Yorkshire Water Graduate Scheme – Waste Water

Salary & Benefits: Salary range £28,875 - £33,875 per annum dependant on experience, annual bonus, attractive pension scheme (Up to 10% rising to 12% in Apr 2025 company contribution), life assurance cover of 4 times pensionable salary and 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, plus a wellness day and development opportunities in line with the Graduate Development Programme. We also offer a fantastic flexible benefits package, where you can choose from benefits such as health cash plan scheme, critical illness insurance, dental insurance, life assurance flex and partner cover.  Colleagues also have access to a retail savings scheme, online GP service, cycle to work scheme, gym membership discounts and many more!

(Please note, some of our Graduate Programme roles have access to a company car through company car lease scheme due to the amount of travel involved with the position – if the role you apply for is eligible, you will be notified when invited to the assessment centre/interview stage).

Location:  Bradford / Hybrid Working

Work type: Permanent. 37 hours per week between a working window of 8:00am-6:00pm Monday – Friday

We have a number of exciting opportunities for Graduate positions working across the Wastewater function at Yorkshire Water. 

What we do:

Everyone has an idea of what a water company does. Here in Yorkshire, we make sure that over 5.4 million people living in the region and the millions of people who visit our region each year, can rely on our services, and have clean and safe drinking water on tap and that their wastewater is taken away. But for us, it’s so much more than this.

We look after communities, protect the environment, and plan to look after Yorkshire’s water, today, tomorrow 24/7, 365 days a year. We provide essential water and wastewater services to every corner of the Yorkshire region, and play a key role in the region’s health, wellbeing, and prosperity.

New environmental legislation, unprecedented levels of investment and changing expectations from customers means that this is an exciting time to discover opportunities within the water industry.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Graduate position in the Wastewater function at Yorkshire Water.  We greatly value the skills and knowledge that our Graduate community bring to our business and the continued contribution they make as they embark on their varied careers across all of our operational and support areas. 

With opportunities to build and further develop technical skills in your chosen area of study, our Graduate programme will nurture and support the growth and development of knowledge, skills, and behaviours to become our technical, process and people leaders of the future – crucial to our continued commitment to be right for our customers and right for our environment.

THE ROLE:
 

The Graduate Programme is a two-year programme offering up to five structured placements within your business area, with potential for selective placements in other areas, including our core functions, such as Finance, Health & Safety, People, Procurement to provide a holistic and rounded business learning journey.
 

Our Wastewater function provides an essential operational environmental service to 5.4million domestic customers and 2.5 thousand business across the Yorkshire region. We take away 1billion litres per day of wastewater through just over 52,000km of sewer and thousands of pumping stations to one of our 640 Wastewater Treatment Works, where it is treated to safe standards before being released back to the environment. We also use the treated sludge from wastewater to generate renewable energy and create quality biosolids products for agriculture.

We are looking to recruit a number of Operational Leadership and Technical Specialist Graduates in the Wastewater function.

As a Wastewater Graduate you will:

• Have a number of tailored placements working as part of our various wastewater teams to develop a foundation of skills and knowledge to understand our operational wastewater processes, customer journey and the important work that our 980 strong team deliver. This could include:
  • Working alongside our Operational Field Managers, Technical Optimisers and maintenance teams to deliver 24/7 quality and compliant treatment services.
  • Working with our Customer Field Services team to proactively manage our sewer network assets and resolve customer problems.
  • Gain experience with our Asset Management function delivering our capital programme; technical asset planning activities and strategic planning for the future.
  • Deliver outputs in our River Health team supporting and understanding our wastewater environmental performance requirements, regulatory reporting and relationship with the Environment Agency; or engaging with community groups and external bodies to deliver our strategic objectives.
  • Deliver operational excellence projects to drive continuous improvement in performance
• You will help influence your development programme and experience to be structured towards achieving your personal career goals and the businesses needs, but at the core it will be designed to develop your wastewater business and process knowledge, technical understanding, personal and people leadership skills, strategic thinking and delivery of excellent environmental performance. The ultimate goal is to equip you for an exciting career as a future Operational Leader or Technical Specialist in wastewater service delivery.

DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES:
We recognise that each of our graduates will have different needs and ambitions, therefore, our programme is designed to meet those individual needs so that you can shape your future career the way that suits you. We offer a balanced development programme throughout the duration of your two years with support from Sponsoring Managers, Graduate Champions and Mentors, as well as core programme team to support you from the day you make the decision to join us.

REQUIREMENTS:
 

• Minimum 2:1 Bachelors degree, ideally in a Science, Engineering,  Environment, Geography or similar discipline.
• Full Clean UK Driving Licence and willingness to travel across the region
• Enthusiasm and a drive to succeed
• Brilliant communication and interpersonal skills
• Excellent collaboration and teamworking skills
• Resilient to working in a dynamic environment under pressure and ability to prioritise workload
• Information analysis and presentation
• Internally driven and ambitious self-learner

If you have an enquiring mind and want to join our business at a time where you can make a difference to our customers, our environment and join our sustainability led efforts – please apply!

Please click on the button to apply and complete out graduate application form.

Recruitment Process –

Closing date – 14th January, 2025

The Assessment Centre will take place on week commencing 24th February 2025 to the 28th February 2025 with final decisions communicated by the 22nd March 2025.

The information session for successful candidates we will be held on the morning of the 4th September, 2025.

Start date – 8th  September, 2025

We are proud to serve the Yorkshire region and are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment that is reflective of the communities we serve. We strongly encourage candidates of all different backgrounds to apply. 

If successful for the role, you will be required to undergo pre-employment checks that will include a Basic Disclosure Check, carried out through a Third Party Company, prior to commencing employment. Depending on the role, you may also be required to go through the security vetting process for either a Counter Terrorist Check or Security Check clearance.  

Kelda Group reserve the right to close this position before the published closing date, should the need occur. We therefore advise that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible.