Water Has a Talent Problem. But Does It Also Have a Storytelling Problem?

The Water sector is entering one of the most significant periods of investment and transformation in its history.

AMP8 runs from 2025 to 2030, with record investment planned across infrastructure, resilience, environmental improvement and customer outcomes.

But delivering that ambition requires more than capital.

It requires people.

And that raises a bigger question:

Are we doing enough to make Water a sector that talented people actively want to join?

There are extraordinary leadership stories in Water

I first started thinking more deeply about this following an Institute of Water event in Birmingham where I represented the Women’s Utilities Network.

The discussion was originally prompted by female leadership and the visibility of successful women across the sector.

Water has had some powerful role models.

Leaders such as Louise Beardmore at United Utilities demonstrate that senior careers in Water can span Operations, Customer, Transformation, People and ultimately Chief Executive leadership.

There are many more examples throughout the sector.

But are we telling those stories well enough?

And importantly, are we telling them beyond the people who already work in Water?

Because role models do more than celebrate success.

They make careers visible.

They allow somebody outside the industry to look at a leader and think:

“Perhaps there is a career here for me too.”

Representation matters because talent needs to see the opportunity

This is particularly relevant when we think about attracting more women and people from different backgrounds into Utilities and Infrastructure.

The industry cannot simply wait for diverse talent to arrive.

People need to understand:

• what the career possibilities are
• what leadership can look like
• what impact they can have
• whether people like them progress
• whether skills developed elsewhere are genuinely welcomed

Strong allies also matter.

One thing that was particularly apparent in the original discussion was the number of male leaders who genuinely wanted to support female colleagues but were asking a very practical question:

What can I actually do?

Sponsorship, visibility, access to networks, progression opportunities and actively advocating for talented people all matter.

Diversity becomes much harder to improve if responsibility sits solely with the people who are underrepresented.

AMP8 makes the talent question more urgent

The challenge has become considerably bigger since that original conversation.

Water companies are now operating within the 2025–30 regulatory period, with unprecedented levels of investment planned across the sector.

That requires engineering capability.

But it also requires leaders and specialists across:

Operations.
Transformation.
Digital and Data.
Customer.
Commercial.
Programme delivery.
Workforce Planning.
Asset management.
Technology.
Environmental capability.

And the sector is competing for many of those skills with Energy, Infrastructure, Technology, Engineering and other industries experiencing their own transformation.

So perhaps we need to ask a different question.

Instead of:

How do we fill the skills gap?

Perhaps it should be:

Why would somebody with choices choose Water?

Water has a compelling proposition

There is actually an extraordinary story to tell.

A career in Water can offer:

Purpose
Few sectors have a more obvious connection to everyday life.

Environmental impact
Water sits at the centre of climate resilience, biodiversity, pollution reduction and sustainability.

Infrastructure at scale
AMP8 is creating opportunities to work on some of the UK’s most significant infrastructure programmes.

Technology and innovation
Data, AI, automation, monitoring, digital twins and new engineering approaches are changing how networks are managed.

Community impact
Water organisations serve communities directly and influence public health, economic development and quality of life.

Legacy
The decisions being taken now will affect customers and the environment for generations.

Those are powerful reasons to build a career.

Yet outside the sector, how visible are they?

Does Water have a storytelling problem?

Agriculture has Clarkson’s Farm.

Technology companies spend enormous amounts creating excitement around innovation.

Energy transition has developed a language around net zero, renewables and the future of energy that attracts people who want to participate in something significant.

So how do we make Water equally visible?

The sector already runs valuable campaigns around behaviour and environmental responsibility.

But there may also be an opportunity to tell more stories about the people transforming the industry.

The engineer solving a long-standing environmental problem.

The Operations leader transforming field performance.

The Data team identifying problems before customers experience them.

The Customer leader rebuilding trust.

The Executive reshaping a business around the demands of the next decade.

Those stories help people understand what working in Water actually means.

External talent should be part of the answer

There is another challenge.

When sectors experience skills shortages, the natural response can be to compete harder for the same established talent.

That only moves people around the existing ecosystem.

External-sector talent therefore has to form part of the solution.

That does not mean ignoring sector expertise.

Some appointments absolutely require deep Water knowledge.

But others may benefit from leaders who have solved similar problems elsewhere:

• large-scale Field Operations
• digital transformation
• customer trust
• asset-intensive businesses
• regulated environments
• complex supply chains
• workforce optimisation
• data-led operational improvement

The question should not always be:

“Have they worked in Water?”

Sometimes it should be:

“Have they solved the problem Water now needs to solve?”

Innovation should apply to talent too

The Water sector has increasingly embraced innovation in technology, infrastructure and operational delivery.

Perhaps we should apply some of that same thinking to leadership and talent.

Experiment.

Look outside traditional talent pools.

Create more visible career paths.

Give people access to the sector earlier.

Use schools, universities, apprenticeships and professional networks more effectively.

Celebrate the leaders already creating change.

And be clearer about why this is one of the most consequential industries somebody could choose to work in.

The Leadership Signal

The skills shortage facing Water may not be solved simply by finding more candidates.

Part of the challenge is making the industry visible and compelling enough that talented people actively choose it.

That requires leadership stories.

Representation.

Allies.

External-sector thinking.

And a much clearer articulation of the extraordinary opportunity sitting inside Water.

Perhaps the question isn’t simply:

Where will Water find its future leaders?

It is:

What are we doing today to make those future leaders want to find Water?

Building leadership capability across Water & Utilities?

Douglas Jackson works with Water and Utilities organisations appointing senior leaders across Operations, Customer, Transformation, Strategy, Data, Workforce Planning and wider Executive leadership.

We combine deep sector networks with targeted external-market search to identify both established Utilities talent and leaders with transferable capability from adjacent industries.

Talk to us about your next Utilities leadership appointment →