Safety Assurance Lead

Who are we?

South Western Railway (SWR) operates over 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 people. We provide easy and convenient mobility, connecting people and communities in South West London, southern counties of England, and the Isle of Wight.

Join our team and help us continue to bring people together to get the most out of life.

About the job

The main purpose of this role is to ensure South Western Railway conducts a Safe, Secure and Reliable Operation through delivery of its internal and external audit plans. The post holder will collaborate with colleagues working across all departments to reinforce effective monitoring of standards and driving continuous improvement. The postholder will lead on developing the annual Occupational Safety audit plan, assessing emerging trends and making recommendations to the Senior Safety Assurance Manager.

The post holder's primary objective will be to ensure South Western Railway keep its staff and customers safe, by managing effective process control in relation to standards set by the safety management systems, managing audit findings, assign action owners, and track recommendations through to completion.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Deliver Occupational Safety and Security audits as a lead auditor, making appropriate recommendations, assigning action owners, agreeing timeframes, and tracking to completion.
• Develop annual audit plans, advising the Senior Safety Assurance Manager on scope in relation to the audit strategy.
• Produce updates regarding audit activity and actions on behalf of the Senior Safety Assurance Manager for review at key meetings.
• Manage the company action tracking system and associated audit actions to ensure that all significant recommendations from internal audits are logged and their progress tracked to completion.
• Collaborate with stakeholders within the business and advise on matters of Safety.
• Participate in key industry groups as determined by the Senior Safety Assurance Manager.
• Maintain theoretical and practical competence in the field of Safety, including the application of relevant legislation and industry requirements.
• This role will incorporate a specialism in Contractor Safety. The appointee will act as South Western Railways representative in all safety matters relating to contractor activity.

 As a minimum, you will need to have:

• Formal Safety qualification such as NEBOSH General Certificate or equivalent.
• Working knowledge of Construction Design and Management Regulations.
• Experience of auditing within a complex safety management system, preferably within the transport industry.
• Excellent understanding of Safety Management Systems, Risk management and audit control.
• Be able to communicate audit findings via report writing.
• Be confident in challenging unsafe working practices or conditions.
• Ability to work on own initiative, self-motivated and able to set and achieve demanding targets.

 Desirable 

• Demonstrable experience of assurance including control of contractors.
• Working knowledge of audit tools.

About the location

South Western Railways HQ is based on the 4th Floor at South Bank Central, a stone's throw from the River Thames and a 10 minute walk from our busiest station, Waterloo. It is local to many well-known attractions, restaurants and retail facilities and is easily accessible by public transport. 

Working pattern

Working an average of 37 hours per week over 5 days, Monday - Friday 

The Reward

In return we offer a competitive salary and a variety of valuable benefits, including:

• Free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employees
• Free leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependent)
• 75% discount on many other train operating companies
• Full training and support with development
• Large range of exclusive retail offers
• Excellent pension scheme

We all belong at SWR. Our vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, across its group of businesses, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.

We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.

We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.

We review all roles and job descriptions to ensure they are accessible and, where possible, we support and provide flexible working options; we recommend that you refer to each vacancy description for further details.

If you require additional support to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below.  We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply.

https://exceptionalindividuals.com/neurodiversity/

https://www.healthassured.org/blog/neurodiversity/