Safety & assurance manager

Safety & Assurance Manager

📍 York | 🕐 Full-time | 📞 On-call required

About Grand Central

At Grand Central Rail, we connect communities with fast, reliable and high-quality rail services. As an open access operator, we pride ourselves on delivering a safe, customer-focused and innovative service across the UK rail network.

Safety is at the heart of everything we do—and we’re looking for a Safety & Assurance Manager to help us continually raise the bar.

The role

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Safety team in a key leadership position. As Safety & Assurance Manager, you’ll be responsible for leading health, safety, environment and security across the business, ensuring we operate to the highest standards while driving continuous improvement.

Working closely with the Head of Safety, you’ll play a pivotal role in embedding a strong safety culture, supporting operational teams, and ensuring compliance with all industry and regulatory requirements.

Key responsibilities

You’ll:

1. Lead the day-to-day management of Grand Central’s health, safety, environment and security arrangements
2. Support and deputise for the Head of Safety
3. Drive the development and continuous improvement of our Safety Management System (SMS)
4. Manage safety risk processes, ensuring hazards are identified, assessed and controlled effectively
5. Deliver and oversee internal audit and assurance programmes
6. Lead incident and accident investigations, applying root cause analysis to prevent recurrence
7. Analyse safety performance data, identifying trends and driving improvement actions
8. Ensure compliance with all relevant legislation, industry standards and regulatory requirements
9. Act as Grand Central’s nominated security contact, liaising with organisations such as the DfT and British Transport Police
10. Develop and maintain emergency, environmental and security plans
11. Provide expert advice and coaching to managers across the business
12. Collaborate with key industry bodies including ORR, RSSB and wider rail partners
13. Support business change by ensuring robust safety validation and assurance

About you

We’re looking for a proactive and collaborative safety professional who can influence at all levels and drive meaningful improvement.

Essential experience & skills

14. Significant experience in a health & safety management role (typically 5+ years)
15. Strong knowledge of UK health & safety legislation and industry best practice
16. NEBOSH Diploma (or equivalent)
17. Experience conducting audits (e.g. ISO9001)
18. Proven experience in accident/incident investigation and root cause analysis
19. Strong leadership, communication and stakeholder management skills
20. Ability to influence and support operational teams in a safety-critical environment

Desirable

21. Experience within the rail or wider transport sector
22. Environmental management qualification
23. Emergency planning or fire safety expertise
24. Training or coaching qualification
25. Membership of a relevant professional body (e.g. IRO)

Why join Grand Central?

26. Be part of a safety-first organisation where your impact truly matters
27. Work within a supportive and collaborative team environment
28. Engage with leading industry stakeholders and regulators
29. Opportunity to shape safety strategy and influence continuous improvement
30. Play a key role in delivering a safe and high-quality service for our customers

Apply now

If you’re passionate about safety and want to make a real difference in the rail industry, we’d love to hear from you.