Head of Safety, Health & Environment

About Us

National Grid Electricity Distribution is a 6,500-strong team of frontline, support and administrative departments maintaining, repairing, and upgrading the electricity distribution network that serves 7.9 million customers across the Midlands, South Wales, and the Southwest. We keep the bright lights on in big cities such as Birmingham, Bristol, and Cardiff, and we take power to the furthest reaches of our rural landscape, across the Brecon Beacons, Dartmoor, and the Peak District.

As owners and operators of this electricity distribution network, the largest in the UK, we take great care in looking after every element, from underground cables to overhead lines and substations operating at voltages from 230 volts to 132,000 volts, enabling the electricity supply companies who use our system to deliver for their customers.

About The Role

Accountability for delivering a strong and deeply embedded safety culture across Electricity Distribution.

The Head of Safety, Health and Environment reports to the Director of Field Operations & Safety and is accountable for delivering a strong and deeply embedded safety focused culture across NGED.

They are accountable for defining the safety standards to ensure a core safety culture is embedded around the ED Business. These include defining and implementing the latest approaches to safety as well as establishing leading indicators and establishing a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

They are also responsible for the creation and maintenance of the health and environmental policies, and they set the responsible business charter for the ED business.

Key Accountabilities

As part of this critical role your accountabilities will include:

• Supporting the development of a safety and compliance culture within ED through defining, developing, and tracking the core safety metrics to be deployed across NGED, thereby supporting business adoption and compliance.
• Identifying and prioritising operational and SHE risks to the business, including the development and management of mitigation plans.
• Defining the core, SHE Metrics including the establishment of key leading safety indicators which can be tracked and monitored.
• Bringing industry wide safety best practice to support the implementation of SHE management to ED.
• Creating and embedding a culture of continuous improvement using root cause analysis and core analytical skills within the team.
• Ensuring that environmental and health policies and actions are optimised with reference to the regulatory framework and funding.

About You

We are looking for experienced candidates who possess the following:

• Setting high goals for the team which are both ambitious and achievable
• Having a relentless passion and drive for safety, health, and sustainability
• The ability to influence strategically at all levels of the organisation, across the group and externally
• Can communicate a compelling business case to the whole organisation to gain buy in for significant change
• Identifies and leverages individual strengths and potential within the team, creates cohesion across different functional areas of focus.
• The ability to motivate, counsel, coach, and develop direct reports, peers, and others.

More Information

Closing Date: 03/10/2023

Location: UK

Hiring Manager – Graham Halladay – Operations Director (NGED)

At National Grid, we work towards the highest standards in everything we do, including how we support, value and develop our people. Our aim is to encourage and support employees to thrive and be the best they can be. We celebrate the difference people can bring into our organisation, and welcome and encourage applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds, and offer flexible and tailored support, at home and in the office.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Electricity Distribution we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace for everyone. So, if you’re excited about this role but your experience or qualifications don’t match the job description exactly, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might just be the right person for our growing business in this role or another one.