We have an exciting opportunity to join the Merseyrail Safety team as a Safety Business Advisor – Operations, MEC & Emergency Planning.

Reporting to the Head of Safety, you will provide technical support, advice and assurance to ensure suitable and sufficient health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) practices are in place for Merseyrail’s Operations management function across the network so that the business complies with industry and statutory requirements. 

You will provide assurance that train operations (including traincrew management) is being conducted in accordance with all applicable health and safety legislation, regulation and industry standards, and support & deliver robust processes to provide meaningful safety and security information to the Company’s employees which engender measurable improvements to Merseyrail’s safety culture.

Communication skills will be an essential part of this roles as you will build relationships with key partners to ensure the effective delivery of the safety strategy and annual improvement plans.

In this role you will carry out assurance activities to ensure compliance with standards and continuous improvement, which will include establishing, tracking and enabling delivery of any recommendations.

Previous operational rail experience will be essential in this role. Previous experience in a managerial, investigatory or compliance role would be beneficial.

To be successful in this role you will need to be able to:

• Contribute to annual health & safety improvement plans
• Coach and support the operations and management teams to ensure safety culture and practices continue to mature.
• Assist the Head of Safety in ensuring that serious high potential safety of the line and personal accidents and incidents (within Operations) are investigated to the appropriate degree with root cause correctly established. Co-ordinate the taking of appropriate remedial action and ensure an effective process and lessons learnt database is in place to deal with statutory reporting requirements.
• Develop suitable leading and lagging operational safety key performance indicators (KPIs), monitor and analyse the results obtained for their effectiveness in managing operational safety risk.
• Lead the development and implementation of a robust set of emergency plans for Merseyrail. Co-ordinate and test the arrangements for table top and live emergency planning exercises, including participation with external bodies.
• Support or lead, as appropriate, incident investigations and ensure the delivery of recommendations.
• The successful candidate must hold a minimum of a level 3 safety qualification such as Nebosh General Certificate, But preferably hold or be working towards a level 6 Qualification in Safety, and be able to demonstrate a good understanding of operational safety. You will need good computer literacy, numerical and oral skills including word with a strong focus on excel and report writing skills. The successful candidate should also have the ability and confidence in building excellent working relationships with colleagues and internal/external customers alike. 

Successful candidates may be invited to complete an online assessment and attend a competency based interview

For further information about this post, please contact via email, Mark Finney, Head of Safety, mfinney@merseyrail.org