Relationship Manager

Job summary

CCW is the passionate, independent voice representing water consumers in England & Wales. We support thousands of people each year, providing free advice and helping people to resolve their complaints with their water company in an easy, caring way. We champion everyone’s needs and interests, completing and showcasing research that influences water companies, government, and regulators to make change happen.

Job Purpose

Lead the day-to-day relationship with water companies. The primary purpose of the role is to establish and maintain effective relationships between CCW and water companies. The relationship aim is to improve consumer outcomes through identifying and challenging water companies, encouraging them to improve performance in areas of weakness, and share best practice in areas of strength.

The post holder will liaise with all internal CCW teams, particularly Customer Service, Policy and Research, to ensure understanding of company performance relative to others, and be able to communicate and discuss how performance could be improved and to encourage the sharing of best practice.

The post holder will report to the Head of Company Relationships to drive CCW’s policy and advocacy work, focussing on areas where there is consumer detriment across industry. Sometimes this may require the post holder reporting directly to the Executive or Board on specific issues.

Job description

Key duties and accountabilities

Leading company engagement

The postholder will have a company / companies assigned to them. The postholder will be the first point of contact within CCW for the company / companies on a day-to-day basis. They will be expected to:

Company relationships

• Confidently deal with company staff at all levels, through building constructive working relationships.
• Lead regular company interactions, both in person and on-line.
• Be the main liaison point for information exchange (formal and informal) between CCW and companies.
• Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of:
  • company policies, operations and performance.
  • CCW policy positions and how this may differ from company policy positions.
  • legislative and regulatory requirements that directly affect consumers, and how the company complies with these requirements.
• Provide challenge to company performance, policies and practices in order to influence and secure positive change for consumers, in line with CCW policy positions. This includes challenging directly and arranging conversations with the relevant CCW policy expert to help influence company positions and overcome objections.
• Ensure areas of focus identified in CCW’s assessments are documented and an action plan created and followed, through regular meetings with company area leads. Maintain an up-to-date record of company actions against these points.
• Influence the price review throughout the development of company business plans, providing robust analysis of Ofwat’s determination for their allocated companies.
• Keep abreast of company performance against ODIs and PCs that are of direct interest to customers, maintaining up to date knowledge of which their company/ies are performing well against and the actions being take where underperformance is an issue.

Internal relationships

• Have excellent relationships with other CCW departments in particular Policy, Research, Customer Service and PR/Comms to understand the issues they want raised with companies and to ensure all are up to date with relevant information.
• Use evidence gathered from a range of sources, including companies, external sources and CCW research to challenge companies in their performance, processes or culture
• Ensure all relevant documents are up-to-date, e.g. escalations register, briefing packs, company updates etc.
• Escalate and document company issues following the agreed processes and timescales.

Improving the consumer experience

• Work with other Relationship Mangers to identify common areas of concern or trends that require further action, providing an industry overview to CCW
• Identify, in conjunction with other Relationship Managers, areas where CCW policy may need forming or changing and suggest areas where campaigns may be warranted.
• Attending company assessments on a range of topics, including complaint handling, debt and incident handling.

ICGs and Customer Panels

• Contribute to groups that also challenge companies, such as independent challenge groups (ICGs), through membership or advisory role
• Provide briefings to consumer panels on topics as requested, liaison with company to ensure information is accurate and specific.
• Be the key contact point between consumer panels and companies in arranging accountability sessions and ensuring actions taken from challenges made are relayed to Panel members, in a “you said, we did” style.

Influencing the agenda

• Work with partner organisations on projects of mutual benefit
• In conjunction with policy colleagues, support consultation responses from allocated water companies.
• Write relevant Executive Team / Board papers on areas of responsibility, where key decisions require sign off.
• Identify and share best practice both externally and internally
• Respond to requests for expert briefing and information from senior internal and external stakeholders (e.g. Executive or Defra) as required
• Contribute to messages for all media activity for your company, speaking at conferences and to the media on relevant company issues.
• Be an active and effective member of the Customer Service team, contributing to all discussions/decisions; taking the lead in matters relating to their company.

Internal Stakeholders

• Through discussion with colleagues and manager, enable cross company performance comparison across a range of issues, such as complaint performance, adherence to regulatory or statutory requirements and provision of information and service to customers.
• Maintain a weekly record of company news, highlighting issues of substance for CCW colleagues to refer to.
• Maintain an up to date register of company specific concerns, how they are being addressed and CCW’s action within that, escalating as appropriate.
• Brief the Executive on specific issues pertaining to their company/ies
• Provide information to Board on company performance and issues, either directly or via Head of Company Relationships.

External Stakeholders

• Establish and maintain productive working relationships, developing partnerships and joint working as necessary.
• Represent CCW in meetings, on panels and at conferences
• Represent CCW in media, working with Communications team colleagues to provide statements and interviews related to specific issues or company performance

Travel
This role will require regular travel to water companies and other meetings across England and Wales as needed for the role. This will be a minimum of six per year, with occasional overnight stays, although frequency may vary.

Other

• Carry out other duties within the scope of the role as required by the Head of Company Relationships.
• Actively promote and embed Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work. Support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies and procedures on EDI.

Management of resources

Financial resources

This post has no direct budget.

Human resources

This post has no formal line management responsibilities.

Contacts and communication

Internal

• Daily contact with Head of Company Relationships
• Daily contact with Relationship Manager colleagues
• Frequent contact with wider Senior Policy Leaders
• Frequent contact with the Director of Policy, Research and Campaigning
• Frequent contact with wider Policy and Research team
• Frequent contact with Consumer Relations team
• Some contact with wider Executive team members and their teams
• Occasional contact with Board Members
• Regular contact with wider CCW staff

External

• Regular contact with water companies
• Regular contact with other consumer bodies and NGOs.
• Regular contact with consumer panels
• Regular contact with ICGs
• Appearances at conferences and on national / local media

Civil Service Competencies:

The postholder needs to demonstrate the following:

• Seeing the Big Picture: Understand how their role fits with and supports organisational objectives and public service priorities.
• Changing and Improving: Seek out opportunities to create effective change and suggest innovative solutions.
• Making Effective Decisions: Use evidence and knowledge to support accurate, expert decisions and advice.
• Leading and Communicating: Communicate with clarity, conviction, and enthusiasm, supporting others to deliver results.
• Collaborating and Partnering: Work collaboratively with colleagues and stakeholders to achieve organisational goals.
• Delivering at Pace: Take responsibility for delivering timely and quality results with focus and drive.

Person specification

Attainments

• Proven ability to collect, interpret, and synthesise complex qualitative and quantitative data; strong problem-solving and critical thinking skills; using evidence to form sound judgments for discussion with companies
• Proven ability to manage the work, resource and time involved to undertake effective liaison with companies
• Proven ability to influence and work collaboratively with companies and internal teams in CCW to drive improved customer experience

Skills and abilities

• A wide range of analytical skills – using various techniques, approaches and experiences to build a coherent and powerful evidence base to challenge company performance
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to influence the customer experience being delivered by companies.
• Be able to share insights that support your challenges to companies both verbally and in writing
• Strong interpersonal skills to build and maintain effective working relationships with diverse stakeholders, often managing competing views and priorities

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £40,510, Consumer Council for Water contributes £11,735 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.Annual leave entitlement starting at 25 days rising by one annually to a maximum of 30 days, plus 10.5 Bank Holidays and Privilege leave.

Benefits include Civil Service Pension, Flexitime with up to an extra 24 days off per year, Generous Annual Leave provision, Flexible Working Options, Retailer and Healthcare discounts/cashback, Travel Season Ticket Loans, Bicycle Loans, Employee Assistance Programme and much more.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

If you are interested please apply using the apply tab and submit both your CV and a statement of suitability (no more than 2 pages) which outlines how your key skills and experience match to the job description and person specification, explaining your suitability for the role. Applications that do not include all this information are unlikely to be considered.

The selection process will include:

• A sift using the content of your CV and statement of suitability
• Interviews and exercise in person Friday 6th February and Tuesday 10th February 2026, Birmingham location.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications. If you are interested in applying, we’d encourage you to submit your application as early as possible.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Lisa Gregory/Laura Smurthwaite
• Email : recruitment@ccwater.org.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@ccwater.org.uk

Further information

ccw.org.uk