Biosolids Quality Compliance Scientist

Southern Water•Worthington, MN

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Working within the Wastewater Treatment & Maintenance function and reporting to the Biosolids Compliance Manager, the Biosolids Quality Compliance Scientist (BQCS) is responsible for ensuring that all treated sludge complies with HACCP conditions as defined in the BAS standard and thereby maintains compliant Biosolids recycling operations and the sludge to land recycling outlet within a defined operational region. Biosolids provides soil health benefits and nutrients for growing crops, as well as sequestering carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is commonly used in agriculture and other land application operations in the Southern Water operating region. The role is 50% field based and 50% office based. Field time is split evenly between attendance on Southern Water sites and attendance at land application sites, commonly customer properties (being farms or other equivalent agricultural units). BQCS has a methodical approach to tasks and are motivated by achieving excellent quality standards and enjoy controlling and interacting with complex interrelated systems. The successful candidate should understand the quality management principles and can apply production planning and process monitoring techniques in order to maintain stable systems of work. They are able to interrogate complex systems, understand interdependencies between processes, and identify critical variables that can impact system stability. The BQCS may have a scientific or engineering background or equivalent professional experience in agriculture or food production and works within the framework of a formal quality management system and is able to use their initiative and subject matter knowledge to identify deviations from expected operating parameters and implement corrective measures.

Requirements

A self-starter who is motivated by solving complex operational problems
Full UK driving license and access to a vehicle
Scientific/engineering/farming background
Professional waste management experience (FACTs certified, Wamitab/CoTC/CMS preferable, other relevant professional experience using EWC LoW)
Personal and operational risk identification and assessment
Bachelors degree or demonstrable professional experience
Good understanding of wastewater and sludge treatment process
Operational and situational awareness of STC plant and process
Mathematical, computational, statistical competence
Experience of formal quality management procedures (e.g. ISO9001/equivalent)
Methodical and organised
Good planning skills
Good problem-solving skills
Systems literate (Pi, MS Excel, telemetric systems)
Scientific/engineering degree

Responsibilities

Issuing certificates of Biosolids compliance in accordance with the BAS standard using the Southern Water Biosolids compliance system (BIO)
Regular dialogue site managers and operators
Establish and maintain in-person presence on Biosolids production sites
Biosolids and sludge sampling
Daily monitoring of STC process parameters and proactive intervention
Investigate management system breaches and write breach reports
Maintain a comprehensive annual audit activity schedule
Biosolids stockpile audits
Biosolids spreading audits
End-to-end data audits with service providers
Weighcell calibration audits
Sampling methodology audits
Soil sampling audits

Benefits

Southern Water is at the forefront of transforming Britain’s water industry, investing significantly to enhance resilience, sustainability, and service excellence. With £7.8bn planned investment for 2025-30, this is an unparalleled opportunity to join a business committed to delivering a generational shift in the way water services are managed. You will be joining at a time of significant change, working alongside a highly skilled leadership team with a clear vision for the future. We offer an environment where senior professionals can make a meaningful impact, influence major strategic decisions, and drive long-term value creation
We offer an environment where senior professionals can make a meaningful impact, influence major strategic decisions, and drive long-term value creation
We believe in Water for Life.
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, because delivering water for life is our core purpose.
To achieve this, we need 24/7 support in place to resolve incidents quickly and efficiently.
All our employees understand the importance of out-of-hours incident support – because when problems appear, fixing them is our top priority.
That’s why our people join together and support when and however needed to make sure our customers get the service they deserve.
Joining the Southern Water family means you’ll become part of our incident support team.
During your interview, your manager will speak to you about any incident support rotas that apply to your position.
Whilst we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we’ll try to find a practical solution.