Health & Safety Director

Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Thatcham; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working arrangements

Generous Pension Scheme

Life Assurance

Employee Assistance Programme

Job summary

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is seeking a visible, energetic Health and Safety Director to lead the next stage of our global safety journey. You will own the global H&S management system, drive risk-based standards, and engage across sites and leadership to ensure safety remains central to decisions and operations.

You will set the roadmap for safety culture maturity, oversee audits and incident management, and lead a high-profile function with accountability for budget and reporting

Qualifications

• Established Health and Safety leader with a track record of implementing change

Responsibilities

• Lead the global Health and Safety management system and drive continuous improvement.
• Ensure standards are practical, risk-based and aligned with strategy across sites and operations.
• Engage with employees, managers and leaders to communicate expectations and resolve safety issues at source.
• Develop and implement the next stage of safety culture maturity and learning strategy.

Skills

Health & Safety leadership

Change management

Stakeholder influence

Global compliance knowledge

Cross-cultural communication

Education

Degree or NEBOSH Diploma

CMIOSH status or equivalent

Job description

Location

Maidenhead, SL6 7DX, 2 days a week in the office

Contract

Permanent

Salary

Starting from £80k depending on skills and experience

Hours

Full time, 37 hours, Mon - Fri

We are seeking a visible, energetic and credible Health and Safety Director to lead the next stage of our global safety journey. Building on an established management system and global standards, you will ensure that safety remains central to everyday decisions and working practices, and that good performance never leads to complacency. This is a role for a strategic leader who is equally comfortable influencing in the boardroom, supporting leaders and spending time with teams across our sites and operations.

What You’ll Be Doing

You'll own the effectiveness and continuous improvement of the global Health and Safety management system, ensuring that it remains practical, proportionate, risk-based and aligned with the organisation’s strategic and operational needs. You will drive consistent application of global standards across all areas and sites, helping leaders and employees understand what those standards mean for their everyday decisions, behaviours and working practices. Through a strong and credible presence across operations, you will engage directly with employees, managers, Area Advisors and senior leaders, recognise good practice and ensure that emerging issues are understood and addressed at source.

To advance our capabilities around health and safety, you'll set the roadmap for the next stage of safety culture maturity, strengthening leadership ownership, employee involvement, accountability and confidence to speak up and intervene. You will keep safety visible and relevant, sustaining constructive vigilance around critical controls, routine activities and the quality of everyday execution. You will also evolve the global learning strategy so that training is engaging and responsive to risk, with success measured through understanding, practical application, leadership capability and lasting behavioural impact rather than course completion alone.

Along side this, you'll oversee risk assessment, critical control assurance, incident management and investigation, ensuring that assurance activity tests whether controls work in practice and not simply whether documentation is complete. Drawing together learning from incidents, near misses, audits, site observations and employee feedback, you will identify themes, share lessons promptly and verify that corrective action delivers sustainable improvement. You will maintain a comprehensive, risk-based programme of audits and reviews, and provide the Director General, Chief Operating Officer, Executive Leadership Team and Commissioners with concise, insightful reporting on performance, material risks, control effectiveness and priorities.

Ensuring you lead a credible and effective global function, you'll monitor relevant legislation and professional practice across the countries in which we operate, keeping policies, standards and local arrangements current and compliant. You will lead, coach and enable the Health and Safety team, working closely with Area Advisors, coordinators and local leaders to build capability and translate corporate expectations into appropriate local practice. Accountable for the credibility and performance of the function, you will manage the annual budget and external resources according to risk and measurable impact, lead the annual performance review with senior leadership and prepare the annual Health and Safety report for Commissioners.

What You Need To Have

• Be an established Health and Safety leader with a record of successfully implementing change in a complex organisation
• A degree, NEBOSH Diploma or equivalent, together with CMIOSH status or a similar professional standard
• A strong understanding of Health and Safety law, international regulatory frameworks, management systems, auditing and culture-based compliance
• Pragmatic and an influential leader who can make sense of complex and sensitive issues, develop workable solutions and communicate clearly with diverse audiences
• Able to combine strategic perspective with attention to operational detail, give clear direction while remaining fair and empathetic, and build strong relationships across cultures
• Experience of working overseas, within the charity or not-for-profit sector, or speaking a second language would be advantageous
• A valid passport to be able to travel
• A full UK driving licence

Who We Are

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an organisation dedicated to honouring and caring for the graves and memorials of servicemembers who died in the two World Wars. The work of the commission is not only out on the field, but in our head office too, which contributes to the meaningful commemoration of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

What We Offer

• 25 days annual leave, rising by 1 day per year of service up to a maximum of 30
• 1 privilege day, half day on Maundy Thursday, paid public holidays and paid time off between Christmas and New Year
• Flexible working arrangements
• Generous Pension Scheme, with CWGC contributing up to 10%
• Life Assurance
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle To Work & Electric Vehicle schemes

We believe creating a diverse environment enriches our organisation and strengthens our mission, therefore, we welcome applications from everybody. Join our inclusive environment where every individual is valued.