As Team Leader, you will have a unique opportunity to join Denmark’s second-largest utility company. You will contribute to strengthening the planning function within wastewater treatment and hydraulics and become part of one of the largest planning departments in the Danish utility sector. The projects undertaken by the department have both a direct and indirect impact on many customers and stakeholders across the municipalities concerned.

You will also become part of Novafos’ management team. In this role, you will have the opportunity to help shape Novafos’ new shared culture, ensuring the involvement of employees throughout the organisation. Novafos continuously works with its PEASE values: Proactive, Engaged, Accountable, Collaborative and Efficient. As the manager responsible for Wastewater Treatment & Hydraulics, you will report to Rikke Nikolajsen, Novafos’ Head of Wastewater Treatment & Sewerage Planning.

You will be responsible for 15 employees, with 11 working on planning assignments related to hydraulic modelling and five responsible for wastewater treatment plant projects. You can expect your role to consist of approximately 60% leadership and 40% technical work.

You are motivated by the opportunity to lead a team whose expertise spans both wastewater treatment plants and hydraulic modelling. All team members are highly skilled professionals who work independently on their assignments. Your technical understanding enables you to provide perspective and establish a clear direction, encouraging employees to work towards shared objectives. Your broad technical overview also allows you to act naturally as a professional sounding board whenever your team requires support.

You also thrive on the core responsibilities of team leadership, including ensuring that projects progress as planned and allocating the appropriate resources to both ongoing and new projects. For ongoing projects, you are responsible for ensuring delivery in accordance with agreed requirements relating to budget, schedule and quality. You are comfortable engaging with the utility company’s partners, including consultants and municipalities, and addressing any challenges that may arise during a project. The team is also responsible for several major development projects.

You are interested in taking on an outward-facing role within the team leader group, where your strong communication skills will be essential. You are skilled at facilitating and contextualising the discussions that inevitably arise in projects involving and affecting many different stakeholders. You therefore find it motivating to participate in and chair meetings, whether they are public consultations, meetings with politicians or other external meetings. You demonstrate excellent communication skills when creating clarity, responding constructively to critical input and navigating a politically governed environment. Your experience of working with a broad range of stakeholders will serve you well in this role.

In collaboration with the wider management team, you will also help prepare and regularly report on investment agreements for upcoming projects across the utility company’s nine owner municipalities. You will contribute to ensuring that Novafos achieves its target of reducing operating costs by 20% by the end of 2022, as well as meeting future efficiency requirements.

You thrive in a leadership role and already have substantial experience managing a department, a team or a project team. You know how to bring a team together and create motivation and shared commitment. Your leadership skills enable you to help employees embrace both new colleagues and new ways of working. As a leader, you set a clear direction while involving your employees in the pursuit of new objectives. You naturally earn respect and are able to motivate your employees to take ownership and share knowledge across both familiar and new assignments.

You would describe your working style as structured and focused. Collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders comes naturally to you. You are adaptable and enjoy establishing new frameworks and ways of working. You approach challenges with curiosity and are confident in making your mark. You remain focused on the overall objective, whether it concerns employee well-being and development or the planning and management of the team’s technical priorities, projects and continued development.

Requirements

Your areas of responsibility will include:

• Leading a team of project managers and specialists
• Managing the team’s project portfolio
• Overseeing day-to-day budget management and prioritisation
• Acting as a technical sounding board for employees
• Coordinating meetings, including public consultations and other external meetings
• Taking responsibility for preparing agendas for meetings such as steering committee meetings
• Helping prepare drafts of investment agreements and following up on them in collaboration with the wider management team