Senior Risk & Process Safety Scientist

About Us

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We’re dedicated to protecting people and places, ensuring everyone can lead safer and healthier lives at work.

We are now looking for a Senior Risk & Process Safety Scientist to join us on a permanent, full-time basis. Flexible working, part-time and job-share options are also available.

The Benefits

- Salary of £55,063 – £66,338
- Access to the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme (with an employer contribution of 28.97%)
- Family-friendly policies and flexible working hours to support work/life balance
- Carer-friendly policies and a supportive working culture
- 25 days’ annual leave increasing to 30 after 5 years’ service, plus bank holidays and 1-day Civil Service privilege leave
- Parental leave benefits
- Access to additional benefits, including the Cycle to Work Scheme and E-Gift Cards via EdenRed

This is an exceptional opportunity for a scientist or engineer with strong process safety and risk management experience to join our vital organisation and help protect people across the country.

You’ll join a world-class scientific division where your expertise will be put to the test and you’ll enjoy engaging professional challenges while working towards the bigger picture of safer working environments.

What’s more, you’ll discover a collaborative and inclusive environment where you can develop solutions that make a real impact as you grow your portfolio of experience and enhance your skill set.

The Role

As a Senior Risk & Process Safety Scientist, you will work to improve safety across high-hazard industries and emerging technologies through the application of process safety expertise and risk assessment methodologies.

Specifically, you’ll join the Risk Team within the Analysis and Risk Capability Group of our Science Division, a multidisciplinary group providing research, technical advice and risk assessment expertise to both government and industry.

You’ll be involved in all manner of projects, from assessing risks in new hydrogen facilities or vehicles to reviewing safety cases for major accident hazard sites and even exploring how AI technology might impact safety within high-hazard workplaces.

Applying process safety and risk assessment expertise to research projects, you will provide technical input for process safety topic areas, review and evaluate safety equipment, and develop technical solutions and facilitate workshops for the identification and management of existing and emerging risks.

Additionally, you will:

- Create reports, papers and presentations for scientific work
- Support multidisciplinary teams across HSE to deliver excellent service
- Seek opportunities for work with external organisations and develop bids

About You

To be considered as a Senior Risk & Process Safety Scientist, you will need:

- An in-depth understanding of process safety and risk management methodologies for high-hazard industries, with significant experience applying these in industrial, research or regulatory settings
- Experience of delivering or facilitating hazard and risk workshops or studies
- Proven experience in leading scientific or technical projects
- Excellent communication skills, including report writing and presenting to customers
- A higher degree (Master’s or above) or equivalent qualification in a relevant Science or Engineering discipline (e.g. Chemical Engineering)
OR
- Equivalent and relevant industry experience, including process safety, risk assessment, hazard identification and developing technical solutions

The closing date for this role is 24th November 2025.

Other organisations may call this role Chemical Engineer, Safety Engineer, Risk Engineer, Process Safety Specialist, Risk Scientist, Safety Consultant, or Process Engineer.

Webrecruit and the Health and Safety Executive are equal opportunities employers, value diversity and are strongly committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants. Equal opportunities are the only acceptable way to conduct business and we believe that the more inclusive our environments are, the better our work will be.

So, if you want to advance safety science and help shape national risk management as a Senior Risk & Process Safety Scientist, please apply via the button shown. This vacancy is being advertised by Webrecruit. The services advertised by Webrecruit are those of an Employment Agency.

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