At Scottish Water, our graduate programmes empower you to drive change, tackle real challenges, and shape Scotland’s future. This is more than just a launchpad for your career – it's an opportunity to make a meaningful impact. As part of our team, you’ll play a key role in delivering essential services and infrastructure that help Scotland flourish every day.
You’ll be joining us at a fascinating time, as we transform into a more agile, innovative organisation that delivers outstanding service, delivers great value for money, and works in an environmentally sustainable way that goes beyond Net Zero. Start a career that’s built for you, today.
What you’ll do
Be at the heart of protecting one of Scotland’s most vital services, taking on challenges that directly impact millions of people. You’ll gain hands-on experience in incident management, emergency response, and security, playing a key role in ensuring swift, decisive action that keeps operations running smoothly and minimises disruptions for our customers.
By working alongside internal teams and external partners, including the Scottish Government and emergency services, you’ll help implement innovative solutions that ensure seamless service continuity. Throughout your programme, you’ll dive into emergency planning, business continuity, and security, making a tangible difference to the resilience of Scottish Water’s operations and helping secure the future of our essential services.
Take a look at the team hiring within this 2-year Specialist Graduate Programme
Resilience & Security: This team ensures that Scottish Water is always prepared to maintain smooth operations under any circumstances. They develop and implement emergency response plans, manage incidents, and maintain security protocols to protect services and infrastructure. They also focus on training staff for incident response and ensuring the readiness of essential equipment. The team works closely with external partners like the Scottish Government, emergency services, and other utilities, coordinating efforts to ensure a swift and effective response when needed and ensuring the continuity of service for customers.
Over your two years with us, you’ll receive dedicated training to become a fully qualified Business Resilience Adviser, building the skills and confidence needed to succeed.
How does the graduate programme work?
- You’ll be employed on a permanent contract from Day One, with a starting salary of £29,000.
- As you progress through the programme and reach key milestones, you’ll be rewarded with salary increases that recognise your growth and commitment to ongoing learning. Upon completing the programme, you’ll also have the opportunity to advance into a Business Resilience Adviser, starting from £33,560. For more details, please visit www.scottishwater.co.uk/graduates.
- You’ll be part of a cohort of c.30 graduates, giving you an instant and invaluable network of contacts throughout the business.
- There is plenty of support. As well as your day-to-day manager, we’ll match you up with a mentor who will support and coach you as you go through your programme.
- You’ll have access to both structured and informal training designed to equip you with the skills you need now, and in the future.
What you’ll need
You’ll have graduated within the last three years (or be on track to graduate next summer). We are keen to hear from applicants from a range of backgrounds, so we’re flexible on degree programme - we're looking for a minimum of a 2:2 classification.
And you’ll need a full UK-issued (DVLA) driving license – or be on track to pass your test.
You’ll have a flair for quickly absorbing new technical information and a strong curiosity to dive deep into the industry, learning how we operate and the impact we make.
You’ll need to live within commuting distance of one of our main office hubs, e.g., Edinburgh, Stepps, Dundee, Inverness. Regular travel will be required to the Central Belt, when necessary.
In terms of essential requirements? That’s it.
But here’s the thing. We get thousands of applications for our Graduate roles each year. What makes the best candidates stand out?
Here are a few things we love to see:
- CVs that tell us more than what grades you earned over the years. Show us what you’ve learned. What you love. What your aspirations are.
- Cover letters that tell us why you’re interested in Scottish Water (and in this role)
- People who use their application to show that they are Bold, Responsible, Inspiring and Caring.
Looking out for you
While the work we do is important, it’s not the only thing that matters. That’s why we make sure you have everything you need to find a good work-life balance.
You’ll get plenty of time to recharge with 38 days of holiday every year (including public holidays). And you can even buy five more if you need a little extra time. You can also take paid time off to volunteer in your community.
When it comes to major life events we have family-friendly policies around adoption, maternity, and parental leave. And for the everyday? We embrace flexible working.
For your future, there’s our pension (the ‘know-what-you’ll-get-when-you-retire’ kind), as well as life assurance.
As for some nice extras? You can expect an annual company bonus. Not to mention access to SW Splash – handy rewards that can save you money on holidays, bills, and shopping.
What happens next?
- The closing date for applications is Sunday 22nd December.
- Assessment activity will kick off in January with some surprisingly fun (no, really!) online testing.
- Final face-to-face interviews will happen during February. Where you can give us a good grilling too.
- If you accept a place on the programme, you’ll go through some pre-employment screening during the Spring, including a criminal record check. For this role you’ll be required to gain Security Clearance which is conducted by security services through the Scottish Government. Any offer of employment for the role is subject to gaining this level of security clearance.
- All our new Graduates will start together in September, with a week-long induction event in Glasgow. You’ll learn more about the organisation, meet our leaders, visit some of our operational sites, start making friends, and have a lot of fun.
A few final things worth knowing…
Research shows that some people avoid applying for jobs unless they can meet every single criteria. If you’re interested in this job, but don’t tick all the boxes, apply anyway! We hardly ever hire people who can do every part of a job from Day One. Everyone has a learning curve. So don’t rule yourself out!
Let us know if there are any changes we can make to our recruitment process to help you perform at your best. Lots of our people have disabilities or neurodiverse conditions (including some of our recruiters!). We're also aware that some people might be experiencing temporary challenges because of life events, like menopause. We’re very used to making adjustments, so please don’t be afraid to ask.
As part of our commitment to developing a flourishing Scotland, it’s important that all our employees are Scottish taxpayers. If you join us, your home address will need to be in Scotland. If you don’t already live here, you'll need to commit to moving here within your first three months.
Finally (finally!), candidates who haven’t submitted an application in the last 12 months will have their records removed from our recruitment database. You won’t need to do anything. Your data will be automatically deleted.
