Avanti West Coast
Safety Audit Manager
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At Avanti West Coast, safety is at the heart of everything we do.
We're looking for an experienced Safety Audit Manager to lead our Safety audit programme, providing independent assurance that our safety management systems, operational activities, and processes meet regulatory, industry, and company standards.
This is an exciting opportunity to influence safety performance across one of the UK's busiest rail networks. Working closely with the Senior Safety Assurance Manager, you'll play a key role in strengthening our safety culture, driving continuous improvement, and ensuring we remain compliant while supporting operational excellence.
What you'll be doing
As Safety Audit Manager, you'll lead the planning, delivery, and continuous improvement of our annual safety audit programme, taking a risk-based approach to assurance across the business.
You'll:
- Develop and deliver Avanti West Coast's annual Safety Audit Plan.
- Lead internal safety audits, inspections, and assurance activities across the organisation.
- Provide independent assurance on the effectiveness of our Safety Management System (SMS), risk controls, and governance processes.
- Coordinate and support external audits, including regulatory inspections and ISO 45001 certification.
- Monitor audit findings, corrective actions, and non-conformances, ensuring effective and timely close-out.
- Analyse assurance data to identify trends, emerging risks, and opportunities to improve safety performance.
- Produce high-quality audit reports and present findings to senior leadership and governance groups.
- Support change management assurance, ensuring safety risks associated with organisational, operational, and technical changes are effectively assessed.
- Build strong relationships with stakeholders across the business, providing expert guidance on compliance, assurance, and continuous improvement.
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About you
You'll be an experienced safety professional with a passion for assurance, compliance, and continuous improvement. You'll be confident engaging with stakeholders at all levels and able to provide objective, evidence-based assurance that supports better business decisions.
You'll ideally have:
- Experience leading or delivering safety audits within a regulated or high-hazard environment.
- A strong understanding of Safety Management Systems and risk management principles.
- Knowledge of UK health and safety legislation, regulatory requirements, and recognised audit standards.
- Experience planning and delivering risk-based audit programmes.
- Excellent analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and identify trends.
- Strong report-writing and presentation skills, with experience communicating findings to senior leaders.
- The ability to influence, challenge constructively, and build effective working relationships.
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Experience within the rail industry and knowledge of railway safety management would be advantageous.
Benefits
As well as working with a fantastic team you will also receive:
- Final salary pension
- Free travel on Avanti West Coast for you/spouse/partner/dependents
- Privilege Travel card (75% off other train operators fares for leisure travel)
- 30 days holiday rising by 1 for every completed year of service to a maximum of 37 days (inclusive of bank holidays)
- 10 free journeys on other First Group Train Operators
At Avanti West Coast, we value the differences that make each of us outstanding! Avanti West Coast recognises the benefits of building a diverse workforce and employing people from diverse backgrounds, which includes their race, religion, age, gender, gender identity, disability, and sexual orientation.
Everyone who joins Avanti West Coast becomes part of our close-knit team. We're committed to ensuring that Avanti West Coast is inclusive, a place where people are encouraged to be themselves, and not an edited version to fit in. A place where differences are encouraged, recognised, accepted and put to good use.
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