Frontline Technical Lead (Water)

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, meeting regulatory standards, and 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.

Reporting to the Water Treatment Operations Manager or Water Network Operations Manager, the Frontline Technical Lead will be assigned an appropriate role in the Regional Operations team and will be responsible for supporting teams in the resolution of technical/engineering matters, including service risk issues, as they arise within the region. The focus of this role will be to support service risk management, provide technical analysis, offer local knowledge of assets and operational performance capabilities and contribute to the efficient and effective treatment of Drinking Water assets. This includes the safe operation and maintenance of Drinking Water assets to ensure compliance and customer service standards.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

Core Frontline Duties:

• Assist in the establishment and development of the Team lead capability and competency, working closely with frontline teams and providing engineering and technical support that will ensure continuity and stability during the set-up of this new management layer.
• In the short to medium term, support the Team Leads’ development/transition into their own roles through coaching and mentoring. This will be coupled with development training both pre and post appointment to the role and will support and encourage the development of any new skills and capabilities needed to fulfil their Team Lead position.
• Deputise for the O&M Manager, covering leave and illness periods, acting as triage/interface between teams leads and O&M Managers with respect to day-to-day reactive issues.
• Responsible for overseeing, implementing and auditing of the Safety Management System (SMS), including monitoring and ensuring adherence to all relevant safety requirements.
• Responsible for supporting the resolution of technical/engineering issues in Drinking Water teams as they arise within the region. Providing dedicated engineering and technical capability in the frontline when complex issues arise.
• Take responsibility and act as the first point of contact for incidents around Water quality, including adverse weather / storm preparedness and response.
• Act as the Centre of Excellence interface by supporting the resolution of operational, maintenance and repair issues at a regional level or at first attempt.
• Manage interactions with Centre’s of Excellence, ensuring that there are minimal escalations to other Uisce Éireann functions and driving to resolve Operations issues as quickly as possible to minimise delay and disruption to customer service.
• Manage complex and simple traffic management plans, as required.
• Manage the initial investigation/first responder investigative work order for escalated complaints along with standard legal and media queries.
• Responsible for operational compliance objectives including the completion of incident report forms
• Responsible for driving innovation and leading efficiency in the frontline

Technical Duties

• Act as an escalation point for the Team Lead, providing local on the ground technical, engineering and people support as the need arises to proactively support on the ground day-to-day operations.
• Responsible for reporting progress on assets including risk identification, mitigation, and escalation through new reporting structures to be developed.
• Responsible for ensuring Safety Management System adherence
• Provide sound technical analysis of the escalated operational, maintenance and repair issues/risks across assets. This includes the provision of local knowledge of assets and operational performance capabilities to support the timely resolution of non-routine, specialised activities (e.g., nuisance issues, troubleshoot equipment failures, network and infrastructure failures).
• Responsible for making technically correct operational, maintenance and repair decisions in a timely manner (utilising the available data), with efficient use of resources and budget.
• Work collaboratively to act as a technical interface for other specialised teams in Uisce Éireann, including Technical Operations, Interventions, Process Optimisation, Drinking Water Compliance, Asset Intelligence, OPEM, Portfolio Operations, Management and DBO Management teams – by providing operational oversight of works proposals carried out on UE infrastructure
• Provide Quality Assurance and quality control oversight of Drinking water assets, ensuring compliance with operational, regulatory and performance standards.
• Undertake site Inspections, including the preparation of reports outlining asset deficiencies
• Responsible for auditing of works carried out on Drinking water assets
• Support the Regional Asset Operations interface with Asset Management, particularly the Asset Planning functional area.
• Liaise with the Portfolio Operations Lead as required to support the design, Construction, and handover phases of an Asset Delivery project.
• Prepare submissions for the annual plan for large, planned maintenance activities.
• Responsible for the management of reactive maintenance.
• Identify locations where innovation and new technology pilots can be deployed.
• Manage regional operations supply chain interactions.
• Participate in operations tender processes and change of suppliers.
• Act as the technical interface for operations to external bodies e.g. Local Authorities, Road Authorities, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and assist with audits or information requests as necessary.
• Coordinate, track and manage the closure of all actions arising from HSA inspections, working in close collaboration with the relevant Team Leads and UÉ HSQE team.
• Provide technical oversight of third parties/contractors; Permits-to-work, Permits-to-Enter, Specialised Works Scoping, Method-Statements Reviews, Risk Assessments, SSWPs (Safe Systems of Work Plan)
• Support line managers with complex asset system integrity challenges, acting as an escalation point for determining cause of challenge, forecasting the impact of challenge, defining scope for site surveys and investigations, and identifying options for resolving challenges.
• Ensure all information (including service risks) are accurately recorded and promptly reported for audit purposes and service risk escalations using the technology systems provided.
• Manage the out of hours rota and participate in out of hours and standby working as required.
• Responsible for monitoring and reporting KPIs for processes over which they have ownership.
• Perform line and performance management duties as required.
• Carry out any other duties deemed necessary and / or required by management.

General Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaboration with key internal stakeholders across the UÉ business
• Responsible for promoting and delivering relevant 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.
• Conducts duties and responsibilities in accordance with UÉ’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
• Other duties as required.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Relevant third level qualification and or accreditation in engineering/related discipline, or equivalent work experience
• Engineering background desirable.
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience in the water, utilities or similar industries is desirable and / or relevant experience.
• We keep each other safe - experience / understanding of working within a strong health & safety culture.
• Knowledge of Drinking Water treatment and/or the maintaining and repairing of water treatment and network assets is an advantage.
• We do the right thing - knowledge of risk management principles and guidelines (ISO 31000) and risk identification at Drinking Water assets
• Knowledge of the application of the current legislation, standards, processes, and procedures relevant to drinking water treatment and networks
• Local knowledge of assets and operational performance capabilities to support the timely resolution of non-routine, specialised activities.
• We work better together - capable to work collaboratively across various function and achieve set objectives.
• We deliver for customers and communities - experience in a customer focused business
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Effective communication skills, to engage with a broad range of internal stakeholders and front-line employees.
• Experience of line and performance management duties
• Ability to make decisions based on analysis of information within a very fast paced, customer focused environment.
• Knowledge of managing process compliance
• Financial analysis skills

*Successful external candidates will be offered a salary within the advertised range based on an assessment of their relevant skills, qualifications, experience and readiness to undertake the responsibilities of the role.

Internal candidates will be considered in line with the application of Uisce Éireann's Pay Model and associated pay policies.

The salary range is designed to recognise that successful candidates may join the organisation at different stages in their career, while also providing scope for future salary progression as capability and experience develop.

This role will be base in Tipperary, South East Midlands Region .

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.