Job Title: Health & Safety Lead, Development
Location: London
Job Summary:
Join a team defining the future of safe, sustainable, high-performance data infrastructure projects. As our Development Health & Safety Lead, you will champion and be responsible for safety, compliance, and risk mitigation across the entire capital project lifecycle, from design, initial ground-breaking and civil works through to structural build, MEP installation, and testing & commissioning. Your primary mission is to embed a world-class safety culture across our development sites, ensuring all projects are delivered entirely incident-free.
What we are looking for:
A degree educated professional with a proven track record in the delivery of large scale commercial or industrial projects with international workforces. With a passion for continuous improvement in all aspects of EHS within and outside projects, who can demonstrate extensive hands-on experience managing large-scale build safety for critical infrastructure, or heavy industrial developments.
Policy/Project Planning and Risk Management:
- Develop and implement construction EHS policies, project safety plans, and field procedures to ensure compliance with Verne and customer standards.
- Oversee project hazard analyses, risk assessments, and regular site inspections to proactively identify and mitigate safety concerns.
- Review, optimize and enforce strict risk mitigation strategies specific to high-risk build activities, including heavy lifting operations, structural works, working at heights, excavation works, temporary works and commissioning works.
Regulatory Compliance:
- Ensure strict adherence to all local construction regulations and relevant EU safety directives.
- Manage the tracking, and ongoing maintenance of all essential construction-related H&S permits, environmental licenses, and project documentation.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for external regulatory bodies during construction site inspections, audits, and official inquiries.
- Demonstrate strong working knowledge of ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 management systems within a capital project delivery context.
Incident Management & Prevention:
- Provide end-to-end construction incident management support, leading comprehensive investigations for all on-site accidents, near-misses, and safety observations alongside local teams and principal contractors.
- Conduct thorough Root Cause Analyses reports and partner with engineering and construction teams to implement and track robust Corrective and Preventative Actions (CAPA) to full closure.
Training & Safety Culture:
- Working with project stakeholders, design, deliver, and continuously optimize construction site EHS inductions, specialized safety briefings, and toolbox talk frameworks.
- Foster a proactive, No-Blame behavioural safety culture on site rooted in transparent reporting, empowering every contractor and worker with Stop Work Authority.
- Coordinate on-site construction safety committees and align project leadership with field safety representatives.
Contractor & Vendor Safety:
- Lead the safety pre-qualification, review, and approval process for principal contractors, vendors, and specialized construction partners.
- Audit and approve contractor Construction Phase Plans, where applicable RAMS and site-specific Permit-to-Work protocols.
- Enforce strict competency and training verification gates for all on-site construction personnel and contractors before works commence.
- Conduct regular safety walks, behavioural safety audits, and formal evaluations of contractor activities to maintain an uncompromising standard of site safety.
- Operational handover
- Lead the safety component of the testing, commissioning, and final handover phases, ensuring a clean, thoroughly documented transition to the Operations team.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in occupational health & safety or higher.
- Bolt on additional EHS qualifications.
- 10+ years of progressive EHS leadership experience within large-scale industrial construction, hyperscale data centre builds, high-tech manufacturing developments, or critical infrastructure projects.
- Deep understanding of construction safety laws, example CDM 2015 (UK) and wider EU/Nordic construction health and safety directives etc.