Health & Safety Manager

Reporting to the Head of Transformation, we are seeking a strategic and highly influential Health & Safety Manager to join our team at the Aylesbury Innovation Centre. This role is essential for maintaining our safety framework and ensuring daily compliance across our operations. You will be a visible presence on the shop floor, ensuring that our safety systems and culture remain robust, compliant, and practical for our teams.

Salary: £50,000 – £70,000 (Depending on experience)

Work Pattern: 5 days on site

Key Responsibilities

Operational Safety & Compliance

• Act as the subject matter expert to the business, providing practical, hands‑on counsel on all daily H&S matters.
• Create and maintain our H&S management system, ensuring that daily policies comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and support our manufacturing environment.
• Support the H&S workstreams for regulatory and quality standards, including ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 22716 (GMP), and assist during external audits.
• Manage the lifecycle of hazardous substances on a day‑to‑day basis. You will simplify COSHH for a complex R&D and manufacturing setting, ensuring assessments are practical and effective for operators.
• Act as the designated Fire Safety Lead, coordinating fire prevention, emergency response, and managing the network of Fire Wardens across the site.

Site Engagement & Coordination

• Maintain a highly visible presence, conducting regular site walks, risk assessments, and spot‑checks across the factory floor, warehousing, and R&D labs.
• Build high‑trust relationships with Managers to support H&S ownership within their respective teams without having direct line authority.
• Execute high emotional intelligence and active listening skills to read the room, understand colleague frustrations, and build trust so everyone feels comfortable reporting hazards.
• Act as a pragmatic persuader, selling the ‘why’ behind safety policies.
• Deliver practical H&S training, inductions, and toolbox talks to operational leaders and staff, ensuring safety is an integral part of daily production meetings.
• Coordinate the H&S Committee, facilitating a collaborative forum for employee engagement and safety discussions.
• Maintain a comprehensive H&S dashboard and ensure all daily compliance logs are up to date. Create weekly reporting that focuses on lead indicators and predictive trends, rather than lagging incident rates.

Skills & Qualifications

Essential Qualifications & Experience

• NEBOSH General Certificate is essential (NEBOSH National Diploma or equivalent Level 6 qualification is highly advantageous).
• TechIOSH or GradIOSH status.
• Proven experience as a Health and Safety Manager or Advisor within a fast‑paced, highly regulated manufacturing environment (cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, or FMCG).
• Demonstrable experience in managing day‑to‑day H&S for multi‑disciplinary sites, including manufacturing, warehousing and R&D laboratory operations.

Expertise and Leadership

• Strong understanding of UK H&S legislation, with the ability to interpret and apply it pragmatically in an operational setting.
• Experience supporting H&S components for external regulatory inspections, i.e. ISO.
• Strong analytical skills with a data‑driven approach to problem‑solving.
• Demonstrate the courage, conviction, and fairness to stand firm when lives or compliance are at stake, enforcing rules impartially to earn respect.
• Continuously learn, acting with constructive anticipation, naturally scanning for what could go wrong and planning contingencies without creating a culture of fear.
• Full proficiency in Google Suite and experience with modern H&S management software.

Benefits

• Wellbeing: 25 days holiday + bank holidays, Flexible & Hybrid working, Private Medical Insurance, Mental Health support.
• Rewards: 75% Discount + Annual Product Allowance, Annual Performance Bonus, Long Service Awards.
• Growth: Up‑skilling support, regular Lunch & Learns, Flexible Career opportunities.
• Impact: 2 Volunteering days per year, Matched Charitable Giving Scheme.

Inclusive Hiring Standards

• Fair Chance Hiring: To support systemic justice, we do not request criminal record or credit checks during the application stage (unless legally required for the role).
• Blind Recruiting: We use anonymised CV screening to focus purely on your talent and reduce bias.
• Disability Confident: As a Level 2 employer, we guarantee an interview to disabled applicants who meet the minimum role criteria.
• Immigration Integrity: We welcome all applicants within current Home Office guidance on sponsorship and Right to Work. We never artificially manipulate role scopes or salaries to meet requirements.

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