Economist - Business Retail Market

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 an Economist to join our Business Retail Market Team within the Markets and Charging 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.

We are seeking an Economist join our Business Retail Market team at Senior Associate level. The team has a multi-faceted programme of work aimed at improving the Business Retail Market so that it delivers better outcomes for customers, society, and the environment. We aim to do this through setting initiatives on regulatory customer protections, improving company performance, and monitoring and enforcement work, and working with industry to identify and implement improvements to market functioning. All our work here involves extensive engagement with external stakeholders.

Now is a particularly exciting time to join the team as we are at an important juncture in the development of the market – we have recently established revised customer protections. Work is underway to improve supplier of last resort arrangements in the market and to review retail price caps for the Business Retail Market. We are also stepping up our market monitoring and work to ensure companies comply with their obligations with respect to customer protections.

This role has an important and valuable contribution to enable us to deliver on our goals and regulatory commitments. As an Economist, you will lead or support projects across a range of impactful work areas. A key work strand will be our review of price cap restraints, including cost assessment and benchmarking work, where you will help drive a number of workstreams and provide support for others. Your role will also include developing our further understanding of the development of competition in the market and how it is delivering for customers alongside monitoring company compliance with market codes. This will involve analysing company and market performance data for the water industry and other comparator sectors.

As you will be part of a small and dynamic team, you will enjoy the flexibility of contributing to various functions across the team relating to the Business Retail Market. Your role will also involve high levels of stakeholder engagement, where you will represent Ofwat on industry Committees and Working Groups as appropriate.

Key deliverables:

In this role you will be expected to:

• Contribute to work for reviewing the impact of retail price caps, taking responsibility for the successful development of policy proposals, to include: Analyse and assess data and information relating to retail costs of serving customers, including benchmarking tools and cost modelling, to underpin review of retail price caps.
• Provide and advise on key policy decisions for review of retail price caps.
• Draft key parts of reports and publications to a high standard.
• Support the development and implementation of our policy approach more generally to market monitoring and understanding impact of competition on customer outcomes, using economic insights and quantitative and qualitative analysis to inform policy recommendations and decisions.
• Draft key parts of reports and publications, to a high standard.
• Lead work on elements of compliance and enforcement, understanding company compliance with relevant regulatory and statutory obligations, and working with enforcement team colleagues if and where compliance and enforcement issues are identified.
• Listen to, influence and work with complex, and sometimes difficult, external stakeholders to optimise the impact of our work, including water companies, representative bodies, Government departments, third parties and customers.
• Create and champion an inclusive working environment that supports growth, wellbeing, and continuous improvement in our delivery.
• Strongly contribute to Ofwat’s wider leadership, by engaging, contributing and supporting our work to make Ofwat a great place to be.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

How to apply

Apply through the Civil Service Jobs website where you’ll be asked to create an account and complete an application form (CV and personal statement). If you’re unable to make an electronic application, please contact recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk and we will support you in completing your application.

Please see the candidate guidance on our website for more detail and tips on how to best make your application and prepare for interview.

Please ensure you have submitted your application in full ahead of the deadline listed below. Unfortunately, we won't be able to consider late applications.

Selection timetable

• Closing date: 23.55 on 01 October 2026
• Sifting: Week commencing 05 October 2026
• Interview date(s): Week commencing 19 October 2026

Assessment process

Sift Stage - Blind Sifting

We operate a blind sifting model to eliminate bias. All candidate identifying information will be removed from applications.

At sift stage we will assess your application (CV and personal statement) against essential criteria 1, 2, 3 and 4 listed below. Please ensure you provide enough evidence in your application form to demonstrate how you meet the criteria.

Use your personal statement to address the below criteria and tell us how your experience, skills and knowledge meet them:

• Lead criterion: An undergraduate degree in economics and/or a discipline with significant economic/numerate content or equivalent experience.
• Lead criterion: Relevant experience of microeconomic analysis and/or markets, competition and regulation, and the benefits they can deliver for customers. This includes the identification and application of relevant economic, legal and policy frameworks and requirements.
• Professional experience of developing, managing and implementing policy.
• Experience of building and maintaining constructive working relationships with a diverse set of internal and external stakeholders to understand their needs, expectations, and priorities, and to influence and collaborate effectively to deliver desired outcomes.
• Please note that in the event of receiving a large number of applications, a pre-sift may take place on just the lead criteria.
• * If a high volume of candidates meet the minimum pass mark at sift stage, we will only progress the highest scoring candidates to interview. Candidates not invited to interview, who have achieved the minimum pass mark, will be placed 'on hold' until the final stage of the assessment process is completed. Should the role/s remain unfilled, candidates placed 'on hold' may be invited to interview in merit order.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Interview Stage - Transparent Interviews and Written Task

At interview stage we will test against essential skills, experience, knowledge and attributes set out above.

Our transparent interview process involves candidates receiving a selection of attribute-based questions in advance. This has been proven to help neurodiverse candidates and others to perform better at interview and is part of our inclusive culture.

You can read more about attributes and our Framework for success here.

Please note that the interviews will be conducted via video conferencing software (Microsoft Teams).

As part of the interview process, we will require a written task to be completed and submitted ahead of the interview. Further details will be provided to candidates upon invitation to interview.

Please ensure anything you present in your interview answers is factually accurate, and you are not presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by AI, as your own. You may expect follow up questions.

It may be necessary for a second stage interview, which will be communicated to the successful candidates, if required.

If the assessment process identifies more appointable candidates than roles available, a reserve list will be created for 12 months from which further appointments in merit order can be made.

'Near-miss' candidates (candidates who have performed well at interview stage but haven’t scored high enough for the advertised Senior Associate band) may be considered (in merit order) for an Associate grade post – a band lower than Senior Associate. Further details will be provided to candidates as needed.

If you have any queries about any aspect of this role, selection process, or you require any reasonable adjustments, please email recruitment@ofwat.gov.uk.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.