Head of Health & Safety

About Vintage.com

About the Team

Why This Role Matters

Why the role exists

What success looks like

• Health and safety is consistently embedded into everyday decision-making across our sites.
• Leaders understand their responsibilities and feel confident managing health and safety within their teams.
• Risks are identified early and addressed through practical, proportionate controls.
• Incidents and near misses are investigated thoroughly, with lessons turned into meaningful improvements.
• Health and safety performance is clearly measured, understood and used to improve how we work across the UK and Europe.

Leadership

• Lead the development and delivery of our health and safety strategy across the business.
• Act as the senior subject matter expert, giving clear and practical advice to senior leaders and operational teams.
• Build strong relationships with site leaders and managers, creating clear accountability for health and safety at every level.
  
  

Operational Excellence

• Lead risk assessments, audits, inspections and assurance activity across our warehouses, production environments and offices.
• Identify and implement practical control measures, prioritising action based on level of risk.
• Lead investigations into significant incidents and near misses, identifying root causes and ensuring actions are completed.
• Maintain clear systems for tracking incidents, risks, actions, audits and training.
  
  

Compliance

• Maintain a robust health and safety management framework that supports compliance across our UK operations.
• Keep policies, procedures and guidance current, practical and aligned with relevant legislation and recognised best practice.
• Ensure statutory reporting and record-keeping requirements are understood and completed appropriately.
• Work with local teams and specialist partners to support health and safety compliance across our European locations.
  
  

Culture & Capability

• Build a positive safety culture where colleagues feel confident identifying risks, raising concerns and suggesting improvements.
• Develop training and guidance that helps managers and employees understand their responsibilities.
• Coach leaders to take genuine ownership of health and safety within their areas.
  
  

Continuous Improvement

• Analyse incidents, near misses, audit findings and other health and safety data to identify trends and emerging risks.
• Establish clear KPIs and provide regular reporting and insight to senior leadership.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen our systems, processes and controls as the business evolves.
  
  

Essential

• Significant experience leading health and safety within a multi-site organisation.
• Strong experience working within operational environments such as warehousing, logistics, manufacturing or production.
• Strong working knowledge of UK health and safety legislation and its practical application.
• Experience developing and implementing health and safety strategies, policies and management systems.
• Strong experience of risk assessment, audits, incident investigation and root cause analysis.
• Confidence influencing senior leaders and operational teams across different levels of an organisation.
• Strong judgement, with the ability to balance compliance, risk and operational reality.
• Comfortable travelling regularly between sites and spending significant time within operational environments.
  
  

Helpful

• Experience supporting health and safety across multiple European countries or jurisdictions.
• Knowledge of European health and safety frameworks.
• Experience within a rapidly growing, changing or geographically dispersed organisation.
• Experience working towards recognised health and safety standards or accreditations.
  
  

Qualifications

• A recognised professional health and safety qualification such as NEBOSH Diploma, NVQ Level 6 in Occupational Health & Safety, or an equivalent qualification.
• Chartered membership of IOSH, or demonstrable progress towards Chartered status, would be advantageous.
• A full UK driving licence would be beneficial due to the multi-site nature of the role.
  
  

Living Our Values

• Make clear, evidence-based decisions and speak up when something does not feel safe or right.
• Take ownership of health and safety risks and follow actions through rather than allowing issues to drift.
• Treat people with care and respect, particularly when dealing with incidents, investigations or difficult conversations.
• Work openly with site leaders, managers and teams, making health and safety something we own together rather than something managed in isolation.
• Challenge constructively where standards need to improve, while staying practical about how solutions work in real operational environments.
• Stay curious about incidents, near misses, data and feedback, using them to understand root causes and improve how we work.
• Keep the wider employee experience and needs of the business in mind when making recommendations, balancing strong standards with practical, proportionate solutions.