Environmental Strategy, Policy & Regulation Manager


Location
Flexible within the Anglian Water region, with regular travel required to central offices including working in Cambridge on Mondays.
Hours
Full Time, Permanent (With options for Part-Time)
Salary
Circa £50,000 - £57,000 depending on skills and experience
About the Role
Join Anglian Water and help shape the future of sustainable water management across one of the UK's most environmentally important regions. This is a rare opportunity to influence environmental policy, shape long-term resource strategy, and work directly with regulators to balance environmental protection with water security for millions of customers. As climate change, population growth, and environmental pressures intensify, ensuring abstraction remains sustainable has never been more critical.
Reporting to the Water Resources Environment Manager, you will lead on abstraction strategy, regulatory risk management, and public interest case development. Acting as the focal point for managing abstraction licence change risks across AMP programmes, you will ensure emerging risks are identified early, robust mitigation is in place, and regulatory commitments are delivered on time.
Working collaboratively across the business and with external regulators, you will shape long‑term sustainable abstraction strategy and integrate abstraction requirements into key programmes such as WRMP29, PR29, AWINEP, and the Environmental Destination Strategy.
Key responsibilities include:
- Leading the assessment and management of environmental and regulatory risks impacting water resource availability and long-term resilience
- Working with regulators, environmental bodies, consultants, and internal experts to develop solutions that protect the environment while maintaining secure water supplies
- Maintaining a central record of proposed licence changes, tracking drivers, risks, dependencies, and mitigations
- Monitoring progress and emerging risks, ensuring timely escalation and intervention
- Identifying when abstraction caps cannot be met and leading the development of robust Public Interest Case reports (IROPI / OPI)
- Collaborating with the Sustainable Abstraction Programme Team to design environmental mitigation and compensatory measures
- Shaping and influencing long‑term sustainable abstraction strategy, including innovative approaches such as dynamic abstraction licensing
- Ensuring abstraction needs and licence caps are fully and accurately reflected in longer term plans (WRMP29, PR29) and wider environmental programmes
- Providing strategic insight on emerging regulatory trends, risks, and opportunities
- Influencing future regulatory direction through proactive engagement and policy shaping
- Managing consultant support to deliver technical, regulatory, and evidence‑based case development
- Championing a strong health, safety, and continuous improvement culture
Experience
- Degree qualified in an environmental, policy/regulation, scientific, engineering or related discipline, or equivalent professional experience
- Strong experience leading complex project or programme management activities
- Proven experience working with regulators, ideally within environmental or water sectors
- Demonstrated ability to develop and present robust, evidence‑based regulatory cases
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with confidence presenting to senior stakeholders
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret emerging risks and complex data
- Experience in water company or utilities sector (desirable)
About you
- Ability to lead, influence, and inspire across multidisciplinary teams
- Highly organised, self‑motivated, and comfortable managing competing priorities
- Working towards chartered status (desirable)
Qualifications
- Degree or equivalent professional experience in relevant discipline
- Working towards chartered status is desirable but not essential
Anglian Water Services Limited





















