Senior Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) Manager

GEMS Corporate Office; Dubai; On-site; AED 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational organization in Dubai is seeking a strategic leader for Health, Safety, and Environment. This role focuses on operationalizing the HSE strategy, ensuring compliance, and fostering a safety-focused culture across the organization. Responsibilities include mentoring, risk management, and implementing HSE programs, contributing to the overall safety and compliance in the educational network.

Qualifications

• Experience in HSE management systems and policy development.
• Proven leadership skills in mentoring and technical guidance.
• Ability to implement and monitor compliance frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Support implementation of HSE strategy across schools and corporate departments.
• Lead HSE policy reviews and align with regulatory updates.
• Develop and deliver HSE training across teams.

Skills

Risk Management

Safety Culture Leadership

Compliance

Job description

PURPOSE

The position plays a critical role in shaping and supporting the implementation of GEMS Group Health, Safety, and Environment strategy. Acting as a key integrator between strategy and operations, the role focuses on developing systems, supporting compliance, enhancing reporting and assurance frameworks, and embedding best practice in risk management across the school network, service entities, and corporate departments.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Support the Head of HSE in operationalising the GEMS HSE strategy, ensuring the HSE management system is implemented effectively across schools, service entities, and corporate departments.
• Mentor and provide technical leadership to the wider HSE team, supporting capability development, and embedding a high-performance, risk-aware safety culture.
• Lead the review, simplification, and alignment of group-wide HSE policies and procedures in line with regulatory updates, international standards, audit findings, incident learnings, and best practices.
• Monitor regulatory changes, conduct impact assessments and advise on required actions to maintain compliance across schools, service teams, and corporate departments.
• Champion effective risk management, supporting the development and quality assurance of risk assessments and maintaining a central library of practical and current templates.
• Implement the GEMS HSE inspection and audit programs, and analyse the findings, identifying and working to resolve systemic issues, and contributing to HSE assurance and performance reports for leadership.
• Develop and deliver targeted HSE training, contributing to the professional development of Managers of School Operations (MSOs) and other key staff across schools, service teams, and corporate departments.
• Provide oversight and assurance on contractor safety management, including Permit to Work (PTW) systems, high-risk work controls, and contractor onboarding and monitoring processes.
• Support the development, testing, and continuous improvement of emergency response plans across GEMS, ensuring emergency readiness and alignment with regulatory expectations.
• Act as a point of escalation for complex HSE queries, providing practical guidance to schools, service teams, and corporate departments.
• Lead initiatives to strengthen safety culture, including staff engagement, safety observations, and recognition of good practice.
• Monitor and analyse incidents through the HSE Guard system, ensuring reporting quality, identifying trends, and consolidating insights for stakeholder reporting.
• Lead or support HSE incident investigations and support the implementation of corrective and preventive actions.