Energy Transition Risk & Safety Consultants | All Grades
The role
We're looking for strategic thinkers who enjoy combining technical expertise, different perspectives, creativity and practical judgement to solve complex engineering and safety challenges. Your work will span renewable energy technologies, safety disciplines and regulatory frameworks, helping clients deliver the energy transition safely, effectively and sustainably.
This is a varied role suited to someone who enjoys taking ownership, building strong client relationships and leading projects from initial opportunity through to successful delivery. Depending on your experience and interests, you'll work across one or more of our Technical Safety, Process Safety, Functional Safety and HSSSE (Health, Safety, Security, Sustainability and Environment) Management service lines, moving confidently between strategic thinking and hands-on delivery. You’ll also:
- Build relationships with prospective clients, understand their challenges and effectively articulate how Cairn Risk can help.
- Develop practical, proportionate solutions and communicate them through clear, compelling proposals.
- Initiate complex or novel projects, aligning key stakeholders around clear objectives, scope and delivery plans.
- Lead multidisciplinary project teams, providing direction, coordination and support to achieve successful outcomes.
- Contribute directly to project delivery through activities such as facilitating workshops, delivering training, preparing reports, presenting findings and undertaking specialist safety studies aligned with your expertise.
- Build strong relationships through face-to-face engagement and be willing to travel when workshops, meetings or project activities benefit from being delivered in person.
- Delegate effectively, making the best use of the skills and experience across the team while providing clear direction, handovers and appropriate oversight.
- Take full ownership of your projects, ensuring deliverables are of a high quality, delivered on time, within budget and meet both client and business expectations.
- Manage project budgets proactively, monitoring performance against proposals and anticipating and addressing issues before they arise.
- Seek, welcome and act on feedback from clients and colleagues, demonstrating a genuine commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
- Coach and support colleagues by providing constructive feedback, sharing knowledge and helping others develop.
This role is ideally suited to someone who thrives in a varied and dynamic environment. You'll be comfortable managing multiple projects and priorities simultaneously, taking the initiative to lead work independently while recognising that the best solutions are developed through collaboration. You'll enjoy working with a diverse range of clients and colleagues, drawing on the collective expertise of the wider Cairn Risk team to deliver practical, high-quality solutions that make a genuine difference to the energy transition.
The challenges you’ll solve
The most rewarding engineering projects are rarely the simplest.
They require people who can understand different technologies, bring together different perspectives and develop solutions that are practical, proportionate and effective.
They often involve uncertainty, competing stakeholder priorities, evolving technologies, commercial pressures, incomplete information and changing regulatory expectations. Navigating this complexity requires technical knowledge, sound judgement and the ability to work collaboratively with others to reach balanced, well-informed decisions.
These are exactly the kinds of challenges our clients bring to us.
At Cairn Risk, we work alongside developers, owner-operators, investors and technology providers across the energy transition, helping them manage engineering risk throughout the lifecycle of their projects and assets. Whether supporting the development of new technologies, enabling major infrastructure projects or improving the safety and performance of existing assets, our role is to help clients understand their challenges, identify practical and proportionate solutions, and deliver projects that are safe, effective and commercially viable.
The opportunity
We're experiencing sustained growth and are looking for people who want to grow with us, supporting an exciting and diverse pipeline of work.
As part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to work on projects that help shape the future of the energy transition across a wide range of technologies. You may deliver specialist consultancy assignments, provide long-term strategic support to clients or fulfil key duty holder roles on major infrastructure projects. Whether undertaking engineering assessments, facilitating workshops, delivering training or advising senior decision-makers, your work will always be grounded in sound technical thinking and practical engineering judgement.
Working alongside developers, designers, contractors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), you'll contribute to projects across a wide range of energy transition technologies including onshore and offshore wind, solar, hydrogen, bioenergy, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and emerging technologies that continue to shape the energy transition. Through your work, you'll help protect people, assets and the environment while enabling the delivery of the critical infrastructure needed to achieve net zero.
Rather than recruiting for a specific grade or narrowly defined role, we're looking for adaptable, versatile people who enjoy tackling different challenges and are comfortable applying sound risk management principles across a broad range of projects.
Knowledge and experience provide an important foundation, but we're equally interested in how you think, how you approach problems and how you work with other people. We value curiosity, sound judgement, collaboration and a willingness to learn every bit as much as technical expertise.
Whether you're looking to take the next step in your career or bring your experience into a consulting environment, we'll bring you into the business at a level that reflects your knowledge, experience and potential. From there, we'll support your continued development through mentoring, collaboration and exposure to a wide variety of clients, technologies and engineering challenges.
Who we're looking for
Whether your background is in engineering, operations, design, technical safety, process safety, functional safety, HSSSE management or another related discipline, we're interested in people with the mindset and ambition to continue learning, broaden their experience and help clients solve challenging risk management problems.
Where you’ll work
We've invested in systems that enable our people to work effectively and flexibly, wherever they are.
We currently have people based in Glasgow, London and Dublin, as well as remote workers throughout the UK, and we'll continue to grow wherever we find the right people. We're always happy to discuss flexible working arrangements, while recognising that collaboration remains at the heart of Cairn Risk.
Wherever your primary place of work is based, you'll be expected to travel periodically to work alongside colleagues and support clients in person when the project or opportunity calls for it.
Why join Cairn Risk?
We're an independent, employee-owned consultancy with a simple purpose: helping enable the energy transition in a safe, effective and sustainable way.
Employee ownership is more than a business structure; it's part of how we think. We believe the people who understand the business best should have a genuine influence over its future and share in the success they help create. Everyone is encouraged to contribute ideas; improve the way we work and play an active role in the continued development of the business.
As a growing, independent consultancy, you'll have genuine opportunities to influence how we work, help shape new service offerings and contribute to the continued growth of the business. Good ideas can come from anywhere. We encourage people to challenge convention, improve how we work and help shape the future direction of Cairn Risk.
You'll work directly with clients, take ownership of meaningful work and be encouraged to broaden your experience across different technologies, sectors and service areas. We trust our people to use their judgement, support one another and continually look for better ways of delivering value to our clients.
Our success has been built on the quality of our people, the strength of our relationships and a shared commitment to practical thinking, collaboration and continuous improvement.
Rewards & benefits
We believe our people are our greatest asset and have developed a reward package that supports you professionally and personally.
Our benefits include:
- Competitive salary
- Employee Ownership, Share Options and Profit Share
- 7.5% employer pension contribution
- Private healthcare (including immediate family)
- Life assurance
- Income protection
- Flexible and hybrid working
- Buy-and-sell holiday scheme
- Electric vehicle scheme
- Ongoing mentoring, coaching and professional development
Let’s start a conversation
We're always interested in meeting thoughtful, collaborative people who enjoy solving complex engineering challenges.
Whether you're already working in consultancy or looking to bring your experience into a consulting environment, we'd love to hear from you.
If you're looking for a role where you can make a real difference, continue to grow professionally and help shape the future of the energy transition, we'd welcome the opportunity to start a conversation.
If this sounds like the kind of work you enjoy - and the kind of team you'd like to be part of - we'd love to hear from you.
