Together we are Trusted to Serve Scotland.
Graduate Programme 2026 – Accountant
Ready to own your future? At Scottish Water, our graduate programmes empower you to drive change, tackle real challenges, and shape Scotland’s future. This is more than just a launchpad for your career - it's an opportunity to make a meaningful impact. As part of our team, you’ll play a key role in delivering essential services and infrastructure that help Scotland flourish every day.
You’ll be joining us at a fascinating time, as we transform into a more agile, innovative organisation that delivers outstanding service, provides great value for money, and works in an environmentally sustainable way that goes beyond Net Zero. Start a career that’s built for you, today.
What you’ll do
Over the three-year programme, you’ll rotate through a variety of placements, spending time with the Tax and Treasury function, Management Accounts, Capital, Group Reporting and Technical Finance. Each experience will grow your knowledge, confidence, and technical skills. With structured training, mentoring, and real-world responsibility, you’ll develop into a capable, trusted Management Accountant.
Sponsored by Scottish Water, this programme will also see you working towards a fully funded accredited qualification in either CIMA, ICAS or ACCA.
You will be working towards an Accountant role, while being embedded in our Finance team, supporting the delivery of clear and relevant financial information and analysis to business teams. From day one, you’ll help teams track, understand, forecast, and effectively control costs.
You’ll gain hands-on experience by providing regular and ad-hoc financial reports that help monitor and explain operating costs. You’ll support forward planning and contribute to setting financial performance targets, while also developing new tracking reports and analysis tools to enhance our processes.
You’ll also work closely with stakeholders across the business, capturing and presenting both financial and non-financial information, and coaching business teams on financial policy, processes, and controls, ensuring best practice is embedded across the organisation.
At the end of the programme, you’ll move into a permanent role as an Accountant, where you’ll continue to make a real impact on Scotland’s water services.
How does the graduate programme work?
You’ll be employed on a permanent contract from Day One, with a starting salary of £33,000
As you progress through the programme and reach key milestones, you’ll be rewarded with salary increases. Upon completing the programme, you’ll move into a permanent Management Accountant role, starting from £44,030. For more details, please visit www.scottishwater.co.uk/graduates.
There is plenty of support. As well as your day-to-day manager, we’ll match you up with a mentor who will support and coach you as you go through your programme.
You’ll have access to both structured and informal training designed to equip you with the skills you need now, and in the future.
What you’ll need
You’ll have graduated within the last three years (or be on track to graduate this summer) with a degree in Accountancy, Finance, or a related field. We’re looking for a minimum 2:2 classification.
You’ll need to be passionate about financial analysis, business partnering, and making a positive impact every day. An understanding of accounting principles and management accounting techniques is key, as well as a desire to work towards a professional qualification. You should also be someone who works well with others, takes initiative, and brings energy and enthusiasm to every challenge.
A valid UK driving licence and regular access to a vehicle may be required, as some placements will involve travel to sites across Central Scotland.
In terms of essential requirements? That’s it.
But here’s the thing: We get thousands of applications for our Graduate roles each year. What makes the best candidates stand out?
Here are a few things we love to see:
CVs that tell us more than what grades you earned over the years. Show us what you’ve learned. What you love. What your aspirations are.
Cover letters that tell us why you’re interested in Scottish Water (and in this role)
People who use their application to show that they are Bold, Responsible, Inspiring and Caring.
Looking out for you
While the work we do is important, it’s not the only thing that matters. That’s why we make sure you have everything you need to find a good work-life balance.
You’ll get plenty of time to recharge with 38 days of holiday every year (including public holidays). And you can even buy five more if you need a little extra time. You can also take paid time off to volunteer in your community.
When it comes to major life events we have family-friendly policies around adoption, maternity, and parental leave. And for the everyday? We embrace flexible working and operate on a ‘Balanced Hybrid’ approach, meaning we encourage people to spend half of their time in a Scottish Water location.
For your future, there’s our pension (the ‘know-what-you’ll-get-when-you-retire’ kind), as well as life assurance.
As for some nice extras? You can expect an annual company bonus. Not to mention access to SW Splash – handy rewards that can save you money on holidays, bills, and shopping.
What happens next?
The closing date for applications is 11:59pm on Sunday 14th December.
Assessment activity will kick off in on Friday 19th December with some surprisingly fun (no, really!) online testing. You can read more about the full application process here: Graduate Application Process - Scottish Water
Final face-to-face interviews will commence at the end of January, finishing on February 13th. Where you can give us a good grilling too.
If you accept a place on the programme, you’ll go through some pre-employment screening during the Spring, including a criminal record check.
All our new Graduates will start together in September, with a comprehensive induction event to set you up for success from day one. You’ll learn more about the organisation, meet our leaders, visit some of our operational sites, start making friends, and have a lot of fun.
A few final things worth knowing…
Research shows that some people avoid applying for jobs unless they can meet every single criteria. If you’re interested in this job, but don’t tick all the boxes, apply anyway! We hardly ever hire people who can do every part of a job from Day One. Everyone has a learning curve. So don’t rule yourself out!
Let us know if there are any changes we can make to our recruitment process to help you perform at your best. Lots of our people have disabilities or neurodiverse conditions (including some of our recruiters!). We're also aware that some people might be experiencing temporary challenges because of life events, like menopause. We’re very used to making adjustments, so please don’t be afraid to ask.
As part of our commitment to developing a flourishing Scotland, it’s important that all our employees are Scottish taxpayers. If you join us, your home address will need to be in Scotland. If you don’t already live here, you'll need to commit to moving here within your first three months.
Please note, Scottish Water takes the safety, health and wellbeing of our employees, colleagues and customers very seriously and as such you may be subject to Drug & Alcohol testing in line with our policy.
Finally (finally!), candidates who haven’t submitted an application in the last 12 months will have their records removed from our recruitment database. You won’t need to do anything. Your data will be automatically deleted.
We’re here to help. Ask us anything at [email protected]
