Health and Safety Management Systems Lead
VIRTUS Data Centres · West Drayton, United Kingdom
About VIRTUS
VIRTUS Data Centres is a leading European data centre developer and operator, delivering secure, energy-efficient and flexible infrastructure for the growing demands of cloud, AI and digital services. With an established UK presence and a growing footprint across Europe, including Germany and Italy, VIRTUS is investing in next-generation, AI-ready infrastructure at scale. Our values are Clarity & Quality, Accountability, Customer Commitment, Purposeful Innovation, and Capability & Growth.
Role Overview
The Health and Safety Management Systems Lead is responsible for developing, maintaining and supporting improvement of health and safety management systems, governance framework, assurance processes and incident management arrangements across all VIRTUS operations in the UK, Germany and Italy. The role ensures that health and safety requirements are clearly defined, consistently implemented, effectively reported and continuously improved across all operating locations.
This role acts as a central point of coordination for health and safety documentation, incident reporting, data analytics, governance forums, training and competence frameworks, and the management of incidents from initial notification through to investigation, learning and closure.
The role works across multiple jurisdictions and operational environments, supporting consistent global standards while recognising local legal, regulatory and operational requirements in the UK, Germany and Italy.
Key Responsibilities
Management Systems, Documentation and Processes
· Develop, maintain and continuously improve the health and safety management system, ensuring it remains aligned to legal obligations, internal standards and recognised good practice.
· Manage the end-to-end document control process for health and safety documentation, including document creation, consultation, approval, publication, periodic review, archiving and withdrawal of superseded materials.
· Develop and maintain a suite of practical guidance, forms, checklists and templates to support consistent implementation of health and safety requirements across the organisation.
· Map, simplify and improve health and safety processes so they are practical, consistent and embedded into day-to-day operations.
· Support assurance activities by maintaining evidence of compliance, process implementation and closure of corrective and preventive actions.
· Manage ISO certification and ensure compliance with all related standards.
Incident Reporting and Analytics
· Manage the organisation’s health and safety incident reporting framework, ensuring incidents, near misses, hazards and observations are recorded accurately and in a timely manner.
· Develop and track performance of the VIRTUS health and safety assurance framework across operations, construction and corporate estates.
· Analyse incident data to identify trends, root causes, emerging risks, recurring themes and opportunities for targeted intervention.
· Prepare dashboards, performance reports and insight packs for operational leaders, governance forums and senior stakeholders.
· Monitor key performance indicators, including leading and lagging indicators, action closure rates, investigation quality and learning implementation.
Governance and Meeting Management
· Coordinate the health and safety governance calendar, ensuring meetings are scheduled, structured and supported by accurate information and clear decision-making materials.
· Prepare agendas, papers, minutes, actions logs and follow-up reports for health and safety committees, working groups and leadership reviews.
· Track governance actions to completion, escalating overdue or high-risk items and ensuring accountability is maintained across responsible owners.
· Support the preparation of reports for executive, board or senior leadership review, providing concise analysis of performance, risks, issues and improvement priorities.
Training and Competence
· Develop and maintain the health and safety training and competence matrix, ensuring role-based requirements are clearly defined and regularly reviewed.
· Monitor completion of mandatory and role-specific training, identifying gaps, overdue training and emerging competence risks.
· Support the design, delivery and evaluation of health and safety training, briefings, toolbox talks and learning interventions.
· Work with leaders, managers and subject matter experts to ensure competence requirements are embedded into onboarding, operational processes and contractor management where applicable.
Incident Management
· Coordinate incident management activities from notification through to triage, escalation, investigation, action tracking, learning capture and closure.
· Support or lead investigations into incidents, near misses and high-potential events, ensuring root causes are identified and proportionate corrective actions are agreed.
· Maintain incident investigation standards, templates and guidance to ensure consistent quality and timely completion.
· Facilitate lessons learned processes and ensure learning is communicated, embedded and reflected in management system improvements.
Innovation, AI and Risk Mitigation
· Identify and implement innovative approaches, including appropriate use of artificial intelligence, automation and digital tools, to improve health and safety risk identification, controls, assurance and decision-making.
· Use AI-enabled analytics and reporting tools, where appropriate, to identify emerging risks, detect patterns in incident and assurance data, and support proactive risk mitigation across VIRTUS operations.
· Support the responsible use of AI in health and safety processes by ensuring outputs are reviewed, validated and applied in line with organisational governance, data protection, ethical and compliance requirements.
· Work with technology, data, risk and operational stakeholders to explore opportunities for digital improvement, process automation and predictive insight within the health and safety management system.
· Translate innovation and AI-enabled insights into practical actions, controls, guidance and learning that help prevent incidents and strengthen risk management capability.
Skills, Knowledge and Experience
· Strong understanding of health and safety management systems, document control, governance and assurance processes.
· Experience establishing and maintaining document control arrangements, including ownership models, approval workflows, review schedules, template management and controlled publication of guidance materials.
· Experience managing incident reporting systems, producing performance reports and using data to identify trends and drive improvement.
· Confident in meeting management, including agenda planning, minute taking, action tracking and preparation of senior-level papers.
· Knowledge of incident investigation techniques, root cause analysis and corrective action management.
· Ability to translate complex health and safety requirements into clear, practical processes, guidance and communications.
· Excellent analytical, organisational and stakeholder management skills.
· Strong written communication skills with the ability to produce clear documentation, reports and governance materials.
· Experience supporting training needs analysis, competence frameworks and training compliance monitoring.
· Interest in innovation and the practical use of AI, automation and digital tools to improve risk identification, incident insight, assurance, governance and decision-making.
Qualifications
· NEBOSH General Certificate, equivalent health and safety qualification, or demonstrable relevant experience.
· Membership of a relevant professional body such as IOSH is desirable.
· Training in incident investigation, root cause analysis, auditing or management systems is desirable.
· Experience using health and safety reporting, learning management or govern