Senior Data Analyst

Closing Date

2026-08-21

Job Title: Senior Data Analyst

Location: Durrington / Hybrid working

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37 hours per week

Salary: from £45k

About the role

Southern Water is undertaking one of the most ambitious transformations in the UK water sector.

Over the next five years, we will invest £7.8bn to improve resilience, environmental performance, operational performance and customer outcomes. At the centre of that transformation sits Data, Analytics and AI. We're building a future where decisions are increasingly informed by evidence, where data becomes a strategic asset, and where analytics helps drive better outcomes for customers, communities, regulators and the environment.

Our ambition is to become a truly data-driven organisation, embedding analytics into everyday decision-making and ensuring insight is translated into meaningful action. That means moving beyond reporting and dashboards towards deeper understanding, better recommendations and smarter decisions across every part of the business.

As a Senior Data Analyst, you will play a critical role in making that ambition a reality.

This is an opportunity to work on challenging, high-impact problems that matter. You'll partner with stakeholders across the organisation, help shape decisions through evidence and insight, and influence how Southern Water uses data to improve operational and business performance.

For someone who enjoys combining analytical rigour, business understanding and stakeholder influence, this role offers the opportunity to make a genuine impact while helping build the future of analytics within one of the UK's largest water companies.

About the Role

• As a Senior Data Analyst, you'll lead medium-to-high complexity analytical work from problem definition through to decision-ready recommendations.
• You'll work closely with operational, commercial and strategic stakeholders to understand business challenges, frame analytical approaches and deliver clear, actionable insight. You'll help move conversations beyond reporting and into understanding causes, opportunities and decisions.
• Alongside delivering your own analysis, you'll contribute to raising analytical standards across the organisation, helping build a culture where evidence, critical thinking and curiosity drive better outcomes.
• This role sits at the intersection of data, business and decision-making, making it ideal for someone who enjoys solving real-world problems and influencing meaningful change.

What You'll Be Doing

Solve High-Value Business Problems

• Lead end-to-end analytical initiatives, from understanding the business problem through to delivering recommendations and measurable outcomes.
• Translate complex or ambiguous questions into clear analytical approaches, hypotheses and success measures.
• Identify opportunities where data and analytics can improve decisions, performance or customer outcomes.
• Help stakeholders move from intuition-based decision making towards evidence-based action.

Deliver Insight That Drives Action

• Design and deliver high-quality analytical products, including dashboards, metrics, models and decision-support tools.
• Transform complex analysis into clear, compelling stories that influence business decisions.
• Communicate findings confidently to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ensure insights are actionable, relevant and aligned to business priorities.

Build Trusted Analytical Products

• Develop robust metrics, reusable analytical assets and automated solutions that support recurring decision-making.
• Ensure analytical outputs are reliable, transparent and fit for purpose.
• Work closely with data engineering and BI teams to improve data availability, quality and accessibility.
• Contribute to the development of scalable analytical approaches that can be reused across multiple business areas.

Raise Analytical Standards

• Review and assure analytical work produced by colleagues.
• Support the adoption of analytical standards, frameworks and best practices.
• Promote good analytical thinking, quality assurance and evidence-led decision making.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of methods, tooling and ways of working.

Support and Develop Others

• Coach and mentor analysts through feedback, collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Support the growth of analytical capability across the wider team.
• Contribute to communities of practice, learning initiatives and capability development activities.
• Help create an environment where analysts are supported, challenged and able to develop their careers.

What Success Looks Like

• In this role, you will help create an environment where:
• Business decisions are supported by trusted evidence and insight.
• Analytical products are reliable, repeatable and consistently valuable.
• Stakeholders understand both what is happening and why.
• Data is used more effectively to improve operational and business outcomes.
• Analytical capability continues to mature across the organisation.
• Colleagues grow in confidence, capability and impact.
• Most importantly, your work will help ensure analytics creates measurable value and delivers meaningful outcomes for customers, the environment and the business.

What You'll Bring

Essential

• Proven experience delivering high-value analytical work within a complex organisation.
• Strong capability in problem framing, analytical design and method selection.
• Experience translating business challenges into clear analytical approaches and recommendations.
• Strong data storytelling and communication skills, with the ability to explain complex findings clearly to non-technical audiences.
• Experience designing and developing metrics, dashboards, models or analytical products that support decision-making.
• Ability to influence stakeholders, challenge assumptions and drive evidence-based conversations.
• Experience working with large and complex datasets.
• Strong analytical thinking, curiosity and problem-solving skills.
• Experience coaching, reviewing or supporting other analysts through mentoring, feedback or collaborative working.
• Practical experience using analytical and visualisation tools such as Power BI, Databricks, SQL, Alteryx or equivalent technologies.

Desirable

• Experience working with modern cloud-based analytics platforms and data ecosystems.
• Knowledge of semantic modelling, data products or scalable analytics architectures.
• Exposure to advanced analytics, statistical techniques or predictive modelling.
• Familiarity with data governance, analytical quality assurance or data ethics.
• Experience working within a regulated or operationally complex environment.

Southern Water is at the forefront of transforming Britain’s water industry, investing significantly to enhance resilience, sustainability, and service excellence. With £7.8bn planned investment for 2025-30, this is an unparalleled opportunity to join a business committed to delivering a generational shift in the way water services are managed.

You will be joining at a time of significant change, working alongside a highly skilled leadership team with a clear vision for the future. We offer an environment where senior professionals can make a meaningful impact, influence major strategic decisions, and drive long-term value creation

At Southern Water, we believe diverse perspectives drive innovation. If you’re passionate about making a positive impact and think you can bring value to our team, we’d love to hear from you—even if you don’t tick every box. Your unique skills and experiences could be exactly what we need.

If this role isn’t quite what you’re looking for but are keen to be contacted about opportunities at Southern Water, you can register your details here: Introduce Yourself (myworkdaysite.com- Introduce Yourself)

Our Commitment to Diversity

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or any other protected characteristic. If you need reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.

Additional information:

In line with Southern Water’s security requirements, successful candidates will be required to provide evidence of their identity, eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record check (DBS) and verification of their employment and/or education history for the past three years.

Appointment to this role is subject to the successful completion of all pre‑employment checks, including security vetting.

Please note that if a candidate does not meet the required security standards or fails to pass the vetting process, Southern Water reserves the right to withdraw the offer of employment. Some positions may also require higher levels of security vetting, which may involve providing additional documentation.

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