Overview
Head of Health, Safety & Wellbeing – Construction Safety – Reading, Berkshire, RG1 8DB
Contract: Permanent
Salary: Competitive salary offering up to £90,000 per annum, depending on experience
This role is to develop and lead the health, safety, and well-being strategy for all construction-related activities across the business, ensuring compliance with CDM 2015 regulations, and embedding Human and Organisational Performance (HOP) principles. This role will champion system-focused, proactive risk management throughout the design and construction lifecycle—supporting teams to deliver safely, efficiently, and collaboratively.
What you’ll be doing as the Head of Health, Safety & Wellbeing – Construction Safety
- Act as the organisation’s lead competent person on CDM 2015 and construction health, safety and well-being. Support designers and project teams during pre-construction, manage statutory notifications (F10), assess contractor competence, and coordinate health and safety information.
- Coordinate risk reviews during design stages to identify buildability hazards and ensure appropriate design risk mitigation.
- Conduct inspections, audits, and assurance activities across construction sites to verify compliance with company standards and CDM duties.
- Develop and enforce site-specific HSE arrangements, including permit-to-work, RAMS validation, toolbox talks, and emergency planning.
- Facilitate HOP-informed learning activities such as “work-as-done” reviews, learning teams, and after-action reviews—shifting culture from blame to systemic learning.
- Partner with delivery teams to integrate safety into work planning, ensuring systems are designed to anticipate error and support workforce adaptability.
- Lead investigations with a focus on understanding context and conditions, applying root cause analysis that aligns with HOP principles and supports continuous improvement.
- Deliver inspiring safety briefings, inductions, and multi-disciplinary forums to enhance cultural ownership of safety and wellbeing.
- Maintain and report on safety performance metrics, audit results, inspection records, and CDM compliance documentation.
Base location: Reading – Hybrid
Working pattern: 36 Hours
What you should bring to the role
To thrive in this role, the essential criteria you’ll need is:
- NEBOSH Construction Certificate. (minimum); NEBOSH Diploma or Masters degree preferred.
- Membership of IOSH or equivalent.
- Professional membership with a relevant body. (e.g., APS, IIRSM, ICE H&S Register)
- Recognised qualification in Occupational Health & Safety, Construction Management, or Engineering. (minimum HND-level or equivalent)
- Extensive experience in UK construction HSW roles. With CDM 2015 responsibilities.
- Demonstrable knowledge of UK construction hazards and safety risk controls.
- Proven delivery of HOP tools in construction or high-risk environments.
- Track record of conducting audits, inspections, and leading incident investigations.
- Confident communicator and facilitator with experience running safety briefings, workshops, and stakeholder engagements.
- Strong digital literacy, including use of safety management platforms.
- CDM 2015 competency: experience fulfilling Principal Designer, Client Adviser, and general CDM Adviser roles.
- Strong understanding of UK CDM regulations, able to implement compliance structures and lead design and construction safety coordination.
- Construction site safety expertise: risk assessments, safety inspections, permit-to-work systems, toolbox talks, and emergency response planning.
- Incident investigation skills: root cause analysis driven by HOP principles. Capability to lead no-blame reviews and learning-focused after-action assessments.
- Competent in design-phase reviews, competence assessments, and statutory notifications.
What’s in it for you?
- Competitive salary offering up to £90,000 per annum, depending on experience.
- Annual Leave – 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service. (plus bank holidays)
- Car Allowance.
- Performance-related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets.
- Generous Pension Scheme through AON.
- Private Medical Health Care.
- Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of you and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.
Find out more about our benefits and perks
Who are we?
We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.
Learn more about our purpose and values
Working at Thames Water
Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.
If you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.
Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.
We’re committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, whether that’s extra time, accessible formats, or anything else just let us know, we’re here to help and support.
When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business and meet colleagues.
Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
IMPORTANT: Before applying for this role, please make sure you have the right to work in the country where the role is based. Unless it clearly stipulates within in the job advert above that the hiring company is looking to or able to sponsor applicants it is deemed that the hiring employer will only consider applications from those able to comply with and work in the country where the role is based.
