Chief Safety Officer

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 284785**Salary**:

- £74,555 - £123,453- Salary offered will be dependent on skills and experience.**Job grade**:

- SCS Pay Band 1- Dstl Level 9 - NOTE - This is an SCS equivalent grade only and not a SCS1 role**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- DSTL - Operations Division**Type of role**:

- Health and Safety
- Senior leadership**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Dstl Porton DownAbout the job

**Job summary**:
Dstl undertakes work which can be easily categorised as ‘high hazard’. From undertaking research into protection against chemical and biological warfare agents to novel explosives, from lasers to cyber, operating complex sites to deploying people to military operations, the range and depth of hazards to be managed is extensive.

Our most important priority is to undertake our work safely, and to ensure that the technical advice we offer others keeps them safe. The Chief Safety Officer role is the owner of the overall safety capability and accountable for ensuring safety across Dstl and its partners and suppliers.

The Chief Safety Officer, reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer, will define the purpose, strategy and performance targets of the organisation in regard to Safety & Environmental Protection and manage external relationships at the highest level. Specialist work undertaken at this level involves thought leadership, building scientific or technical theory, often resulting in a new perspective and a change in strategic thinking. Strong external links are a key part of work at this level as is a consistent drive for excellence, setting high standards and being seen to maintain them. This new role will set and lead the safety culture in Dstl, set the strategic safety direction, advise and assure safe delivery across Dstl.

This role offers a unique, challenging and stretching opportunity for an experienced health and safety professional to work in a large, specialist, multi-site operational delivery environment. The role is a member of the Dstl’s senior leadership team and provides strong and collegiate leadership to ensure Dstl can support a range of sensitive operational activities in a safe, secure, resilient, well governed and assured manner in order to deliver Science & Technology.

To be successful in this role you will need to demonstrate agility of thought and approach in managing complex safety risks. You will be expected to generate creative solutions to complex problems that balance risk and generate operational agility where possible whilst ensuring legislative and policy compliance. Drawing on your professional training and experience you will be able to successfully demonstrate your ability to establish, develop, maintain and sustain a wide range of professional relationships to enable future business success with key stakeholders.

**We particularly welcome female and ethnic minority applicants and those from the LGBTQI community, as they are under-represented within Dstl at these levels.**

**Job description**:
**In this role you will**:

- Define the purpose, strategy and performance targets of the organisations Health, Safety and Environment Protection (HS&EP) capability; being accountable for a positive safety culture in Dstl with continuous improvement in all aspects of HS&EP.
- Provide the CEO with thought leadership within the HS&EP profession, building on professional theory and resulting in a new perspective and a change in strategic thinking
- Together with the Chief Delivery Officer (CDO), the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the Heads of Portfolio and Transformation, consistently drive for excellence within HS&EP, setting and maintaining high standards and delivering through other leaders
- Through collaboration with CDO, COO and Chief Technical Officer, ensure that any requirements for new programmed work have been assessed, and access to the correct environment and resources exists to deliver safely
- Lead the HS&EP capability; driving a positive safety culture in Dstl with continuous improvement in all aspects of HS&EP
- Continuously and pro-actively use appropriate mechanisms to monitor and escalate Dstl’s position in terms of overall strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Taking pre-emptive action to set the direction of HS&EP roles throughout Dstl to provide the strategy, policy, standards and is delivering safely and operating an appropriate, risk-based safety system.
- Manage internal and external relationships at the highest level - including Defence Safety Authority and external peer public bodies
- Ensure and assure the safety management system aligns with other business disciplines and current best practice technique and evolving international standards (ISO 45001). Assure that changes to the safety management system have a proper peer re