Merlin Entertainments
Health & Safety Director
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Health & Safety Director – Thorpe Park Resort
Thorpe Park Resort, Chertsey Surrey
Our Purpose: Bring Every Family Closer Through Play
Our Vision: To Be The Worlds Most Loved Family Escape
At Merlin Entertainments, our purpose is simple: to bring every family closer through play. Every day, millions of guests create unforgettable memories across our world-famous attractions, and behind every magical experience is an unwavering commitment to safety.
We're looking for an exceptional Health & Safety Director to join the Senior Leadership Team at Thorpe Park Resort.
This is a unique opportunity to shape the health and safety strategy for one of the UK's most exciting visitor attractions, leading a high-performing team while ensuring our guests, colleagues and contractors can enjoy and deliver extraordinary experiences safely.
If you're a strategic safety leader who thrives in fast-paced, operational environments and enjoys influencing at the highest level, we'd love to hear from you.
About The Role
As Health & Safety Director, you'll provide both strategic direction and operational leadership for all aspects of health and safety across the resort.
Reporting to the UK Health, Safety & Security Director and working closely with the Site Vice President and Senior Leadership Team, you'll champion a proactive safety culture, ensuring compliance with legislation while driving continuous improvement across every area of the business.
You'll be a trusted advisor to senior leaders, supporting major operational decisions, future developments and investment projects whilst leading a visible, engaged Health & Safety team.
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This role also plays an important part in incident management and crisis response, participating in the local Incident Director rota when required. This will include some evening and weekend work.
What You'll Be Doing
You'll be responsible for:
- Leading the overall health and safety strategy across Thorpe Park Resort.
- Inspiring, developing and managing the Health & Safety team.
- Providing expert advice and guidance to leaders across all departments.
- Driving a positive, proactive safety culture through coaching, visibility and engagement.
- Ensuring compliance with UK legislation, Merlin standards and regulatory requirements.
- Managing audits, inspections, reporting and governance activities.
- Maintaining the resort risk register and ensuring actions are delivered.
- Supporting capital projects, new attractions and resort developments from a safety perspective.
- Managing incident investigations, corrective actions and regulatory reporting.
- Building strong relationships with external agencies including the HSE, Environmental Health, Police and Local Authorities.
- Managing departmental budgets including both OPEX and CAPEX planning.
Qualifications & Experience
What We're Looking For
You'll bring significant leadership experience together with a genuine passion for creating safe environments where both people and businesses can thrive.
You'll Ideally Have
- NEBOSH Diploma (or equivalent).
- A minimum of 10 years' experience within Health & Safety leadership.
- Experience leading high-performing teams.
- Strong knowledge of UK Health & Safety legislation and best practice.
- Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
- Experience working with senior leadership teams and executive stakeholders.
- Membership of a recognised professional body (or willingness to obtain this).
- Experience within hospitality, leisure, attractions, or another operationally complex/ public facing environment.
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The Kind of Leader You Are
We're looking for someone who naturally demonstrates our leadership behaviours:
- Soulfully Curious: You enjoy learning, ask thoughtful questions and continually seek better ways of working.
- Results Focused: You set high standards, take ownership and consistently deliver meaningful outcomes.
- Extraordinary Teammate: You build trusted relationships, collaborate across teams and help others succeed.
- Develops People: You coach, mentor and empower others to grow, creating an environment where people perform at their best.
Why Merlin?
This is more than a Health & Safety role. You'll have the opportunity to influence the future of one of the UK's most iconic resorts, working alongside passionate experts who genuinely care about creating unforgettable experiences safely.
At Merlin, safety isn't just about compliance—it's about enabling millions of families to make lifelong memories with confidence.
If you're ready to lead with purpose and make a lasting impact, we'd love to hear from you.
Together, we'll continue bringing every family closer through play.
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