Senior Rail Safety Risk Consultant

ARUP; Bristol; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Profit sharing

Private medical insurance

Life assurance

Income protection

Job summary

Arup is seeking a Senior Consultant to lead safety risk and reliability activities within our Rail Safety team in the UK. You will manage defined safety assurance tasks, perform hazard analyses, and guide safety workshops with clients and specialists across rail value streams.

The role emphasizes delivering safety cases, coordinating risk engineering activities, and supporting projects involving decarbonisation, digitalisation, and secure safety governance. Chartered Engineer status is required.

Qualifications

• Chartered Engineer with membership of a relevant professional institution.
• Proven experience leading safety and risk assessment programmes in rail systems.
• Strong understanding of applying UK/European railway legislation and standards.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery of defined safety assurance tasks and small projects to time, cost and quality.
• Deliver system safety activities including hazard identification and risk assessment.
• Chair safety workshops with clients and technical specialists.
• Coordinate safety and risk engineering activities, including safety case development and safety justification.
• Support clients adopting new technologies and evolving rail programmes, including decarbonisation and digitalisation.
• Collaborate with Independent Safety Assessors / ISA to support safety assessment processes.

Skills

Safety risk management

Hazard analysis (HAZID/HAZOP)

FTA / FMECA

Rail systems knowledge

ISA/AsBo collaboration

UK/EU rail standards knowledge

Languages (Danish/Dutch/German)

Education

Chartered Engineer

Job description

Joining Arup

Arup’s purpose, shared values and collaborative approach has set us apart for over 80 years, guiding how we shape a better world.

The Opportunity

Arup’s risk and reliability consultants provide risk analysis, reliability, safety engineering and safety management on some of the most complex and high profile infrastructure and transport projects globally. You will join Arup as a Senior Consultant within our Safety Risk and Reliability team. You will take a leading technical role on small to medium sized projects, or on defined workstreams within larger programmes.

The role will be predominantly focused on the rail industry, supporting safety assurance across the full rail value chain, including:

• Train control and signalling systems, including conventional and digital railway applications such as ETCS / ERTMS, CBTC, interlockings, train protection and traffic management systems.
• Rail infrastructure, including track, civil structures, stations, depots, power supply and associated fixed assets.
• Railway communications systems, including safety related and operational communications (e.g. GSM R, FRMCS, data and control networks).
• Rolling stock, including vehicle integration, interfaces, modification and change.
• Operations, maintenance and change, including operational concept development, degraded modes, asset management and system upgrades.

Projects supported by this role vary in their maturity, complexity and level of precedent. Some will involve well established technologies, operating models and regulatory expectations, while others will require careful interpretation of standards and the application of first principles engineering judgement where guidance is evolving or incomplete.

In this role you will:

• Lead delivery of defined safety assurance tasks, work packages or small projects, managing outputs to time, cost and quality.
• Deliver system safety activities including hazard identification, analysis and risk assessment (e.g. HAZID, HAZOP, FMECA, FTA).
• Chair and facilitate safety workshops with clients, partners and technical specialists.
• Be responsible for coordinating and implementing technical safety and risk engineering activities, including hazard identification and analysis, safety case and safety justification development, and safety management systems. These activities will support risk reduction and assurance in accordance with recognised industry standards, regulatory expectations and sound engineering principles.
• Be supporting clients as they introduce new or evolving technologies and respond to emerging strategic challenges, alongside more traditional rail programmes. These may include Decarbonisation and sustainability, Digitalisation and data driven railway systems, Climate resilience and adaptation.
• Work with Independent Safety Assessors / Assessment Bodies (ISA / AsBo), supporting preparation of safety evidence and responses to findings.

At Arup, you belong to an extraordinary collective – in which we encourage individuality to thrive. Our strength comes from how we respect, share and connect our diverse experiences, perspectives and ideas.

You will have the opportunity do socially useful work that has meaning – to Arup, to your career, to our members and to the clients and communities we serve.

Is this role right for you?

We’re looking for a candidate who:

• Is a Chartered Engineer with membership of a relevant professional institution.
• Has strong experience leading safety and risk assessment programmes (qualitative and quantitative) and experience in system safety engineering within the rail sector, applied to complex, multi disciplinary and safety critical systems.
• Has a proven understanding of safety assurance activities required to achieve Authorisation for Placing into Service for rail systems, subsystems or assets and solid understanding and experience of applying relevant UK and European railway legislation and standards, including ROGS, CSM RA, NTSNs, TSIs, and EN 50126 / 50716 / 50129.
• Has experience applying safety analysis techniques such as HAZID, HAZOP, FMECA, FTA, and developing safety cases and safety justifications.
• Has worked across multiple elements of the rail value chain (e.g. infrastructure, signalling, rolling stock, communications or operations).
• Has experience working as, or working closely with, Independent Safety Assessors / Assessment Bodies (ISA / AsBo), including supporting independent safety assessment and assurance processes.
• Is fluent in Danish, Dutch and/or German (spoken and/or written) to support European project delivery (non-essential requirement).

***Unfortunately, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK at the time of application and for the duration of employment. Any offer made will be subject to satisfactory proof of immigration status.***

What we offer you

At Arup, we care about each member’s success, so we can grow together.

Guided by our values, we provide an attractive total reward package that recognises the contribution of each of our members to our shared success. As well as competitive, fair and equitable pay, we offer a career in which all of our members can belong, grow and thrive – through benefits that support health and wellbeing, a wide range of learning opportunities and many possibilities to have an impact through the work they do.

We are owned in trust on behalf of our members, giving us the freedom, with personal responsibility, to set our own direction and choose work that aligns with our purpose and adds to Arup’s legacy. Our members collaborate on ambitious projects to deliver remarkable outcomes for our clients and communities. Profit Share is a key part of our reward, enabling members to share in the results of our collective efforts.

We also provide Private medical insurance, Life assurance, Accident insurance and Income protection cover. In addition, you’ll have access to flexible benefitsto help you look after all aspects of your wellbeing and give you the freedom and flexibility to find the best solutions for you, your family, and your individual needs.

Different People, Shared Values

Arup is an equal opportunity employer that actively promotes and nurtures a diverse and inclusive workforce. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds, regardless of age (within legal limits), gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, neurotype or mental health, race or ethnicity, faith or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and whether you’re pregnant or on family leave. We are an open environment that embraces diverse experiences, perspectives, and ideas – this drives our excellence.

Guided by our values and alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we create and contribute to equitable spaces and systems, while cultivating a sense of belonging for all. Our internal employee networks support our inclusive culture: from race, ethnicity and cross-cultural working to gender equity and LGBTQ+ and disability inclusion – we aim to create a space for you to express yourself and make a positive difference.

Discover more about life at Arup atwww.arup.com/careers/your-life-at-arup.

We are committed to making our recruitment process and workplaces accessible to all candidates.

Our Application Process

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Recruitment Agencies

We have a Preferred Supplier List of trusted partners to assist us when required and do not acknowledge any speculative CVs or unsolicited candidate introductions from agencies not on the list

Closing date: 4th September 2026

We may close the role earlier than the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications, so please ensure you apply early.