Planning Assurance Manager

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 Operational Planning Team are responsible for the management and implementation of national Maintenance Programmes. The team manage Asset Operations Capital Maintenance Process under the SSARA Portfolio, statutory and preventative maintenance programmes.

The Planning Assurance Manager reports to the Head of Asset Operations Strategic Planning and leads the planning assurance team to deliver the agreed duties and responsibilities.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Lead the Planning Assurance Team in managing the end-to-end delivery of all Planning Assurance capability and its activities ensuring that industry best practice is followed.

Responsible for planning and programme governance – developing plans and ensuring they are aligned with Uisce Éireann’s strategic objectives and regulatory commitments.

Responsible for defining, monitoring and reporting Operational Risk and Resilience KPIs and reporting on all areas required by the Operational Risk and Resilience Senior Manager and ensuring mitigation actions in place

Accountable for the Capital Maintenance Process, ensuring appropriate prioritisation assessment criteria is in place, budget management and KPI performance reporting.

Manage the Prioritisation & Governance of the central AO Approvals Process through MAXIMO, ensuring investment programmes and operational plans are supported by robust business cases

Responsible for Continuous Improvement of planning methodologies and reporting processes. Drive consistency on how projects are planned and governed nationally

Responsible for ensuring prioritised delivery of the Capital Maintenance Programme against annualised CRU Budgetary Targets.

Accountable for monitoring and reporting of the Capital Maintenance Process which are delivered by Asset Interventions and Infrastructure Delivery for assets which impact O&M.

Support the implementation of the Uisce Éireann Preventative Maintenance Management Strategy and Asset Class Strategies.

Develop a close working relationship with the Operational Risk and Resilience Teams to ensure close alignment and effective collaboration.

Develop a close working relationship with key internal stakeholders; Asset Planning, Supply Chain, Asset Interventions, Health and Safety.

Manage delivery of the Preventative Maintenance Programme in line with UE Asset Lifecycle Management principles.

Responsible for national oversight and reporting on the Preventative Maintenance Programme (Compliance & Budget).

Collaborate with Asset Planning to deliver ‘best in class’ Asset Management

Ensure continual review of the processes that effect the delivery of the Uisce Éireann’s capital requirements

Responsible for the Capital Maintenance governance approvals process through UE asset management system MAXIMO

Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing planning assurance team.

Ensure own knowledge and the team’s knowledge is up to date on the application of current relevant legislation, standards, processes and procedure to support this area of work

Ensure information from Capital Maintenance is cascaded to the relevant stakeholder and in a manner which can be understood by all recipients

Ensure timely and detailed reports are available to the agreed stakeholders

Ensure continual review of the processes that effect the delivery of planning assurance

General Duties and Responsibilities

Collaboration with key internal stakeholders across the UÉ business including but not limited to;

COO – Asset Operations and Customer Operations, Continuous Improvement

Asset Management & Sustainability,

Infrastructure Delivery Directorate,

Business Services – Supply Chain,

H&S team

Responsible for promoting and delivering 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.

Support the delivery of the Uisce Éireann Transformation Programme, driving results required within the COO Directorate and supporting organisation-wide objectives.

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.

Conducts duties and responsibilities in accordance with Uisce Éireann’s Information Security policies, standards, processes and controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of UÉ business information, and delivery of critical services, in accordance with the NIS Directive and any other relevant cybersecurity regulation.

Demonstrate the implementation of all company values and behaviours and embed them in team structure and future ways of working

Other duties as required.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

We deliver for customers and communities - Demonstrable experience in Maintenance Management is desirable.

Relevant third level qualification and or accreditation is desirable

A minimum of 7 years’ relevant experience is required. Experience in the water, utilities or similar industries is desirable. In particular, experience with enterprise Asset Management systems such as Maximo and mobile work management tools is desirable

Experience in the roles of effective Enterprise Transformation such as Product Ownership, Project Management, Business Analysis, Change Management

Experience in Business Process and optimisation is desirable in order to facililitate continual review of the processes that effect the delivery of the Uisce Éireann’s capital requirements

We work better together - strong Stakeholder Management essential – role will involve liaising with both internal directorates and also with external stakeholders such as EPA, Local Government, Audit

Strong Analytical skills desirable as role will require ensuring that planning, financial and risk and performance information will inform Capital Maintenance planning process.

We work better together – demonstrated leadership ability, proactive development motivation and engagement of staff

Experience managing a large team, with strong people, change management and conflict resolution skills.

Experience of developing and maintaining effective strategic partnerships with key stakeholders.

We deliver for customers and communities - experience in disruptors affecting Water Industry such as Climate Change or how AI might be used in highly regulated industries is desirable

Proven track record with dealing with complex issues, proactively and in a timely fashion along with the ability to communicate complex information to others.

We do the right thing - experience of supporting policies, systems and controls and driving the implementation of progressive policies.

You will have a proven track record in leadership, change & transformation experience ideally in a similar utility, regulated industry or multi stakeholder environment.

We aim high - able to work to deadlines and adapt to changing conditions and ambiguity generating effective and pragmatic solutions to new situations and problems as they are presented.

*Successful external candidates will be offered a salary within the advertised range based on an assessment of their relevant skills, qualifications, experience and readiness to undertake the responsibilities of the role.

Internal candidates will be considered in line with the application of Uisce Éireann's Pay Model and associated pay policies.

The salary range is designed to recognise that successful candidates may join the organisation at different stages in their career, while also providing scope for future salary progression as capability and experience develop.

The closing date for receipt of applications for this vacancy is 19/11/26.

Please note that applications submitted after this closing date will not be accepted.

Uisce Éireann is an equal opportunities employer.

We are committed to providing a diverse and inclusive place of work and have a robust strategy and framework called ibelong to enable this. We are an equal opportunity employer and through our recruitment process we welcome and encourage applications from interested and suitably qualified individuals regardless of gender, age, racial or ethnic origin, membership of the traveller community, religion or beliefs, family or civil status, sexual orientation/gender identity or disability.