As we approach the close of another successful year at Thames Water, are you seeking a new opportunity?
If you’re an experienced senior change or transformation leader who thrives on complex, multi‑layered challenges, we may have the perfect opportunity for you.
We’re seeking an Oversight and Quality Assurance Lead on a 12-month fixed-term contract to join our Debt Management System Replacement Programme, playing a pivotal role in supporting the implementation of a new debt management system into live operation within the next 12–14 months.
What you’ll be doing as an Oversight and Quality Assurance Lead You’ll sit within the senior leadership team of the transformation programme, where strong communication, curiosity, and a proactive mindset are essential.
You’ll build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across Financial Customer Care, Revenue & Debt, and the wider Income leadership team, working collaboratively with Retail, Digital, Business Readiness, and change delivery teams.
You’ll engage confidently with both end users and senior stakeholders, communicating decisions clearly and transparently to ensure alignment across sponsors and delivery teams.
Key responsibilities include: Quality Planning & Strategy
Review programmes, build, test, and implement plans to identify risks, gaps, and optimisation opportunities
Ensure delivery aligns with organisational strategy across people, process, technology, and customer outcomes
Define quality metrics, acceptance criteria, and a prioritised QA roadmap
Embed QA practices across the full programme lifecycle
Conduct ongoing impact assessments, gap analyses, and reviews of workstream deliverables Revenue / Budget Control
Apply a strong understanding of OPEX and CAPEX principles
Assess programme impacts on OPEX budgets
Identify and manage financial risks, trends, and issues
Support governance to ensure delivery remains within agreed budgets
Facilitate CAPEX approvals through appropriate governance forums Data Assurance
Assure data migration strategies and execution readiness
Validate data integrity, accuracy, and completeness across system flows
Support data mapping, cleansing, reconciliation, and migration activities Solution Design Assurance
Review functional and technical designs against business requirements
Identify and track solution risks and gaps with clear mitigation actions
Contribute QA input into programme forums and design workshops
Support change management and user adoption activities in partnership with readiness and training teams Testing Assurance & Coverage Review
Provide assurance over the overall testing strategy and approach
Validate test plans against requirements and solution design
Assess coverage across functional, non-functional, integration, and data migration testing
Maintain traceability between requirements, test cases, and defects
Identify testing risks and recommend mitigation actions
Support stakeholder reviews of test outcomes and quality metrics Stakeholder Engagement
Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders, translating needs into delivery outcomes
Communicate effectively across technical and non-technical audiences
Collaborate closely with business analysts, developers, and project managers
Provide regular QA updates, escalating risks and issues as required
Facilitate QA reviews and secure required approvals Continuous Improvement & Innovation
Drive continuous improvement in QA, testing, and delivery practices
Support change management and user adoption to minimise disruption
Partner with training and readiness teams to ensure capability uplift Location: Hybrid
Walnut Court Hours: 36 hours per week, Monday to Friday To thrive in this role, the essential criteria you’ll need are:
Extensive experience in senior change and QA roles on large-scale transformation programmes
Proven delivery of sustainable financial and operational change
Strong data management, migration, and validation expertise
Deep understanding of solution design and delivery governance
Experience working in Agile and Waterfall environments
Excellent analytical, communication, and stakeholder management skills
Ability to influence and build relationships at all levels
Desirable: experience within utilities or debt management Additional skills and experience that would be advantageous:
ISTQB or equivalent QA certification
Analytics for Office and SQL capability
Knowledge of APIs and system integrations
Familiarity with SAP C4C and/or SAP ISU What’s in it for you?
Competitive salary between £75,000 – £85,000 per annum, depending on skills and experience – 26 days holiday per year, increasing to 30 with the length of service (plus bank holidays)
Performance-related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets
Generous Pension Scheme through AON
Private Medical Health Care
Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of you and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances
from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.
Find out more about our benefits and perks (Please note different T&Cs apply if on secondment) Who are we?
We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets.
We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive.
It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.
Learn more about our purpose and values Working at Thames Water Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same.
As part of our family, you’ll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.
If you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way.
Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.
Real purpose, real support, real opportunities.
Come and join the Thames Water family.
Why choose us?
Learn more.
We’re committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work.
We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process.
If you need any adjustments, whether that’s extra time, accessible formats, or anything else, just let us know.
We’re here to help and support.
When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers.
As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador.
Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience.
It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business and meet colleagues.
Disclaimer: Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Jobs are provided by the Find a Job Service from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
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