VolkerRail Major Projects is an expert in collaborative working through joint ventures and alliance schemes. Collaborative working agreements are a proven strategy for delivering large, complex railway projects, and through its strong relationships with other major contractors, VolkerRail Major Projects has helped to deliver several of the biggest rail projects over the last decade.
The SID is a fully integrated team that will bring together the strengths, capabilities, and knowledge of the partners and Network Rail. It will own the renewals work bank, manage it at portfolio level and drive a transition to a production management ethos. The SID is commercially aligned and jointly incentivised creating a ‘share in success’ environment. Business partners within the alliance will generate profit through performance against the Final Determination. The four partners, VolkerFitzpatrick, Octavius, Atkins, and VolkerRail are aligned to the core asset disciplines with the fifth partner, Network Rail Minor Works, being multi- disciplinary for low complexity, low value works.
As the Health & Safety Lead, you will provide strategic leadership, expert guidance and independent assurance across the Southern Renewals Enterprise. Working closely with operational leaders, project teams, clients and supply chain partners, you will help ensure health, safety and wellbeing remain at the heart of everything we do.
You will champion VolkerRail's Safety of Our People Principles, helping to create a positive safety culture where people feel empowered to challenge unsafe behaviours, learn from experience and continuously improve.
The role will see you leading a team of Health & Safety Managers, Advisors and Trainee Advisors, ensuring consistent professional support is delivered across multiple projects and workstreams while driving continual improvement in safety performance.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Lead the development and delivery of the Health, Safety and Wellbeing strategy across SRE.
- Provide expert advice and support to senior leaders to drive continual improvement in safety culture and performance.
- Use performance data, trends and risk intelligence to support decision-making and improvement initiatives.
- Support the delivery of VolkerRail's core business principles: Safety of Our People, Right First Time and Our Sustainable Future.
Leadership and Development
- Lead, manage and develop a team of health and safety professionals.
- Promote high standards of leadership, professionalism and accountability.
- Coach, mentor and support the development of future safety leaders.
- Drive consistency in health and safety support across all projects.
Safety Culture and Operational Support
- Influence operational leaders to build and maintain positive safety cultures.
- Champion visible safety leadership through site visits, engagement activities and workforce interaction.
- Encourage proactive reporting of close calls, unsafe acts and unsafe conditions.
- Recognise positive safety behaviours and challenge unsafe practices where necessary.
- Support managers in managing significant risks and ensuring effective control measures are in place.
Assurance, Governance and Compliance
- Lead risk-based assurance programmes, audits and inspections.
- Provide independent assurance on health and safety compliance and performance.
- Support internal, client and regulatory audits.
- Monitor compliance with VolkerRail procedures, Network Rail standards and legal requirements.
- Produce performance reports, trend analysis and strategic recommendations for senior leadership.
Continuous Improvement
- Lead investigations into significant incidents and high-potential events.
- Analyse performance trends to identify emerging risks and improvement opportunities.
- Promote organisational learning through sharing lessons learned and best practice.
- Support the effective application of the Worksafe Procedure and behavioural safety initiatives.
About you
You will be an experienced health and safety professional with a proven track record of delivering strong safety performance within major rail, construction or infrastructure environments.
You will be comfortable influencing senior leaders, providing independent challenge when required and building strong relationships across operational, client and contractor teams.
Essential
- NEBOSH Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health.
- IOSH Certified Member (CertIOSH).
- Lead ISO Auditor qualification.
- Minimum 10 years' experience in health and safety leadership roles within major infrastructure, rail or construction environments.
- Strong knowledge of health and safety legislation and Network Rail standards.
- Experience leading and developing Health & Safety teams.
- Full UK Driving Licence.
- Sentinel PTS and OLEC 1 competency.
Desirable
- CMIOSH or actively working towards Chartered status.
- ILM Level 5 Leadership & Management (or equivalent).
- Experience working within rail renewals and maintenance frameworks.
- Experience developing graduates, trainees or emerging health and safety professionals.
- Experience managing contractor and supply chain assurance.
Joining VolkerRail means becoming part of a business where safety, quality and sustainability are embedded in everything we do. Through the Southern Renewals Enterprise, you will have the opportunity to contribute to one of the most significant railway infrastructure programmes in the UK while working alongside experienced professionals committed to delivering a safer and more reliable railway.
This is an opportunity to shape safety culture, influence business strategy and leave a lasting impact across a major rail framework while continuing to develop your career within one of the UK's leading railway infrastructure organisations.
If you're ready to lead, influence and drive excellence in health, safety and wellbeing, we'd love to hear from you.
If your past experience doesn’t match perfectly with every requirement of the job description, we still encourage you to apply. You may be just the right candidate for us.
Why work with us?
VolkerRail is under the umbrella of VolkerWessels UK which is a multidisciplinary contractor that delivers innovative engineering solutions across the civil engineering and construction sectors including rail, highways, airport, marine, energy, water, and environmental infrastructure.
By utilising the specialist skills of each business unit within VolkerWessels UK, VolkerRail is able to ensure our staff provide unrivalled resources and expertise to our clients.
We offer competitive rewards and benefits, recognising the value we place on our employees.
We offer a range of benefits, including:
- Competitive salary
- Competitive annual leave and an additional day off on your birthday
- Pension
- Life Assurance
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Shopping and restaurants vouchers, rewards, and discounts
- Training and development opportunities, including comprehensive skills-based training
- Family-friendly policies, including enhanced maternity benefits
- Employee Assistance programme
- Mental health, physical health, and financial support
Fairness, inclusion and respect
We believe in pushing boundaries in the pursuit of fairness, inclusion and respect, so our teams can be comfortable that, whatever their background, VolkerWessels UK is a place where they can be themselves and thrive.
If you need support with your application, please contact us at careers@volkerwessels.co.uk
Additional information
Note for Recruitment Agencies:
Our preference is to hire directly, and we will reach out to our Preferred Supplier List (PSL) agencies if this particular role qualifies for release.
We kindly request that you refrain from sending speculative CVs. In the event of speculative CV submissions, no fees will be applicable, and we kindly ask that all inquiries to be directed to careers@volkerwessels.co.uk
VolkerWessels UK is committed to maintaining healthy, safe and productive working conditions for its entire staff and therefore a drugs & alcohol screening is mandatory for all.
