Principal Safety Engineer

Mint Selection are partnered with a leading organisation within the energy sector to recruit an experienced Principal Safety Engineer to support a growing portfolio of flexible generation and energy storage developments across the UK and Germany.

The position will lead technical safety across the portfolio, covering process safety and functional safety from optioneering and design through to implementation and operations. You will set a consistent approach to safety engineering, act as the intelligent customer for third party safety studies and develop less experienced safety engineers.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide subject matter expert input to the design, specification and requisitioning of BESS and gas-fired generation plant, including evaluating options and contractors for future schemes.
• Define and manage the safety engineering deliverables plan for each project phase, prioritising and distributing work across internal staff and third party contractors to keep delivery on programme.
• Act as the intelligent customer for third party scopes such as HAZOPs, detailed assessments and consequence modelling, defining scopes, placing contracts and managing delivery.
• Lead safety assurance of design contractor and consultant deliverables, ensuring compliance with legislation, internal standards and good engineering practice.
• Review and contribute to technical safety studies, safety cases and COMAH safety reports, directing activities to keep regulatory compliance on track.
• Ensure UK project compliance with GSMR, PSR, DSEAR, PUWER and functional safety standards (IEC 61508 and IEC 61511).
• Provide safety engineering input to German projects, ensuring designs and documentation align with local regulatory requirements and standard ways of working.
• Support operational readiness by ensuring safety cases, operating envelopes and emergency response plans reflect design intent.
• Take ownership of the process safety and functional safety elements of the HSE management system.
• Lead and support corporate audits and inspections of operational sites to confirm continued compliance with legislation.
• Coach and manage less experienced safety engineers, setting clear scopes of work and supporting their development.
• Capture and implement safety engineering lessons learned across sites and future project planning.

Experience Required

• A degree in Safety Engineering, Process or Chemical Engineering or a related discipline, plus Chartered Engineer status with IChemE, EI, IMechE or an equivalent recognised institution, is essential.
• Minimum of 10 years in senior safety engineering roles within power, utilities, renewables, oil and gas or similar sectors.
• Experience across BESS, gas-fired power generation or hydrogen plant is an advantage.
• SME level knowledge of process safety and functional safety in plant design and operation.
• Detailed knowledge of industry standards including NFPA, API and IGEM, and UK frameworks including DSEAR, PUWER, CDM, PSR and COMAH.
• A working understanding of German regulations and standard ways of working on energy projects.
• Experience leading and facilitating safety engineering workshops and producing and critiquing detailed safety studies.
• Specialist qualifications in areas such as loss prevention, explosion modelling or FS Eng are an advantage.
• Confident engaging at all levels, managing own and junior staff workloads and challenging issues with authority.
• Ability to work on a hybrid basis, with regular travel to project and operational sites across the UK and occasional travel to Germany.

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