Health and Safety Manager (Multi-Site)

Health and Safety Manager (Multi-Site)

Based: High Wycombe office

Location: Multi-site, with regular travel between sites

Term: Permanent, full time

Salary: £50000 - £55000 pa + benefits

Purpose of the role:

Reporting to our General Counsel, the Health and Safety Manager is responsible for leading and embedding a consistent, proportionate health and safety culture across all of the Focusrite Group's sites (UK,  Germany, USA (CA), China, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia) with particular focus on the manufacturing locations where physical risk exposure is highest.

The role owns the H&S management system end to end: setting policy and standards, driving compliance, building a strong reporting and safety observation culture, and providing assurance to senior leadership and the board that risk is being properly identified, managed and reduced over time.

In addition the Health and Safety Manager will oversee the Group’s mandatory training programmes and lead certain aspects of the Group’s compliance programme such as collecting data and collating reporting information for the Group’s anti-modern slavery processes.

This is both a hands-on and a strategic role: the postholder will be on the shop floor as well as attending board meetings, and will need to move comfortably between the two.

Key responsibilities:

Strategy, governance and reporting

• Develop and maintain the Group's health and safety policies and procedures, strategy and annual improvement plan and drive their practical implementation and ongoing effectiveness, ensuring consistency of standards across all sites while allowing for site-specific risk profiles.
• Own the H&S governance framework, including reporting cadence to senior management and the board. Translating operational data into clear, decision-useful insight rather than raw reporting statistics.
• Prepare and present regular H&S performance reports, incident trends, and audit findings to leadership, recommending action where risk exposure is increasing.
• Act as the Focusrite Group's principal point of contact with the HSE (or equivalent regulator) and other external stakeholders on health and safety matters as and when necessary.

Compliance and risk management

• Ensure compliance with relevant legislation, both domestic and global (e.g. Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Occupational Safety and Health Act 1970 (OSH Act), enforced by OSHA, Arbeitsschutzgesetz (ArbSchG) and other regulations relevant to manufacturing environments) across all sites.
• Maintain and continuously improve site-specific risk assessments, safe systems of work, and permit-to-work processes for higher-risk manufacturing activities (e.g. machinery, hazardous substances, manual handling, noise).
• Lead investigation of incidents and near-misses, ensuring root cause analysis is robust and that lessons are shared and embedded across all sites, not just closed out locally.
• Own RIDDOR reporting and liaise with insurers, regulators and on-site teams as needed on notifiable incidents.
• Maintain clear, accurate and well-organised health and safety documentation for the Focusrite Group, ideally aligned to ISO 45001 or an equivalent recognised standard. This includes keeping policies, procedures, risk assessments and records under version control, ensuring documents are reviewed and updated on a regular cycle, and making sure they are easy for colleagues to find, understand and apply, providing a reliable audit trail for internal review and external certification.
• Support the Group's commitment to preventing modern slavery and human trafficking in its operations and supply chains. Helping to maintain and develop the Group's anti-slavery policies and due diligence processes, assessing supplier risk (particularly in higher-risk manufacturing regions and tiers), and coordinating supplier questionnaires, contractual clauses and audits. Contribute to the preparation of the Group's annual Modern Slavery Statement, work with procurement, operations and HR to deliver training and raise awareness, and ensure any concerns are escalated and remediated promptly and appropriately.
• Own and oversee the Group's Health and Safety training programme, making sure every employee receives the training they need to work safely, lawfully and in line with Group policy. This includes setting and maintaining the annual training plan, covering induction and ongoing training and utilising reports from the Group training system to ensure compliance.

Culture and engagement

• Build and sustain a positive reporting culture, particularly around near-misses and safety observations, so that issues surface early rather than being under-reported.
• Coach and support site and line managers to take genuine ownership of day-to-day safety, rather than treating it as a specialist add-on function.
• Design and deliver H&S training and induction programmes appropriate to different site risk profiles (office vs. manufacturing).
• Chair or support safety committees and ensure the employee voice is built into safety decision-making.

Multi-site coordination

• Establish a consistent framework of audits, inspections and self-assessments across all sites, with a schedule that reflects relative risk (manufacturing sites audited more frequently/intensively than office sites).
• Work with site leadership to ensure local ownership of action plans, while maintaining Group-level oversight and consistency.
• Support due diligence and integration of H&S standards for any new sites or acquisitions.

Person specification:

Essential

• NEBOSH National Diploma (or equivalent, e.g. NVQ Level 6 in Occupational Health and Safety).
• Chartered membership of IOSH (CMIOSH).
• Demonstrable experience managing health and safety across multiple sites, including at least one manufacturing or industrial environment.
• Strong working knowledge of UK H&S legislation and its practical application in a manufacturing context (machinery guarding, COSHH, manual handling, noise/vibration).
• Experience presenting H&S performance and risk information to senior leadership or board level, in a format non-specialists can act on.
• Proven ability to lead incident investigations and drive root-cause corrective action.
• Excellent influencing and communication skills — able to adapt style between shop floor and boardroom.
• Full UK driving licence.

Desirable

• Experience with ISO 45001 implementation or certification.
• Experience in a listed or regulated company environment, where governance and board reporting expectations are higher.
• Experience integrating H&S standards following an acquisition or site expansion.

What success looks like in the first 12 months:

• A single, consistent H&S reporting framework in place across all sites, with clear ownership and escalation routes.
• A demonstrable increase in near-miss and safety observations reporting (a leading indicator of improving culture, not a red flag).
• Enhanced visibility of safety incidents through improved reporting practices and, where necessary, driving a measurable reduction in incidents over time, as evidenced through trend data.
• Board and senior leadership confident that they are receiving accurate, timely and meaningful assurance on H&S risk.

About Us 

Focusrite plc is a global music and audio group that develops and markets music technology products. Used by audio professionals and amateur musicians alike, our solutions facilitate the high-quality production of recorded and live sound. Our audio technology brands stand together, seeking to enrich lives through music by removing barriers to creativity – ‘we make music easy to make’. 

The Focusrite Group trades under thirteen established and rapidly growing brands: Focusrite, Focusrite Pro, Novation, ADAM Audio, Sequential, Oberheim, Martin Audio, Optimal Audio, Ampify Music, Linea Research, Sonnox, OutBoard and TiMax. With a high-quality reputation and a rich heritage spanning decades, its brands are category leaders in the music-making industry. 

Music technology is an enriching space to work in and we enjoy a Group-wide open-door culture which encourages innovation.  This culture, combined with a passion for the inspirational solutions we create, has led to the group winning numerous accolades, including six Queen's Awards, the AIM Company of the Year Award 2021 and regular appearances in 'The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For’. 

The Focusrite Group is dedicated to building a great place to work and as an equal opportunity employer we are committed to Diversity and Inclusion. The group mission is to cultivate an equitable culture, internally and externally, where all people feel they are welcome, safe and positively represented, because at Focusrite they truly are. Equally, we recognise the major impact that climate change is having on our world and work every day towards being industry leaders in a carbon neutral future. 

Benefits include flexible/hybrid working, company pension, life insurance, private healthcare, Health Cash Plan, enhanced Maternity and Paternity pay, employee purchase scheme, group bonus scheme, company music events, offsite company parties and free lunch in the canteen. We arrange company training sessions and encourage personal development.