Graduate Development Programme 2025 - Casework Enforcement & Customers

About the Programme

Join us as an Ofwat graduate and step into a world where you are empowered and encouraged to help us solve problems in the water industry from the very start. Our graduate programme offers a truly versatile role, great insights into how a regulator works and excellent training, enabling you to create a solid foundation for your career.

If you're a proactive and analytical person, and someone who is excited about working for a high profile and ambitious team, then the Casework and Enforcement and customers (CEC) directorate is the place for you. The Casework and Enforcement team plays a key role in holding water companies to account to ensure they are meeting their legal obligations to customers and the environment. The team is also the 'front door' for many of the customers and stakeholders who contact Ofwat with enquiries or complaints about the sector or their water company, and for businesses that want to become new water companies. Our work can range from deciding on an individual customer's dispute with their water company, to assessing whether a company is a match to be a water company, to imposing multi-million-pound fines on a water company where it has failed to meet its legal obligations.

Our Customer Policy team is at the heart of developing policy, monitoring and holding companies to account to drive better outcomes for residential customers. We also lead Ofwat's programme of customer research to understand customer needs and experiences. Our aim is for water companies to deliver high standards of customer service and support for the full diversity of customer needs, including driving improvement in how water companies consider affordability and deliver for vulnerable customers.

We offer rotational and static opportunities, which both provide the same learning, development and support. This role is within the CEC directorate where you will have the opportunities to move around the different teams in the directorate, so that you gather knowledge and skills in a range of different types of work including enforcement, licensing, customer enquiries and disputes, customer research and customer policy.

Qualifications

You will have (or be on target to achieve) at least a 2:2 degree in a numerical, analytical, research, environmental or business-related discipline, such as (but not limited to) economics, politics, business management, law, accounting and finance, history, environmental engineering or geography. As this is a graduate programme, you must have graduated already, or be due to graduate in 2025, and have some work experience following your graduation.

Experience, Skills and Knowledge

• An understanding of economic policy and how it is used by regulators to drive companies' performance
• Have a high interest in various policy concepts, with a particular motivation for working in regulatory environments.
• Experience of gathering and assessing qualitative and quantitative information to draw out relevant conclusions
• Ability to present complex information clearly to others, both in writing and orally
• Able to demonstrate effective problem solving, demonstrating critical thinking, decision making and information processing

Attributes and Values

Values : Throughout the selection process, we will be looking for evidence of our SAILOR values.

Attributes : We will also assess you on the following attributes and behaviours that are essential for success on the programme. These are defined more fully in our Framework for Success. The attributes which will be assessed are:

• Committed Learner
• Makes Relationships Court
• Creates Clarity
• Adaptable Thinker
• Delivers Outcomes

You will have (or be on target to achieve) at least a 2:2 degree in a numerical, analytical, research, environmental or business-related discipline, such as (but not limited to) economics, politics, business management, law, accounting and finance, history, environmental engineering or geography. As this is a graduate programme, you must have graduated already, or be due to graduate in 2025, and have some work experience following your graduation.

Why You Should Join Us:

We’re forward-thinking, creative, innovative, and ambitious. We constantly push the boundaries and embrace new ways of working.

With us, your work matters, your voice is heard, and your impact is felt. Ours is a culture of trust, adaptability, autonomy, collaboration, and innovation. We all want positive change for water customers, the environment, and the future of water.

But for us, change is more than what happens on the outside – we’ve always pushed boundaries internally, too. From becoming the first Civil Service organisation to achieve ‘Smarter Working’ status, to gaining our prestigious ‘Smarter Working Maturity’ award, we’ve consistently demonstrated our commitment to embracing innovative ways of working. Our people do their best work when given freedom over where, when, and how they work. Which is why we trust our teams to balance meaningful collaboration in the office with the adaptability of working from home.

You will also benefit from:

• Excellent employer pension contributions of 28.97% (around £8,980 for this role). You can find further details about pension schemes under Terms and Conditions in the Candidate Pack.
• 27.5 days leave (25 days annual leave + 2.5 days privilege leave) increasing to max 32.5 days with each year of service, plus bank holidays
• Access to exclusive discounts on a variety of goods and services, including retail outlets,
  theatre tickets, holidays, insurance, and a gym membership
• Adaptable working arrangements that suit your lifestyle
• Fees paid for membership of relevant professional bodies
• Up to 3 volunteering days per year
• Recognition vouchers scheme
• Generous shared parental leave and pay
• Enhanced sick pay
• Regular development opportunities
• Health and wellbeing initiatives
• Cycle-to-work scheme
• Season ticket loan for home-to-office travel
• Free eye tests and contribution to lenses/spectacles for VDU users

How to apply

Apply through the Civil Service Jobs website where you’ll be asked to create an account and complete an application form. If you’re unable to make an electronic application, please contact us and we will support you in completing your application.

Please ensure you have submitted your application in full ahead of the deadline listed below. Unfortunately, we won't be able to consider late applications.