Are you passionate about driving quality, strengthening compliance, and shaping best‑in‑class assurance frameworks?

Affinity Water is seeking an experienced Quality & Assurance Lead to play a pivotal role in developing and delivering our Quality & Assurance Programme.

In this influential role, you’ll work across the business—partnering with internal teams, senior leaders, and external auditors—to ensure our operations consistently meet the highest standards.

You’ll report to the Ethics & Compliance Manager, working closely with the Head of Data Protection & Compliance and the Deputy Data Protection Officer.

You’ll collaborate across all functions and may be supported by auditors or coordinators depending on business needs.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead the ISO 9001 certification process and support the wider integrated management systems.

• Coordinate and engage with external auditors to maintain ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certifications.

• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve our Quality Management System and Quality Policy.

• Build and manage a central repository of ISO assurance evidence.

• Support and deliver second-line assurance within Data Protection & Compliance.

• Provide meaningful assurance and insights to senior leaders through performance reporting.

• Coach colleagues across the business on quality systems and continuous improvement practices.

• Lead root cause analysis, corrective actions, and non-conformance management.

• Support supplier/contractor quality assessments.

• Use data analytics to inform assurance decisions and highlight compliance risks.

• Build trusted relationships across all areas of the business, ensuring alignment with regulatory expectations.

What you need?

• Degree-level education or equivalent experience

• Experience managing ISO audits and liaising with internal/external stakeholders

• Strong knowledge of ISO 9001 and experience managing a QMS

• Understanding of ISO standards and continuous improvement methodologies

• Strong analytical and data‑driven decision‑making skills

• Experience with document control systems and quality reporting tools

• Experience leading cross-functional improvement projects

• Ability to manage audits, non-conformance, and CAPA

• Excellent attention to detail, communication, influencing, and organisational skills

• Ability to juggle multiple priorities and drive results

This is a fantastic opportunity to take ownership of a critical assurance function, shape organisational standards, and influence continuous improvement across a business that’s passionate about doing the right thing.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary dependant on skills and experience

• Level 2 car allowance £4,305

• Learning and development opportunities, including mentoring and a range of formal courses and open learning resources.

• Entry into the company annual bonus scheme.

• Annual leave from 26-30 rising with length of service, and the option to purchase up to 5 extra days.

• A ‘Celebration Day’ in addition to public holidays that people can use to celebrate a religious festival or other occasion that is important to them.

• A generous 'double match pension scheme' that doubles the contributions you make (company contribution capped at 12%)

• We offer a range of family benefits including enhanced Maternity, Adoption, Paternity, Shared Parental Leave, Fertility Support Leave and up to 5 full or 10 half days of paid Carers Leave.

• Menopause policy and Reasonable Adjustment policy to help everyone perform at their best.

• Access to our Wellbeing Centre with support for looking after your physical and mental health.

• Discounts at a Range of Retail Outlets and on Dental and Medical Insurance through our Tap4Perks scheme.

• Up to 4 Affinity days a year to volunteer in the community.

• Life Assurance.

Disability Confident

As a Disability Confident employer, we’re committed to offering interviews to disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria and opt in on the application form. Ask the Talent Acquisition lead for the full job description to see all the criteria. If we have a very high volume of applicants and we’re not able to offer interviews to all, we’ll take a fair and proportionate number of disabled candidates through.

Affinity Water recognises the benefits of greater diversity in our workforce to better reflect the communities we serve. We are committed to building a more inclusive culture where every member of our workforce can thrive.

You can find out what it’s like to work at Affinity Water through our career site https://www.affinitywatercareers.co.uk/ where our colleagues share their career development stories and you can get a feel for our company culture.