Head of Health and Safety

Location: Manchester North West England
Sector: Rail Infrastructure / Major Projects
Position: Permanent

The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced Head of Safety to provide strategic leadership and oversight of health, safety and assurance activities across a major rail infrastructure alliance programme.

This is a senior leadership position responsible for driving safety excellence across a complex, high-risk operational environment, ensuring assurance activities are intelligence-led, risk-based and aligned with programme delivery priorities including major works, possessions and blockades.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the implementation and continuous improvement of the Alliance Assurance Framework.
• Ensure assurance activities remain aligned to principal programme risks and operational priorities.
• Drive the implementation and monitoring of the Health, Safety & Wellbeing Improvement Plan.
• Provide strategic oversight and challenge of Principal Contractor safety assurance arrangements.
• Lead Integrated Assurance Reviews and ensure findings drive meaningful improvements.
• Analyse safety performance trends and identify areas requiring intervention or escalation.
• Deliver assurance intelligence and reporting to senior governance forums.
• Promote organisational learning, continuous improvement and best practice sharing.
• Lead and support assurance teams and wider safety professionals.
• Act as deputy to the Health, Safety & Environment Director when required.

About You

To be successful in this role, you will have:

• Significant Health & Safety leadership experience within a high-risk operational environment.
• Experience leading assurance, governance or safety improvement frameworks on major projects or programmes.
• Strong understanding of health and safety legislation, management systems and risk-based assurance principles.
• Proven ability to challenge and influence senior leadership teams.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Strong report writing and presentation capabilities.
• Experience working collaboratively across client, contractor and supply chain organisations.
• The ability to interpret complex assurance data and provide clear, actionable intelligence