Operations

Our diverse network of environments across London, Thames Valley and the home counties includes areas of outstanding natural beauty in the Cotswolds to Europe’s largest sewage treatment work at Beckton. We have 350 waste treatment sites, 100 water treatment works and we treat 2,700 million litres of water a day, with 35,000km of pipe network and over 110,000km of sewers. Our operations team are out on the frontline across the region, playing a vital role in maintaining our vast network of sites, keeping things running smoothly and protecting our environment.

From water falling from the sky as rain to it flowing out of our taps, there’s a whole process that involves hundreds of treatment sites, around 4,700 Thames Water Operations team employees, 20,000 miles of pipes and half a million tests to make sure that we provide our 15 million customers with the best quality water. Our frontline Operations site roles include technicians who oversee and carry out both planned and reactive maintenance on our mechanical and electrical equipment, instruments and controls. Our Operational Performance Managers lead these teams of technicians and are responsible for overall site performance with a big focus on health and safety.

As well as delivering safe, clean and reliable water to our 15 million customers, we also need to take it away once it’s been used. When any of our customers empty the bath, flush the toilet or use their washing machine, it’s the Operations teams’ job to make sure that all that used water – what we call wastewater – is treated and returned safely into rivers. There are exciting opportunities to work in the Operations team across our vast network. Whether it’s planning, inspecting, digging or repairing, we work around the clock fixing leaks and upgrading pipes so we can keep our customers’ toilets flushing today, and upgrading our assets for tomorrow.

OPAL plays a crucial role in keeping the cogs turning and everything working, operating reactively and proactively to serve our 15 million customers. Roles in OPAL include project engineers who manage various sized projects across our vast network of sites and see them through to their full potential, from improving water quality to helping reservoir upgrades. We’ve got a huge fleet of HGV drivers transporting clean and waste water across our network, and assisting behind the scenes are our logistics planners ensuring an effective and efficient response. Meanwhile, our inventory operatives are based across the region, making sure our teams always have the right materials they need.

Our field teams are out and about on the customer frontline, identifying and responding to faults such as low water pressure or underground leaks and working with our contractors to shut off water so repairs and upgrades can be carried out. Typical roles include network service and trunk sewer technicians, who maintain our water and wastewater pipes and equipment. Meanwhile, our field operations specialists are led by field operations managers, who oversee all performance of our field teams with a big focus on health and safety.