Senior Manager - (Passive) Safety Test

UTAC; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading testing and certification company in Birmingham is seeking a leader for their safety testing department. You will oversee health and safety standards, manage financial operations, and lead a team dedicated to automotive and aerospace markets. The ideal candidate has a degree in an automotive discipline, extensive experience in passive safety testing, and excellent leadership skills. The role offers flexible working arrangements and a range of competitive benefits.

Benefits

Life Cover

Health cashback plans

Generous holiday benefits

Contributory pension scheme

Flexible working policies

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in automotive passive safety testing.
• Experience managing teams of similar size.
• Demonstrable success in planning and organization.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for health and safety and risk assessments.
• Lead continuous improvement for the department.
• Manage financials including budgeting and invoicing.

Skills

Solid understanding of passive safety test scenarios

Expert knowledge of testing standards

Understanding of human injury levels

Familiarity with testing tools and equipment

Education

Bachelor’s degree in automotive discipline

Job description

UTAC is a market-leading international group in digital & sustainable mobility, customisable testing solutions, customisable testing systems, vehicle engineering, homologation, regulatory advice & expertise, certification, training, corporate events and classic & sportscars festivals.

The Group provides services and systems to customers in the various sectors : mobility, transport, tyre, petrochemical, agriculture and defence industries. UTAC operates test centres and laboratories in France (including the official Euro NCAP facility), the UK, USA, Finland, Morocco, and Germany; it has subsidiaries in China, Korea and Japan. UTAC employs around 1300 people across its various locations.

As a group we share a strong and clear vision to deliver safe and efficient solutions and systems to our customers. We are proud and confident in our heritage, our capabilities and our people and believe that by creating a culture where individuals feel they can make a difference and enjoy coming to work, we can deliver the best possible service to our customers.

Our core values of Expertise, Innovation and Integrity provide a clear daily guide to how we work together safely, as one team, helping each other to succeed.

Job Description

Reporting to Testing Director, UK

UTAC’s passive safety test capability is located at our Millbrook site, comprising of a full-scale crash laboratory, servo sled, and a range of static test rigs all supported by an operational team of approximately 25 heads. Our service offering supports the development and certification needs of predominantly the automotive and aerospace markets, with the purpose of supporting our customers with a shared drive and passion towards a safer and cleaner future for mobility.

The successful candidate will have responsibility for the performance of the department from a health and safety, operational, financial, and technical perspective. They will ensure that all work is completed in a competent and professional manner to the satisfaction of all customers and will lead the development of the department going forward both in terms of capability and capacity.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for Health and Safety, risk assessments and safety observation tours within all areas of Safety Test.
• Liaise and build relationships with customers to determine future workload and requirements
• Lead a culture of continuous improvement following established group processes and tools
• Develop, report and improve department metrics to inform future strategy
• Work scheduling and resource management
• Financial; including invoicing, purchase order sign off, forecasts and budgets.
• Support to maintenance of ISO17025, ISO9001 and other applicable accreditations
• Staff training and development plans
• Safety test equipment utilisation, issues and analysis
• Safety testing procedures
• Oversee investment projects and integrate new offerings into daily operations
• Act in accordance with the behaviours for UTAC staff at all times.

Qualifications

• Qualified to bachelor’s degree or equivalent, preferably in an automotive discipline

Experience

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in automotive passive safety testing or development to European / Federal / Global standards (essential)
• Management of teams or business of similar size (essential)
• Demonstrable success of planning and organisation (essential)
• Full-scale crash testing (preferred)
• Sled testing (preferred)
• Running an ISO : 17025 laboratory (desirable)

Skills

• Solid understanding of the requirements of various passive safety test scenarios, and how that translates to the configuration of test facilities (essential)
• Expert level knowledge of industry automotive passive safety European, Federal and Global testing standards and regulations
• Understanding of human injury levels and the limitations of ATD instrumentation
• Familiarity with passive safety testing tools and equipment, including data acquisition, measurement devices and data processing.

Personal Behaviours

• Agent for change
• Strong leader
• Organised and methodical
• Works well under pressure
• Pragmatic
• Shows initiative
• Amicable

Other

• Flexibility to travel as and when required
• Full UK driving licence
• Willing to undergo a Criminal Disclosure check

Additional Information

For you, as a potential UTAC team member, we believe that the international and diverse nature of our business combined with the passion, energy and friendliness of our people create a great place to work. UTAC is proud to be an equal opportunities employer, valuing inclusion and supporting our people to be themselves and at their very best.

By joining us you will gain access to a broad range of learning relevant to your role and personal development, as well as exposure to leading technologies and expertise.

Our reward and benefit programmes are designed to support our people with competitive and locally tailored packages combined with support for individual health and wellbeing both inside and outside of work.

In the UK this includes:

• Life Cover
• Access to a wide range of discounts and offers via the Perkz reward scheme
• Recognition awards linked to our UTAC values of Expertise, Innovation and Integrity.
• Healthcare cashback plans
• Generous holiday benefits
• Contributory pension schemes
• Attractive family friendly policies; maternity, paternity, shared parental leave, flexible working.
• Access to a variety of employee assistance support services.

Learn more about UTAC and what and how we do what we do at www.utac.com

Candidates for positions at UTAC must be able to provide proof of identity and eligibility to work in the country the role is based in. Immigration visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

Note to Recruitment Agencies

UTAC do not accept speculative applications from agencies for our open positions and any submissions made will not be accepted and no fees will be accepted or paid in respect of speculative CVs received.