Head of Environment, Health, and Safety

Help Build Europe's Hypersonic Capability

At Hypersonica, we’re redefining what’s possible in European defence technology. We exist to deliver speed, resilience, and technological independence at a pace that sets a new standard. We are a small, elite team working on problems that matter, and solving them fast.

By joining Hypersonica, you’re not stepping into a predefined role. You’re joining a talent dense environment where every individual shapes the direction of the company. Our philosophy is to hire a small number of exceptional people with broad, deep technical capability, strong judgement, and the ability to operate autonomously.

We hire for talent, not rigid boxes. This role represents a business need, but the way it evolves will be shaped by the individual. If you’ve achieved what others said was impossible, or you bring a unique combination of skills that doesn’t fit a traditional mould, we want to hear from you. The work you do here directly contributes to Europe’s technological independence.

• Build and lead Hypersonica’s UK health, safety, and environmental function across multiple R&D, manufacturing, assembly, test, and production sites.
• Define and implement the company-wide HSE management system from zero, establishing clear standards, ownership, governance, and operating procedures without importing unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Translate UK health and safety legislation into practical controls that engineers, technicians, contractors, and operators can follow in real working environments.
• Embed HSE requirements into facility design, equipment selection, commissioning, manufacturing processes, and operational planning before risks become expensive or irreversible.
• Lead workplace and process risk assessments across machinery, lifting operations, pressure systems, electrical work, hazardous substances, working at height, manual handling, laboratories, workshops, and production activity.
• Establish safe systems of work, permit‑to‑work controls, contractor management, emergency arrangements, incident reporting, and corrective‑action processes across all UK locations.
• Build a consistent approach to machinery and equipment safety, including guarding, isolation, lockout/tagout, commissioning evidence, statutory inspection, and maintenance controls.
• Own incident and near‑miss investigations, identifying root causes and driving corrective actions that permanently improve how the business operates.
• Define HSE requirements for new sites and facility changes, supporting design reviews, readiness gates, operational handover, and safe mobilisation.
• Set the minimum credible HSE controls for prototype and R&D work, balancing experimentation speed with disciplined risk management.
• Build and maintain clear HSE metrics covering incidents, near misses, corrective actions, audits, training, contractor performance, and leading risk indicators.
• Develop training and competency programmes that are concise, relevant, and respected by technical teams rather than treated as compliance theatre.
• Lead engagement with regulators, insurers, auditors, landlords, contractors, and external specialists where required.
• Partner closely with engineering, manufacturing, facilities, quality, security, and operations leadership to surface constraints early and keep programmes moving.
• Work alongside the specialist responsible for energetic materials, ensuring explosives‑related controls integrate cleanly into the wider UK HSE system without duplicating accountability.
• Build the future HSE team, defining which capabilities must sit internally and where specialist external support is justified.

• A senior HSE leader with significant experience building and running health and safety systems across complex manufacturing, engineering, R&D, test, or production environments.
• Proven at establishing an HSE function or management system from the ground up, not only maintaining mature corporate processes.
• Experienced operating across multiple sites with different risk profiles, priorities, and stages of maturity.
• Deeply practical and comfortable spending time in workshops, laboratories, production areas, and commissioning environments…