Location: Templecombe, United Kingdom

Safety Assurance Manager

Bristol, Cheadle, Crawley or Templecombe – Hybrid Working

Our Opportunity:

Our Underwater Systems team is a world leader in the development of ship-wide engineering systems. The systems developed by Thales are central to the success of world renowned vessels including the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.

We develop a wide array of systems from Communications, Command Information and Systems Integration through to newly developed Autonomous Systems, Sonar Expertise and the latest in Data Connectivity.

We are expanding our portfolio, teams and technology and are recruiting for a Safety Assurance Manager to support the Safety Authority in the delivery and assurance of compliant products through the provision of expertise on all aspects of safety management and safety engineering.

Primary Responsibilities:

The Safety Assurance function provides independent assurance and oversight of the activities conducted by the safety delivery teams such that financial and managerial pressures do not distort the safety assessment of engineering and operational activities or the reporting and investigation of safety issues. Key responsibilities include:

• To support the Technical Director/Safety Authority through:

  1. Planning, coordinating and assuring delivery of safe products and solutions

  2. Independent verification and validation of safety artefacts (outputs from the safety engineering activities)

  3. Provision of guidance to Safety Managers, Product Safety Engineers and the wider engineering community

  4. Investigate Safety Occurrences

  5. Escalation of Safety concerns where appropriate

  6. Ensuring compliance to approved safety management plans

  7. Attending Project Safety Committee Meetings

• Support the SA in development, implementation and continuous improvement of the Safety & Environmental Management Systems and Processes

• Ensure that product safety and environmental issues are resolved in a timely and competent manner

• Provide the consistent application of Engineering Governance to Product Safety and Environmental Engineering for through-life design

• Operate and improve processes and capabilities required to effectively manage the Design Intent through-life

• To ensure that Product Safety activities are undertaken in line with all relevant project and corporate processes and any specific customer requirements

• To undertake review, qualification and approval activities relative to deliverable and delivered items

• Support the development and delivery of Product Safety across the Business Unit

• Support the Technical Director and SA in the development and fostering of a positive Safety Culture throughout the organisation

• Develop and mentor Engineering resource

• Ensure that safety data is maintained in an auditable and acceptable form

• Ensure that high quality deliverables are produced at all times

• Make task decisions based on strategic and technical requirements

• Work with the Maritime Operations Assurance manager to ensure that product safety decisions are propagated through to the operations environment

• Ensure that safety issues are communicated to the Technical Director/Safety Authority and relevant Stakeholders

• Review HSE incidents to ensure product safety/environmental implications arising from accident/incident reporting are adequately addressed.

• Exercise duties in accordance with statutory requirements and the Thales HSE Management System, mitigating risks and improving overall performance

• Demonstrate strong and active leadership for product safety, setting high standards across all areas

• Immediately raise any concerns regarding the safety of a product, or the application of policies and processes with the Safety Authority.

About You

• Expert in the development, maintenance and continuous improvement of Safety Management Systems (i.e. Safety Policy, Safety Management Plans, and Safety Procedures)

• Significant knowledge of and experience in all phases of Life Cycle Management, so as to enable a good understanding of adjacent phases and through life engineering issues

• Engineering degree or equivalent ideally a Chartered Professional Engineer

• Clear and demonstrable technical and managerial leadership within a product safety assurance environment, with excellent people management skills and the ability to influence and challenge others.

• Experience in the investigation of Safety Occurrences, including use of formal techniques such as Root Cause Analysis

• Familiar with Product Environmental Legislation and Regulation including that for Sustainability

• Knowledgeable with respect to Product Safety related Legislation, Regulation and industry standards and ACOPs

• Expert in the use of formal hazard identification and assessment techniques and methods e.g. HAZOPS (Hazard and Operability studies, SWIFT (Structured What-If Technique), Bow-Tie, GSN, FTA/ETA (Fault/Event Tree Analysis, FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) etc.

• Experienced in the implementation and delivery of Product Engineering activities and the development and management of safety programmes

• Ability to manage a specialist team interfacing with a wide range of providers and customers, internally and externally

• Knowledgeable with respect to product environmental, material and safety related Legislation, Regulation and Standards

• Team player who can interface at all levels within an engineering and manufacturing company, represent the company to outside government and customer organisations, and who can operate successfully in a multi-cultural environment.

• Ability to work professionally and constructively within a team environment providing advice and consultancy across the organisation, including at Thales UK and Thales Business Line level safety forums.

• Is a self-starter, capable of working on own initiative with a high level of integrity.

• A confident communicator, resourceful and proactive, ensuring adequate quality and timely delivery.

Security Clearance statement

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires you to be a sole British National from birth and achieve Security Clearance (SC) without any caveats. It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment.Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance- United Kingdom Security Vetting - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.

What we can offer:

We are committed to giving you opportunities to be your best. We believe in embracing the passion and potential of our people, and to achieve this we offer market leading training, development and experiences, along with the opportunity to be mentored and coached by some of the smartest minds in the industry. We hire from within as our first priority, so you will have a myriad of opportunities within our diverse, global organisation.

Flexibility

Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

Benefits at Thales

Alongside a competitive base salary, we offer a variable compensation plan bonus and benefits package, which includes:

• Half day every Friday, usually finishing around 13:00pm
• Pension Scheme
• 201Hrs annual leave (Plus Bank Holidays)
• Life Cover
• Progression and Development Opportunities
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program and access to mental wellbeing app
• Employee discount shopping schemes on major brands and retailers

Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales.

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In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Teamfor graduate and apprentice roles.

Great journeys start here, apply now!