Product Safety Manager

Thales; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Thales Group in the UK is seeking a Product Safety Manager to lead safety engineering activities on cutting-edge defence, space, and digital security projects. You will work within the UK Safety Team to develop safety cases, perform hazard analyses, and ensure SMS compliance across programmes.

You will gain experience on high-profile programmes, mentor junior engineers, collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, and advance your career through development and internal opportunities within Thales.

Qualifications

• Experience in Systems Safety Engineering in complex, regulated settings.
• Proven ability to manage safety work packages and budgets.
• Experience with safety case development and ALARP arguments.
• Knowledge of UK/EU safety regulations (MAA, CAA, etc.).
• Ability to lead safety activities across multi-disciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead systems safety activities across projects and assess safety risks.
• Develop and maintain safety plans and ensure SMS implementation at project level.
• Apply safety engineering methods to complex systems and mentor junior engineers.
• Manage safety requirements and ensure compliant safety cases.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to identify and control hazards.

Skills

Systems Safety

Hazard Analysis

FTA/ETA

FMECA

ALARP

Regulatory Knowledge

Education

Engineering degree

Job description

Location: Crawley, United Kingdom

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.

Product Safety Manager

Crawley, Bristol or Reading - Hybrid

Thales develop and engineer cutting edge products and technologies such as autonomous platforms (air and maritime), high performance sonar arrays, Air Traffic Management systems, electronic warfare & counter measure systems, to name a few. As part of the UK Safety Team you will have the opportunity to lead safety engineering activities on these complex and challenging projects while continuing to develop your safety engineering knowledge.

We’re recruiting due to a need to grow our subject matter expert Safety Engineering team.

Joining as a Product Safety Manager in this team, you’ll gain experience across multiple niche areas during your time at Thales. You may begin life on a £300m+ programme, working directly with the UK MOD, next you might pivot to UAS and have instrumental involvement in Autonomous UAS development, or maybe you’ll lead safety activities within our world-renowned simulation team.

Safety at Thales means joining an exceptionally skilled team within technical specialities, pursuing unique career paths spanning technical expertise, management and/or programmes. You’ll be supported with mentors, academic links, progression plans, contractual development and treated as a priority for all internal opportunities within the team.

Our Product Safety Managers typically spend their days:

• Supporting bids, generating safety engineering estimates and leading the work packages.
• Developing safety plans & ensuring the implementation of the Thales UK SMS at project level
• Applying and leveraging your knowledge of Systems Safety Engineering to complex systems and supporting/mentoring junior Product Safety / Systems Safety Engineers
• Leading, managing and sometimes undertaking systems safety activities and assessments
• Ensuring that Thales products are supported by robust safety cases and evidence
• Working in multidisciplinary project/product teams to identify and manage hazards and risks

What expertise do we typically need our Product Safety Manager to have:

• A degree, or equivalent qualification, in a relevant subject area
• Experience of Systems Safety Engineering activities in a complex, safety focused and regulated organisation, such as rail, aerospace, nuclear or oil & gas
• Experience of working to a safety management system and implementing it at project level
• Demonstrable experience in the management of engineering work packages & budgets
• Demonstrable experience in planning and delivering safety engineering programmes of work
• Extensive experience of undertaking Systems Safety activities including System Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Event Tree Analysis (ETA), Common Cause Failure Analysis, Functional Failure Analysis (FFA), Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), Interface Hazard Analysis (IHA), System Hazard Logs, System Hazard Analysis Reports
• Experience in the identification, capture and management of safety requirements
• Extensive knowledge of legal & regulatory frameworks for safety (UK, EU, MAA, CAA etc.)
• Experience of developing & managing safety cases and generating ALARP arguments
• Ability to work collaboratively in an engineering development environment, ensuring Systems Safety compliance is achieved throughout the project life cycle.
• Aware of safety occurrence investigation principles and processes

Security Clearance statement

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions.

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. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the National Security Vetting (NSV) Agency - United Kingdom Security Vetting - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

What we can offer

We’re 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’ll have a myriad of opportunities within our diverse, global organisation.

Our packages will include bonus, a strong pension contribute plan, private healthcare, development focused targets and relocation support can be provided if required along with a variety of learning, development and career enhancement opportunities.

At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all. The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. Read more about our benefits here.

We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring. Discover more about our programmes, employee networks, wellbeing policies, and inclusive features here.

Join Thales in the UK – Innovate with us and shape the future!