OT Technical Manager
This is a rare opportunity to take on a senior technical leadership role at Thames Water, the UK's largest water company, where operational technology directly supports the delivery of essential water and wastewater services to 16 million customers.
We are looking for a highly technical, operationally focused and delivery driven OT Technical Manager to lead the performance, security, resilience and support of our Operational Technology estate and associated digital services.
You will act as a senior operational technical authority across OT infrastructure, IT and OT connectivity, enterprise network security, cyber compliance, compute platforms, active directory and identity services. Leading specialist internal teams and strategic service partners, you will ensure that the critical technologies supporting our water and wastewater operations remain available, secure, resilient and fit for purpose.
This is a broad and influential leadership role, combining deep technical oversight with operational delivery, supplier management, cyber resilience, business continuity and continual service improvement. You will also turn approved OT and Digital network roadmaps into deliverable operational plans, balancing day to day service performance with technical risk, lifecycle requirements, regulatory obligations and future operational needs.
The role sits within the Thames Digital OT function and provides the opportunity to shape how one of the UK's most significant critical infrastructure organisations operates, protects and continually improves its technology estate.
What you'll do as an OT Technical Manager
OT Technical Leadership & Operational Performance
Working pattern - Full-time, Monday to Friday
What you should bring to the role
Essential Experience
We are looking for a highly technical, operationally focused and delivery driven OT Technical Manager to lead the performance, security, resilience and support of our Operational Technology estate and associated digital services.
You will act as a senior operational technical authority across OT infrastructure, IT and OT connectivity, enterprise network security, cyber compliance, compute platforms, active directory and identity services. Leading specialist internal teams and strategic service partners, you will ensure that the critical technologies supporting our water and wastewater operations remain available, secure, resilient and fit for purpose.
This is a broad and influential leadership role, combining deep technical oversight with operational delivery, supplier management, cyber resilience, business continuity and continual service improvement. You will also turn approved OT and Digital network roadmaps into deliverable operational plans, balancing day to day service performance with technical risk, lifecycle requirements, regulatory obligations and future operational needs.
The role sits within the Thames Digital OT function and provides the opportunity to shape how one of the UK's most significant critical infrastructure organisations operates, protects and continually improves its technology estate.
What you'll do as an OT Technical Manager
OT Technical Leadership & Operational Performance
- Act as a senior operational technical authority for Thames Water's OT technology estate and associated digital services.
- Lead the teams responsible for IT network operations, enterprise network security, cyber compliance, OT compute, active directory and identity services.
- Ensure the integrity, security, availability, resilience and supportability of OT systems across Thames Water's operational sites.
- Provide expert technical leadership, escalation and decision making across OT infrastructure, connectivity, compute, security and identity services.
- Maintain effective oversight of the live OT estate, ensuring that critical services remain reliable, secure and fit for purpose.
- Own the implementation of the approved Digital (IT/OT) network roadmaps.
- Translate agreed technical roadmaps into prioritised and deliverable operational plans.
- Coordinate resources, suppliers, dependencies, and change activity to deliver roadmap commitments effectively.
- Identify and escalate conflicts, risks, dependencies, and required deviations through the appropriate engineering governance routes.
- Ensure operational delivery remains aligned with approved architectures, standards, regulatory requirements, and business priorities.
- Lead the operation and continual improvement of IT and OT connectivity services supporting connected people and operational assets.
- Oversee network operations delivered through a combination of internal resources and third party managed services.
- Monitor and improve network service health, capacity, performance, resilience and lifecycle.
- Lead the enterprise network security services within the role's remit, including firewalls, VPN and remote access services, WAN and SD-WAN security controls, and network security monitoring.
- Ensure cyber compliance activities are operated effectively, supported by appropriate evidence and subject to continual improvement.
- Identify and manage network security risks, vulnerabilities, control gaps and technical dependencies.
- Lead the reliable and secure operation of OT hosting and compute platforms.
- Oversee OT Active Directory, the OT tenant and Entra ID services.
- Ensure effective identity lifecycle management, privileged access controls, platform health, backup, recovery and technical support.
- Manage technical risks and improvement opportunities across OT compute, directory and identity services.
- Ensure platforms remain resilient, supportable and capable of meeting current and future operational requirements.
- Manage the routine operation, maintenance and continual improvement of OT systems and associated processes.
- Ensure operational issues, recurring faults, performance constraints and capacity risks are identified, prioritised and addressed.
- Apply effective incident, problem, change, capacity and service improvement practices across the live estate.
- Establish meaningful operational KPIs and service measures covering performance, resilience, supportability and improvement.
- Ensure lessons learned from incidents, operational events and service reviews are translated into practical improvements.
- Own operational resilience, business continuity and disaster recovery arrangements for the services within the role's remit.
- Ensure critical services are appropriately backed up, recoverable and supported by effective recovery capabilities.
- Maintain, test and continually improve recovery documentation and disaster recovery arrangements.
- Coordinate technical response and service restoration during major incidents, operational events and service disruptions.
- Ensure operational compliance with approved company policies, engineering standards, cyber security requirements and relevant regulatory obligations.
- Maintain remediation plans and provide timely assurance and evidence to internal stakeholders and relevant regulatory bodies.
- Lead a high performing and improvement focused technical organisation, setting clear priorities, objectives and performance expectations across internal teams and strategic partners.
- Balance operational support with risk reduction, resilience, compliance, lifecycle activity and roadmap delivery, allocating resources to the areas of greatest business and operational need.
- Act as the senior operational technical authority and escalation point, providing clear, practical and commercially balanced advice to senior stakeholders.
- Build effective relationships across Technology, Engineering, Operations, Cybersecurity, Finance, Procurement and Health and Safety, as well as with regulators and external partners.
- Manage key contracts, suppliers and service relationships, holding partners accountable for service performance, security, resilience, commercial outcomes and agreed improvements.
- Support Capex and Opex planning while managing supplier risks, dependencies and commercial constraints.
- Develop team capability, succession and professional growth while promoting health, safety, wellbeing, accountability and operational excellence.
Working pattern - Full-time, Monday to Friday
What you should bring to the role
Essential Experience
- Experience working within water industry Operational Technology (OT), with extensive understanding of the technology and operational environments that support critical water and wastewater services.
- Strong knowledge and practical experience of OT methodologies, principles, frameworks, systems, and architectures within a complex operational environment.
- Demonstrable experience leading operational technology services across infrastructure, networks, security, compute, identity, and associated digital services.
- Proven experience managing internal technical teams and significant third-party delivery, managed service, offshore, and outsourced partners within a matrix organisation.
- Demonstrable understanding of the use of OT within the utility industry, including the operational, resilience, security, safety, and regulatory considerations associated with critical infrastructure.
- Proven experience managing technical risks, incidents, problems, service performance, business continuity, disaster recovery, and continual service improvement across a live operational estate.
- Strong experience working with senior stakeholders across technology, engineering, operations, cybersecurity, compliance, commercial, and business functions.
- Proven ability to translate complex technical problems into simple, practical, and deliverable solutions.
- Demonstrable experience making balanced decisions that consider commercial, operational, customer, security, resilience, and regulatory requirements.
- Experience managing technical suppliers, service providers, communications partners, and system integrators, with accountability for service performance and contractual outcomes.
- Strong understanding and practical experience of LAN and WAN network technologies within complex operational environments.
- Higher education qualification, or equivalent demonstrable experience, within an engineering discipline.
- Strong technical knowledge of OT systems and architecture, including the infrastructure and supporting services required to operate critical operational environments.
- Strong understanding of OT networks, LAN, WAN, connectivity, and associated operational technologies. . click apply for full job details