Principal Economist

Job summary

We are Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority, a non-ministerial government department responsible for regulating the water sector in England and Wales.

We have an opportunity for a Principal Economist to join our Chief Economist's Team within the Office of the Chief Executive Directorate.

The water sector is entering a new chapter. The government has set out a bold new direction, bringing together expertise from across the sector to deliver better outcomes for customers and the environment. We are collaborating with fellow regulators to respond to recommendations in The Independent Water Commission Report, the Welsh Government’s response to the Green Paper, Shaping the Future of Water Governance in Wales, and the Government’s White Paper, A new vision for water.

Ofwat is working with the government and other regulators to help create a new body for England, bringing together our strengths with those of the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Environment Agency and Natural England. We are also continuing to work with the Welsh Government to support decisions on the future arrangements for Wales.

While these changes take shape, our mission remains the same: to hold water companies to account, drive performance, and ensure the sector delivers real value for customers, communities, and the environment. If you’re passionate about making a difference, this is a unique moment to join us and help shape the future of water, and together we can continue to make a positive impact.

You can find out more about why you should join Ofwat, our strategy, values and our framework for success in the attached Information for Candidates Pack.

Job description

The Chief Economist's Team (CET) is part of the Office of the Chief Executive Directorate, which is a group of cross cutting teams, including our legal, communications, corporate governance, secretariat, investor relations and information governance teams that work with and support teams across the whole of Ofwat. The CET's goal is to ensure that the quality of Ofwat's economic analysis is the best it can be.

The CET reports directly to the Chief Executive of Ofwat and plays an important role across all areas of Ofwat's work. It leads on the economic input into a number of strategic work programmes, including the transition to the new regulatory framework for the sector. It also leads on mergers and competition work, one-off research/analytical pieces as well as leading on our approach to impact assessments and evaluation. It supports other teams across Ofwat, for example by scrutinising proposals on price reviews, supporting teams focused on developing markets and supporting regulatory policy development across several areas such as the environment, customers and innovation.

We are looking for a Principal Economist to join us in the Chief Economist's Team.

You will have an important and valuable contribution to enable us to deliver on our regulatory commitments for customers and the environment. This includes responsibility for leading on key areas of CET's work by providing rigorous economic thinking and advice to inform our policies and help Ofwat deliver its strategic objectives, including the transition to the new regime. You will have excellent analytical skills, significant experience in regulatory economics, and experience managing the design, development and delivery of economic projects. You will be supported by an economics director and have responsibility for managing more junior members of the team.

Key deliverables:

In this role you will be expected to:

• Lead on the delivery of economic and/or quantitative analysis projects.
• Provide economic advice on economic and/or quantitative issues across areas at Ofwat.
• Develop economic frameworks to assess policy options.
• Make recommendations to improve our regulatory approach.
• Assess the impact of our policies and interventions.
• Present economic analysis to colleagues internally and stakeholders externally.
• Draft reports and publications to a high standard.
• Manage and develop senior associate economists and graduate economists.

Person specification

To be successful in this role you will need the below essential attributes, experience, skills and knowledge:

Experience, skills and knowledge

1. Lead Criterion 1: Significant knowledge of microeconomics and regulatory economics, as well as significant experience in applying economic analysis in economic regulation and/or competition policy and an understanding of the benefits this can deliver for customers and the environment.
2. Lead Criterion 2: An undergraduate degree in economics or a discipline with significant economic content.
3. Experience of managing the design, development, and delivery of economic projects.
4. Excellent analytical skills including experience of identifying, analysing and accurately interpreting a range of data and insights to inform evidence-based decisions and solutions on complex problems.
5. Experience of building constructive working relationships and engaging with internal and external stakeholders.
6. Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to understand and concisely explain complex issues in non-technical language.

Attributes

7. Delivering outcomes
8. Making relationships count
9. Adaptable Thinker

Attributes as per Ofwat's Framework for Success for the relevant salary grade. You can read more about Attributes here.

Qualifications

An undergraduate degree in economics or a discipline with significant economic content.

Benefits

Why You Should Join Us:

Our people are at the heart of Ofwat, and our People Strategy defines the goals that keep this focus central to everything we do. Our 2025 People Survey highlights several key strengths. Nine in ten colleagues say that they are treated with respect and that Ofwat values individual differences. The same proportion say that their work is meaningful and that they are being trusted to carry out their roles effectively. 79% of our people rated their manager highly, and 85% described their team environment as positive.

You will also benefit from:

• Excellent employer pension contributions of nearly 29%.You can find further details about pension schemes under Terms and Conditions in the Candidate Pack.
• 25 days’ annual leave (increasing to 30 with each year of service) plus bank holidays and an extra 2.5 days of privilege leave
• Access to exclusive discounts on a variety of goods and services, including retail outlets, theatre tickets, holidays, insurance, and a gym membership
• Flexible working arrangements that suit your lifestyle