Fire Protection Manager

Overview of the Fire Protection Manager role at Rolls‑Royce SMR. Location: Manchester, Derby, or Warrington with Hybrid Working. Department: Power Station Integration.

About The Role: Rolls‑Royce SMR is transforming the future of nuclear energy — and we’re looking for a Fire Protection Manager to help us deliver a safer, more sustainable world. You’ll take the lead in managing and delivering fire protection strategies across the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) power station design. Fire safety is a fundamental part of this mission—supporting plant protection, public safety, and regulatory approval.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Providing leadership, management and mentoring to a small team of fire safety engineers, helping shape the future capability of the function.
• Managing fire protection delivery and coordinating fire team priorities to ensure timely inputs to the design lifecycle, technical reviews and project maturity gates.
• Drive technical quality and delivery, helping to ensure all fire protection solutions are robust, cost‑effective, maintainable, and integrated across the plant.
• Support design integration through the definition and management of fire safety requirements through the full design lifecycle—from concept through to detailed design and verification.
• Collaborate with Safety Case, Systems Engineering, Layout, C&I, Civil/Structural and Mechanical teams to ensure integrated, coherent design solutions.

What Success Looks Like:

• Robust, coherent, and compliant fire safety strategy that underpin safe operation of the SMR plant.
• Clear, accurate, and high‑quality technical documentation delivered on time and to the required standard.
• Strong cross‑functional engagement, ensuring fire safety is seamlessly integrated into wider engineering solutions.
• Risks and issues are proactively managed, communicated, and resolved.
• A motivated and capable team of fire engineers who benefit from your leadership and technical mentorship.

What You’ll Bring:

We’d love to hear from you if you meet at least 75% of the following:

• Qualified to degree level or equivalent in suitable discipline.
• Experience in fire protection, fire safety engineering or fire protection system development.
• Ability to lead, mentor and develop other engineers.
• Experience managing engineering deliverables through a full lifecycle.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence and lead within multidisciplinary teams.
• Passion for safety, compliance, and continuous improvement.
• Understanding of fire codes, standards, and regulatory expectations.

Beneficial:

• Experience in nuclear, defence, oil & gas, energy or similarly regulated high‑hazard or complex industrial industries.
• Knowledge of internal hazards and nuclear fire safety requirements.
• Chartered or working toward chartership in a relevant engineering discipline.

Salary and Benefits:

We anticipate paying a salary of between £60,000.00 - £78,750.00 DOE. Bonus - Performance related target opportunity 12.5%. Benefits Allowance – £2,200 per annum, enabling you to create a bespoke package. Pension - 12% employer and 6% employee contributions. Holidays - 28 days holiday (+ public holidays) and the ability to buy or sell up to 4 days. Private Medical Insurance - BUPA single cover health care. Life Assurance - 6x pensionable pay. £250 - One-off payment for new starters for home office purchases.

Why Join Us?

You’ll be joining a forward-thinking organisation that values transparency, fairness, and innovation. We offer:

• A flexible, inclusive, and supportive working environment.
• Opportunities for career growth in a rapidly scaling business.
• A culture that values diversity, innovation, and continuous learning.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all backgrounds. Inclusivity is important to us, and as a Disability Confident organisation, we are committed to fair, supportive, and continually improving recruitment practices that ensure everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Confidence can sometimes hold us back from applying for a job. But we’ll let you in on a secret: there’s no such thing as a 'perfect' candidate. If you feel you meet 75% of the requirements for this role, we would love to hear from you. Also, if you are considering a career move or a sector-jump, please get in touch – we welcome applications from people with transferable skills.

Our Application Process:

Due to the safety regulations within the nuclear industry, applicants will be required to participate in additional screening. These are:

• Obtaining Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) clearance.
• Satisfactory completion of a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
• Satisfactory completion of a basic financial probity check.