Are you an experienced governance and assurance professional ready to shape high‑quality standards in a fast‑paced, values‑driven organisation? Stonewater is looking for a Governance & Assurance Manager to play a pivotal role in safeguarding our regulatory compliance, strengthening our governance culture, and leading our Data Protection responsibilities.

This is a unique opportunity to join an organisation with a strong social purpose, influence decision-making at the highest level, and support our Boards and Committees to deliver excellent outcomes for our customers and communities.

The Role

You will:

• Oversee our legal and regulatory compliance frameworks, ensuring we maintain the highest governance rating.

• Design and manage the annual governance and assurance plan, embedding good practice across the organisation.

• Develop and maintain Stonewater’s assurance framework, policy database, and delegation structures.

• Champion awareness of governance, compliance, and data protection through training and organisation-wide engagement.

• Coordinate internal audit activity and ensure effective risk management aligned to Board appetite.

• Lead our approach to crisis management and business continuity to safeguard essential operations.

• Act as an authorised signatory for legal documentation and ensure effective processing of contractual documents.

• Provide expert advice to Board Members, senior leaders, and colleagues at all levels.

You’ll also manage a small team of Governance & Assurance Officers and oversee governance and internal audit budgets.

About You

We’re looking for someone who brings both expertise and influence. You’ll have:

• A relevant professional qualification (e.g., CGI) and GDPR/Data Protection accreditation.

• A degree-level education.

• Strong knowledge of regulatory, legal, statutory, and compliance requirements within the social housing sector.

• Proven experience in governance and assurance within a regulated environment.

• Demonstrable experience managing internal investigations, whistleblowing, and complaints.

• A track record of designing and implementing governance processes and digital solutions.

• Significant experience supporting Boards and Committees, and managing company secretarial responsibilities.

• Outstanding communication and influencing skills.

• Confidence working with senior stakeholders, non-executives, and external regulators.

• Strong project management capability.

• A collaborative, customer-focused mindset with a commitment to value for money.

• Flexibility to travel across Stonewater’s areas of operation when required.

Job Description - Governance & Assurance Manager

Discover Stonewater:

Stonewater is a leading housing provider. We manage around 40,000 homes, serving 93,000 customers across our portfolio of affordable properties for general rent, shared ownership and sale, alongside specialist accommodation, with an ambitious house-building programme.

Our mission is to provide quality homes and services for people whose needs are not met by the open market.

We’re looking for like-minded people to join our team of over 900 talented colleagues who embody our values of being ethical, ambitious, passionate, agile and commercial, as well as people who want to make a difference and transform people’s lives.

We are a Disability Confident Employer and working towards accreditation for becoming a Disability Confident Leader, which allows us to record and report on disability, mental health and wellbeing in the workplace to better support our colleagues. We have also achieved accreditation for being an Advanced Employer for Investing in Ethnicity Maturity Matrix. We are committed to being a Menopause Friendly employer and working towards accreditation our Menopause Friendly accreditation.

Are you ready to #DiscoverStonewater?

Stonewater reserve the right to bring the closing date forward should enough quality applications be received prior to the current closing date.