WATER INDUSTRY REGULATION TRANSFORMATION – LOCAL OPERATIONS ENFORCEMENT
Are you ready to take on a role that makes a real difference? Join the Environment Agency’s water industry regulation teams and help lead the fight against serious and complex environmental crime.
We are changing the way we regulate water companies. Our regulation teams work to hold underperforming operators to account and ensure compliance with environmental law. While we recognise their crucial role in managing the water cycle – collecting, treating and returning water to the environment – it’s essential they do so without causing environmental harm.
Our work includes regulation of sewage treatment works, storm overflows, and ensuring compliance with flow standards. With increased scrutiny of sewage pollution and its effects, we’re more determined than ever to raise standards, strengthen regulation and protect the environment. We’re driving improved performance, accountability, and better use of our resources to create lasting environmental outcomes.
We’re recruiting now because the work is urgent and growing – this is a pivotal moment to join the Environment Agency, as we’re actively involved in shaping the future of water regulation in England.
About the jobs
We’re expanding our new Water Industry teams within Local Operations and are looking for passionate people to join us.
The exciting opportunities we have available include:
| Role | Job Grade | Salary (PA) | Number of jobs available |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team Leader | SG5 | £41,617 | 2 |
| Senior Environmental Crime Officer | SG5 | £41,617 | 8 |
| Investigations and Casefile Officer | SG5 | £41,617 | 8 |
| Senior Environment Officer | SG5 | £41,617 | 9 |
| Senior Enforcement Officer | SG5 | £41,617 | 1 |
| Environmental Crime Officer | SG4 | £33,000 | 4 |
| Technical Assistant | SG3 | £28,607 | 1 |
| Environment Officer | EOA | £27,749 | 6 |
Contract type: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time, with options for part-time working to be considered on a case-by-case basis, subject to business needs.
Incident reward payment: At the Environment Agency, responding to incidents is a central part of what we do. You will be required to take on an incident role to help us effectively respond to incidents, or to provide business continuity support during an incident. These incident roles may attract an additional payment, for example standby payment of £167pw. We will work with you to ensure we find an incident role that works for you. Full training and alternative working arrangements will be available to support you.
For more information, including guidance on answering competency questions, please refer to the EA Capability Dictionary .
We would love to inspire you to apply. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
Benefits
- The Environment Agency contributes 19% of your pensionable pay towards your membership of the Environment Agency Pension Fund (part of the Local Government Pension Scheme).
- An inclusive and supportive culture where difference is valued and you are trusted to do the right thing. We’ll invest in your development and give you the opportunity to grow and shape your career.
- A flexible working environment with a range of options to help you achieve a positive work-life balance.
- Annual Leave entitlement starting at 25 days, plus bank holidays.
- Access to a variety of financial, wellbeing and lifestyle benefits, including the tenancy deposit loan scheme, Blue Light Card, Occupational Health services and generous maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
For more information about our wide range of benefits and allowances, and answers to general queries such as when they become available to new starters, please go to benefits.
We will hold a reserve list, and you may be offered other roles in other locations including temporary roles, which may be similarly aligned to this role.
Location
We’re recruiting for roles in various locations across England – check the relevant advert for available locations. For all of these roles, you’ll be based primarily in an office (we anticipate a minimum of two days in the office per week), with travel across your regional hub to support teams and other activities. Travel, including occasional overnight stays, will be required, so a full UK driving licence is essential for all roles.
You’ll be recruited into a specific area with a designated office base, but flexibility is key – you’ll need to work with teams in other locations, adapt to changing priorities and support projects and investigations that make a real difference to the environment.
Further information about the roles on offer
Team Leader
As a Team Leader with the Environment Agency, you’ll play a key role in protecting and improving the environment, helping to create a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable future for people and wildlife.
You will lead a frontline regulatory team responsible for overseeing the performance of a designated water company, ensuring that environmental standards are met and upheld.
This is a people-focused leadership role. You’ll manage and inspire a team made up of both experienced officers and those new to the organisation, supporting them to develop, perform and deliver to a high standard. You’ll also work closely with compliance and enforcement colleagues to embed new approaches and ways of working.
Your responsibilities will include safeguarding the health, safety and wellbeing of your team, supporting their professional growth and directing resources where they can achieve the greatest environmental impact.
Senior Environmental Crime Officer
As a Senior Environmental Crime Officer, you’ll lead complex investigations into serious and organised water industry crime. Working within a dedicated enforcement team, you’ll use intelligence, enforcement tools and strong partnerships to disrupt illegal activity and prevent environmental harm.
You’ll coordinate investigations, build robust case files, and work closely with colleagues, legal teams and external partners, such as the police and local authorities. Alongside this, you’ll mentor and develop team members, driving performance and sharing best practice.
This is a leadership role where you’ll apply your knowledge of the water industry, make sound decisions under pressure, and help shape smarter, more effective ways of working.
Investigations and Casefile Officer
As an Investigations and Casefile Officer, you’ll play a vital role in supporting and coordinating environmental investigations in the water industry. You’ll prepare and manage comprehensive casefiles, gather and maintain evidence, and ensure all documentation complies with legal and regulatory standards, including disclosure requirements.
You’ll work on serious cases that may result in civil or criminal sanctions, supporting enforcement officers and senior colleagues throughout the investigation process. This includes providing guidance on witness management, liaising with legal teams, managing third-party material, and attending court to give evidence when required.
The role also involves maintaining enforcement IT systems, ensuring timely reporting to senior officers, and building strong relationships with regulatory teams and stakeholders across a broad geographic region. You’ll contribute to continuous improvement by sharing best practice, supporting team capability, and helping to ensure investigations are conducted in a consistent, outcome-focused, and professional manner.
Senior Environment Officer
As a Senior Environment Officer, you’ll play a key role in ensuring water companies operate responsibly and within the law, helping to prevent harm to people and the environment.
You’ll plan and deliver complex regulatory activities, including site inspections, audits, and incident investigations and take enforcement action where necessary, including providing evidence in court.
You’ll provide guidance, quality assurance, and technical advice to managers, ensuring that our regulatory work meets the highest environmental and professional standards. In addition, you’ll mentor and coach junior officers, share best practice, and contribute to programmes designed to raise regulatory performance across the sector.
This role combines operational impact with strategic influence. You’ll help shape industry standards, lead by example, and collaborate with teams across multiple locations, adapting to changing priorities as needed.
Senior Enforcement Officer
Senior Enforcement Officers take the lead on the governance and assurance of investigations and enforcement. As Senior Enforcement Officer, you will oversee water industry compliance and enforcement cases across your team.
You will ensure that managers have a clear and comprehensive understanding of enforcement activity, allowing resources to be used effectively. You will play a key role in embedding new processes, setting strategic direction, providing technical advice, using data systems to monitor trends, and reporting on performance.
You will work closely with and support team leaders and managers, helping to inform, inspire, and motivate them to deliver effective, outcome-focused enforcement and regulation. You will also contribute to the development of the wider enforcement community by supporting, training, and mentoring those delivering water industry enforcement across the organisation. Relationship-building and delivering high-quality customer service will be key to establishing the new team and embedding new ways of working.
Environmental Crime Officer
As an Environmental Crime Officer, you’ll play a key role in tackling serious environmental offences in the water industry. Working under the guidance of a Senior Environmental Crime Officer, you’ll gather and analyse evidence, prepare robust case files and support high-profile enforcement activity to ensure compliance and protect the environment.
You’ll focus on complex breaches by water companies, working closely with internal teams and external partners to secure positive environmental outcomes. Your responsibilities will include supporting site inspections and investigations, conducting interviews, preparing witness statements, managing evidence and attending court when required.
This role is primarily office-based, with travel across your regional hub and occasional overnight stays to support active investigations. Attention to detail, methodical working, and strong communication skills are essential, as you help drive long-term improvements and raise standards across the sector.
Environment Officer
As an Environment Officer, you’ll be part of a frontline team dedicated to protecting and improving the environment, making it cleaner, safer, and healthier for people, wildlife, and communities. Your work will directly influence how water companies operate, ensuring they comply with environmental standards and take responsibility for their impact. You’ll play a key role in promoting sustainable practices and preventing harm to the environment through proactive regulation.
You’ll regulate a designated water company, planning and carrying out a range of compliance activities, including site inspections, audits, and monitoring. Where necessary, you’ll take enforcement action, which in serious cases may involve preparing evidence for legal proceedings.
This hands-on experience provides a deep understanding of water industry regulation and the practical application of environmental legislation, helping you develop both technical and professional skills.
Training combines classroom learning with hands-on field visits alongside experienced officers. You’ll develop key skills in communication, influencing and regulatory practice, applying legislation to determine compliance actions. All training, equipment, and protective clothing will be provided, with travel and overnight stays required.
Technical Assistant
As a Technical Assistant, you’ll bring energy, attention to detail and strong organisational skills to provide essential administrative and technical support. This is a varied and rewarding role where no two days are the same. You’ll be helping to keep the team running smoothly and ensuring that vital work to protect people, wildlife, and the environment is carried out effectively.
Day to day, you’ll manage and maintain our information systems, interpret data and prepare reports and support regulatory processes by coordinating interviews and liaising with disclosure officers and lawyers. You’ll act as a key point of contact for internal and external queries, ensuring clear and professional communication at all times. You’ll also play an important role in keeping our filing systems accurate and accessible, processing procurement requests and helping to ensure that our incident response equipment is always ready for use.
Your support will extend to working closely with team leaders and senior officers, providing administrative assistance such as taking minutes, recording actions and helping to track progress on important cases. By taking responsibility for these essential tasks, you’ll free up colleagues to focus on delivering the technical and regulatory aspects of our enforcement work.
Testimonial
Kirsty – Team Leader
When I joined the Environment Agency (EA) I joined as an Environment Officer tackling the causes of pollution and waste crime. Now I’m a Team Leader I feel like I’m delivering so much more for the environment by leading colleagues in my team.
The great thing about being a Team Leader in the EA is that you don’t need to have an environmental background to have a great positive impact on the environment, but you do need a drive and passion to support and develop the environmental experts in our teams to thrive. Although my academic background was in conservation, I have led Fisheries Biodiversity & Geomorphology Team, Customers & Engagement Team and an Agricultural Regulation Team and each one has developed me as a Team Leader and challenged me in new ways. Each team has provided a huge sense of satisfaction and the knowledge that we as a team are a different part of the wider EA doing its part to protect the environment for people and wildlife. The common theme throughout all my team leader roles is ensuring that my team’s health, safety and wellbeing are paramount.
Ask any member of the EA what the best thing about working for the organisation is and everyone will say – the people you work with. As a Team Leader you get to recruit and support people to develop in their careers and their personal skills. Whilst also being supported in your development by the host of training courses on offer to Team Leaders both new and existing. As Team Leader, you also get the opportunity to get out with your team and see the real difference they make and those that we regulate. This is useful in helping you to understand what support people need in their role may but also getting out in the environment we are protecting.
Shannon – Team Leader
I have been an Environmental Crime Team Leader for around 16 months now and can honestly say that it’s the best decision I have made in my career so far. The role itself is incredibly varied, which I love, and I am exposed to so many new, exciting situations on a day-to-day basis. I am surrounded by a team of dedicated, incredibly hard-working individuals who deliver excellent work to a high standard.
My team and I work closely with Team Leaders and Officers within Environment Management in the EA to help improve enforcement capabilities across the board, supporting other teams with their investigations wherever we can. We lead our own criminal investigations into illegal waste activities and work closely with partner organisations to jointly prevent and disrupt illegal waste crime.
I have found the Environment Agency itself to be an incredibly welcoming, inclusive and enjoyable place to work. Everyone is passionate about protecting and enhancing the environment. I intend to spend the rest of my career here!
Ben – SENFO
The SENFO role is challenging, extremely varied, technical and influential. I describe the role to people as ‘making sure we have the right people, in the right places, doing the right thing’. Working alongside, supporting and informing area leadership is the cornerstone to the role, which to date has been for all sectors we regulate. So, it’s now an exciting time for water industry regulation to have the opportunity of a SENFO specifically focussed on this regime.
You are constantly learning, whether it is new legislation or implementing new processes from our national teams. The networking, relationship building and 1-1 support of frontline officers is very rewarding. I get to share my experience, but frequently learn from others diverse range of backgrounds, motivations or insights. I see the benefits of my work in a range of ways, whether it’s a successful prosecution, protecting the environment through better regulation, seeing new staff develop or shaping new ways of working to deliver outcome focussed enforcement and regulation.
I need to be flexible; days are varied and planned events can often change to respond to an urgent query or significant incident. I work closely with water industry Environment Officers (EOs) to provide technical advice, develop them and give them the tools they need to become fully competent water industry regulators. I also work with the water company account managers, Senior Environment Officers and the National Environmental Crime Unit, ensuring we have the right data and intelligence to inform our regulation and enforcement priorities.
I attend national groups with other senior enforcement officers to peer review, ensure consistency and share best practice. The role carries a lot of responsibility which I thrive on. It is not without its pressures and can require tough decisions or advice to be given. Central to the role is ensuring that we fulfil our obligations set out in our national Enforcement and Sanctions policy, plus follow relevant internal guidance on the governance of enforcement.
The remit of the role can be broad, so I make time to keep my boots on the ground by both mentoring and training EOs at permitted site inspections, supporting interviews of witnesses or suspects, plus attending high profile incidents. This is something I enjoy and helps the area deliver more.
I’m really proud of what we achieve, especially how we frequently work across teams to succeed and overcome any obstacles in our way.