Health and Safety Manager

VIRTUS Data Centres is the UK’s fastest-growing data centre provider. We own, design, build, and operate some of the most energy-efficient, flexible, and secure data centres in Europe. In 2023, we announced our expansion into continental Europe, starting with Berlin and Milan, with plans to grow further across the region. At VIRTUS, we aim to be a positive force in the fourth industrial revolution—delivering innovative solutions while staying firmly rooted in our core values: Clarity & Quality, Accountability, Customer Commitment, Purposeful Innovation, and Capability & Growth.

The Health and Safety Manager – UK Construction Lead will support the organisation in discharging its client duties for construction works by ensuring suitable arrangements are in place for planning, procuring, managing and monitoring projects. The role will provide competent health and safety advice, set clear expectations for contractors and designers, monitor contractor performance, and provide assurance that construction works are being delivered safely, legally and in line with organisational standards. This is a 3-year contract.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Support the organisation in fulfilling its client duties under applicable construction health and safety legislation, including the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 where relevant.
• Help establish and maintain suitable client-side arrangements for managing construction projects, including governance, roles, responsibilities, competence checks, communication routes and escalation processes.
• Advise procurement, project and estates teams on health and safety requirements when appointing designers, principal designers, principal contractors and other contractors.
• Review contractor pre-qualification information, health and safety competence evidence, tender submissions and project-specific safety proposals.
• Ensure relevant pre-construction information is identified, prepared and issued to designers and contractors at the appropriate stage.
• Review construction phase plans, risk assessments, method statements, permits, lifting plans, traffic management plans and other key contractor safety documentation from a client assurance perspective.
• Monitor contractor health and safety performance through site inspections, assurance visits, audits, meetings, KPI reviews and close-out tracking.
• Challenge unsafe practices, poor planning or weak contractor controls and escalate significant concerns through agreed governance routes.
• Track contractor non-conformances, improvement actions, incidents, near misses and lessons learned, ensuring effective corrective actions are agreed and completed.
• Review contractor arrangements for high-risk activities, including working at height, excavations, lifting operations, temporary works, plant and vehicle movements, isolation works, fire risk, confined spaces and interface risks with occupied premises.
• Promote effective cooperation and coordination between the client, designers, principal contractors, contractors, site occupiers and operational teams.
• Prepare client-side health and safety performance reports, assurance summaries, trend analysis and improvement recommendations for project and senior leadership teams.
• Support incident investigations involving contractors, ensuring client-side actions, contractor actions and wider learning are captured and implemented.
• Confirm that suitable welfare, emergency arrangements, access controls and site interface arrangements are in place and maintained by the relevant contractor or principal contractor.
• Contribute to post-project reviews, contractor performance evaluations and improvements to construction safety standards, frameworks and procurement requirements.
• Support CDM compliance for projects relating to operational Data Centres (DCs) as required, including reviewing client arrangements, contractor controls, site interfaces, live operational risks and coordination with operational stakeholders.

Qualifications:

• NEBOSH Construction Certificate, NEBOSH General Certificate with strong construction experience, or equivalent recognised health and safety qualification.
• Strong working knowledge of UK construction health and safety legislation and good practice, including client duties under CDM and contractor management requirements.
• Proven experience in a client-side, contractor assurance, construction safety, facilities, estates, infrastructure or project governance environment.
• Experience assessing contractor competence, reviewing safety documentation, conducting assurance visits and monitoring contractor performance.
• Experience influencing project teams and contractors without relying solely on direct line management authority.
• Membership of IOSH or another relevant professional body is desirable.
• Additional training in CDM, contractor management, auditing, temporary works, fire safety, working at height, lifting operations or behavioural safety is desirable.

Key Skills and Competencies

• Strong communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to engage contractors, project managers, senior leaders and operational teams.
• Ability to operate effectively in a client assurance role, balancing commercial, programme and operational needs with legal and safety requirements.
• Practical understanding of construction risk and the ability to test whether contractor controls are suitable, implemented and effective.
• Ability to interpret legislation, contracts, standards and project information and translate them into clear client expectations.
• High attention to detail when reviewing contractor submissions, inspection findings, incident reports and action close-out evidence.
• Constructive challenge style, with the ability to escalate concerns appropriately while maintaining productive contractor relationships.
• Strong organisational skills, including the ability to prioritise multiple projects, contractors, risks and deadlines.
• Competence using Microsoft Office, reporting tools and digital safety or contractor management systems.

This role comes with an on-call element, which will require the post holder to participate in an out-of-hours on-call escalation rota.

In line with VIRTUS’ Vetting Policy, the successful applicant must be willing to undergo a BS7858 screening process.

VIRTUS is an equal opportunity employer. As part of our commitment to fight for equality, we work to ensure a fair and consistent interview process. We celebrate diversity and we are committed to an inclusive work environment.

We reserve the right to close this post for applications should sufficient applications be received.