Risk Manager

Etihad Rail Operating Companies; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 350,000 - 450,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading rail organization in the United Arab Emirates is seeking an experienced Risk Manager. This role is pivotal in establishing and maintaining a comprehensive risk management framework for Passenger Rail Operations. The successful candidate will ensure effective integration of safety-related risks and compliance with regulatory standards. They must have a minimum of 8 years in risk management, with a strong focus on collaborative engagement across diverse operational teams. This position entails frequent reporting to senior leadership and a commitment to fostering a proactive risk-aware culture.

Qualifications

• At least 8 years’ experience in a risk management role, preferably in rail.
• Professional membership in audit, health and safety, risk management is essential.
• Excellent English language skills; Arabic preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain risk management framework in line with organizational policies.
• Identify, assess, and monitor strategic, operational, and safety risks.
• Prepare regular risk reports for senior leadership.

Skills

Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Ability to manage cultural diversity

Strong integrity and professional judgment

Education

NEBOSH National Diploma or equivalent

ISO 45001 Lead Auditor

Job description

Position Overview

Position Overview - The Risk Manager is responsible for establishing, implementing, and maintaining an integrated risk management framework for Passenger Rail Operations. The role ensures that strategic, operational, safety, and compliance risks are systematically identified, assessed, mitigated, and monitored, including risks derived from the Safety Hazard Log and other safety risk sources, ensuring alignment between safety hazard management and the enterprise and operational risk registers to support safe, reliable, and compliant passenger railway operations.

The Risk Manager is responsible for ensuring that safety-related risks are appropriately integrated, visible, and managed within the organisational risk management framework.

Roles and Responsibility

Enterprise & Operational Risk Management

• Develop and maintain the Passenger Rail risk management framework in line with organizational policies, ISO, and rail industry standards.
• Identify, assess, and monitor strategic, operational, safety, financial, and compliance risks across passenger rail operations.
• Maintain and regularly update risk registers, ensuring risks are clearly articulated, prioritized, and owned.
• Integrate risks emerging from the Safety Hazard Log, safety assessments, and safety assurance activities into the enterprise and operational risk registers, ensuring traceability between hazards, safety risks, and broader business risks.
• Establish and maintain clear interfaces between risk registers and safety risk artefacts (e.g. Hazard Logs, Risk Assessment outputs, Safety Cases), ensuring consistency of risk statements, controls, and ownership.

Safety & Operational Risk

• Work closely with Operations, Engineering, Stations, and Customer Experience teams to identify operational and safety risks.
• Support hazard identification, risk assessments (HIRA), bow-tie analyses, and safety cases related to passenger rail services, with specific focus on the identification, escalation, and consolidation of safety-related risks into the Risk Register.
• Ensure risks related to rolling stock, stations, depots, interfaces, and customer operations are effectively controlled.
• Work in coordination with Safety and Engineering functions to review, challenge, and interpret Safety Log to identify risk trends, systemic issues, and risk exposure at operational and organizational level.
• Ensure that high and extreme safety risks identified are appropriately reflected, prioritized, and monitored within enterprise and operational risk reporting.

Governance, Assurance & Compliance

• Ensure risk management processes align with regulatory requirements, safety accreditation, and internal governance frameworks.
• Support internal and external audits, inspections, and regulatory reviews by providing risk-related evidence and documentation.
• Monitor effectiveness of risk controls and recommend corrective actions where gaps are identified.
• Provide risk-related input and evidence to support safety assurance activities, including Safety Authorisations, Safety Reviews, and regulatory submissions, ensuring alignment between risk management outputs and safety assurance evidence.

Incident & Change Risk Management

• Support investigations by analyzing underlying risk and control failures arising from incidents, near misses, or operational disruptions, including the identification of impacts on existing hazards and risks recorded in Hazard Log and Risk Register.
• Conduct risk assessments for operational changes, new services, asset modifications, or organizational restructuring.
• Ensure risks arising from change are assessed, approved, and communicated before implementation.
• Ensure that new or changed hazards and risks arising from incidents or Management of Change (MoC) processes are captured, assessed, and tracked through the appropriate risk and safety risk management tools.

Reporting & Stakeholder Engagement

• Prepare regular risk reports and dashboards for the HSEQ Director, Executive Leadership, and relevant committees.
• Provide expert risk advice to senior leaders to support informed decision-making.
• Act as a key liaison point between HSEQ and operational teams on risk-related matters.
• Report on risk exposure arising from safety hazards, including trends, systemic risk themes, and effectiveness of controls, to HSEQ leadership and relevant governance forums.

Culture & Continuous Improvement

• Promote a proactive risk-aware culture across Passenger Rail operations.
• Deliver training and awareness sessions on risk management principles and best practices.
• Identify opportunities to enhance risk processes, tools, and maturity across the organization.

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Educated to a high standard with academic risk and safety achievements.
• NEBOSH National Diploma or equivalent in Occupational Health and Safety, Environmental or Risk Management is desirable.
• ISO 45001, ISO14001, IS050001 or ISO9001 Lead Auditor is essential.

Professional Qualifications:

• Professional membership in audit, health and safety, risk, environmental management, or engineering is essential.
• Full Driving license is essential.

Experience:

• At least 8 years’ experience in a risk management role, with exposure to HSEQ or audit role, in a high hazard industry, preferably rail.

Other Skills:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present professionally to senior stakeholders.
• Excellent English language skills; Arabic language skills are preferable.
• Ability to manage cultural diversity and recognize sensitivities in a multi-cultural working environment.
• Demonstrates integrity, independence, and sound professional judgment.
• Acts as a safety role model with the ability to influence, coach, and mentor others.