are Scottish taxpayers. If you join us, your home address will need to be in Scotland. If you don’t already live here, you'll need to commit to moving here within your first three months.

Candidates should be aware that a valid UK driving licence is required for driving on Scottish Water business and claiming business mileage expenses.

Please note, Scottish Water takes the safety, health and wellbeing of our employees, colleagues and customers very seriously and as such you may be subject to Drug & Alcohol testing in line with our policy.

Finally (finally!), candidates who haven’t submitted an application in the last 12 months will have their records removed from our recruitment database. You won’t need to do anything. Your data will be automatically deleted. 

We’re here to help. Ask us anything at [email protected]