Water Plant Operations Supervisor

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 and meeting regulatory standards as well as 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.

The Regional O&M Team has a regional remit and is responsible for the regional operational management of treatment and the associated delivery of water/wastewater services through operational, maintenance and repair activities, while managing health and safety. The team is also responsible for the implementation of the regional operations, maintenance and repair plan that forms part of the national operations, maintenance, and repair plan, contributing to the development, management, implementation, and approval of the same. Managing change and transformation activities is a key aspect of this team's responsibility particularly in the initial phases as the regional operations team splits into separate water and wastewater teams and ways of working are standardised.

Reporting to the Water Operations Plant Lead, the Water Plant Operations Supervisor is responsible for managing the provision of treatment services with respect to a specific plant or plants within a region. This includes the safe operation and maintenance of assets to ensure compliance and customer service standards. The role holder has direct line management of field based teams and will provide direction and guidance as required in the execution of plant management and the management of operational contractors working on our assets. They will be responsible for overseeing and supporting the timely resolution of technical/engineering issues and service risks as they arise within the plant or plants through the provision of technical analysis, service risk management, local knowledge of assets and operational performance capabilities. The Water Plant Operations Supervisor will also support IDD and Minor Capital programmes, ensuring that they are facilitated by Asset Operations. They will also coordinate investment processes and identify deficits in operational standards and areas for improvement.

Managing Plant Operations

• Manage the day-to-day provision of treatment services with respect to a treatment plant or plants, ensuring that regulatory compliance and customer service standards are met.
• Lead and manage the performance of a team of water operations and maintenance staff and provide them with the necessary direction and skills.
• Interact with operations and maintenance staff to understand the needs of the asset and identify any potential wastewater treatment operations intervention requests; submit these requests to Treatment Planning, providing supplementary information as required.
• Ensure data capture on issues that are relevant to contribute to the development of operational, maintenance and repair plans, liaising with Operations Planning as required to undertake periodical performance reviews, appraisals and make resulting recommendations.
• Manage and organise the maintenance and repair of newly commissioned or upgraded assets as required by undertaking appropriate site training and supporting adequate resourcing.
• Develop the skills of team members through provision of coaching and training in all aspects of the operation of relevant works.
• Coordinate the movement of all sludge arising from wastewater operational processes and activities, optimising sludge contracts effectively in conjunction with Operational Contract Management.
• Ensure all information (including service risks) are accurately recorded and promptly reported for audit purposes and service risk escalations, using the technology systems provided.
• Contribute to the development of task schedules and standard operating procedures for the provision of network services that maximise quality of output, efficiency and support the adoption of processes.
• Monitor and report KPIs for owned processes.
• Keep up to date with best practice, ensuring operations lessons are captured and improvement plans are kept up to date.
• Support adherence of teams to allocated task schedules, standard operating procedures and the close-out of work orders on completion of tasks.
• Support the roll-out and development of standard operating procedures, as required.
• Provide technical oversight of third parties or contractors; permits-to-work, permits-to-enter.
• Support Key Account Managers with any queries relating to issues affecting Key Accounts in their regional area, including site visits where required.
• Support the Customer Contact Centre or Customer Contact Technical Lead with any escalated customer issues or queries, including site visits as required.

Budget Management

• Responsible for the management of costs associated with the water/wastewater team.
• Co ordinate the effective and efficient use of budgetary resources, through team meetings, productivity management, utilisation of vehicles, implementation of work task and monitoring of water network operations.

Supporting Specialised Works

• Oversee Specialised Works scoping and method statement reviews.
• Support field teams with complex asset system integrity challenges, assisting in determining the cause and forecasting the impact of the challenge.
• Liaise and collaborate with Asset Planning to support the definition and management of the investment plan, specifically; understanding the asset base (performance and condition), conducting risk assessments, needs identification and intervention generation.
• Support operational and strategic change initiatives in liaison with Operational Control & Support Teams.

Health and Safety

• Ensure all health and safety inductions are completed and that all equipment is provided, appropriate to the job and necessary calibrations are performed periodically.
• Responsible for the implementation of the Construction Regulations including undertaking of duties assigned under the Regulations, as per Uisce Éireann policies, safety statements and plans. Oversee policy implementation and best practice standards including safe working practices.
• Ensure all health and safety procedures are adhered to including risk assessments (Safe System of Work Plan), use of PPE, etc.
• Ensure personnel have relevant safety skills, training, and associated documentation, including Safe Pass cards and, where relevant, Construction Skills Certificate cards.
• Identify hazards and assess risks for operational areas of responsibility.
• Carry out any other duties deemed necessary and/or required which your line manager may reasonably request.

General Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaborate with key internal stakeholders across the UÉ business.
• Promote and deliver 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.
• Provide visible leadership for your team, coaching and developing them to achieve their full potential and deliver business objectives, promoting collaboration and highlighting the behaviours that are expected from everyone in the team.
• Participate in out of hours and escalation standby working, as required.
• Provide emergency cover, as required.
• Support and/or manage engagement with regulatory and other stakeholders, as required.
• Other duties as required.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Secondary education or equivalent work experience.
• Minimum of 3 years direct relevant experience of working in a similar role within water treatment network & maintenance repair service.
• FETAC level 5 / QQI Level 6 Advanced Certificate or equivalent - Craft in apprenticeship such as: Craft of Mechanical Automation and Maintenance Fitting is desirable.
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