Health & Safety Director in Maidenhead

Location: Maidenhead, SL6 7DX, 2 days a week in the office

Contract: Permanent

Salary: Starting from £80k depending on skills and experience

Hours: Full time, 37 hours, Mon - Fri

We are seeking a visible, energetic and credible Health and Safety Director to lead the next stage of our global safety journey. Building on an established management system and global standards, you will ensure that safety remains central to everyday decisions and working practices, and that good performance never leads to complacency. This is a role for a strategic leader who is equally comfortable influencing in the boardroom, supporting leaders and spending time with teams across our sites and operations.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Own the effectiveness and continuous improvement of the global Health and Safety management system, ensuring that it remains practical, proportionate, risk-based and aligned with the organisation’s strategic and operational needs.
• Drive consistent application of global standards across all areas and sites, helping leaders and employees understand what those standards mean for their everyday decisions, behaviours and working practices.
• Engage directly with employees, managers, Area Advisors and senior leaders, recognise good practice and ensure that emerging issues are understood and addressed at source.
• Set the roadmap for the next stage of safety culture maturity, strengthening leadership ownership, employee involvement, accountability and confidence to speak up and intervene.
• Keep safety visible and relevant, sustaining constructive vigilance around critical controls, routine activities and the quality of everyday execution.
• Evolve the global learning strategy so that training is engaging and responsive to risk, with success measured through understanding, practical application, leadership capability and lasting behavioural impact rather than course completion alone.
• Oversee risk assessment, critical control assurance, incident management and investigation, ensuring that assurance activity tests whether controls work in practice and not simply whether documentation is complete.
• Identify themes, share lessons promptly and verify that corrective action delivers sustainable improvement.
• Maintain a comprehensive, risk-based programme of audits and reviews, and provide concise, insightful reporting on performance, material risks, control effectiveness and priorities.
• Monitor relevant legislation and professional practice across the countries in which we operate, keeping policies, standards and local arrangements current and compliant.
• Lead, coach and enable the Health and Safety team, working closely with Area Advisors, coordinators and local leaders to build capability and translate corporate expectations into appropriate local practice.
• Manage the annual budget and external resources according to risk and measurable impact, lead the annual performance review with senior leadership and prepare the annual Health and Safety report for Commissioners.

What You Need To Have

• Be an established Health and Safety leader with a record of successfully implementing change in a complex organisation.
• A degree, NEBOSH Diploma or equivalent, together with CMIOSH status or a similar professional standard.
• A strong understanding of Health and Safety law, international regulatory frameworks, management systems, auditing and culture-based compliance.
• Pragmatic and an influential leader who can make sense of complex and sensitive issues, develop workable solutions and communicate clearly with diverse audiences.
• Able to combine strategic perspective with attention to operational detail, give clear direction while remaining fair and empathetic, and build strong relationships across cultures.
• Experience of working overseas, within the charity or not-for-profit sector, or speaking a second language would be advantageous.
• A valid passport to be able to travel.
• A full UK driving licence.

Who We Are

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an organisation dedicated to honouring and caring for the graves and memorials of service members who died in the two World Wars. The work of the commission is not only out on the field, but in our head office too, which contributes to the meaningful commemoration of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

What We Offer

• 25 days annual leave, rising by 1 day per year of service up to a maximum of 30.
• 1 privilege day, half day on Maundy Thursday, paid public holidays and paid time off between Christmas and New Year.
• Flexible working arrangements.
• Generous Pension Scheme, with CWGC contributing up to 10%.
• Life Assurance.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Cycle To Work & Electric Vehicle schemes.

This role will close when we have received a reasonable number of suitable applications. We believe creating a diverse environment enriches our organisation and strengthens our mission, therefore, we welcome applications from everybody. Join our inclusive environment where every individual is valued.