Health & Safety Manager

Welcome to Ontic Bishops Cleeve, our 64,000 sq ft facility in Cheltenham.

Delivering predominantly electronic and electro-mechanical product lines, this site specialises in fuel measurement systems, emergency oxygen systems, barometrics, and complex electro-mechanical assemblies.

Ontic, a leading licensor and manufacturer of complex engineering parts for the global aerospace and defence industries, is now recruiting for a Health & Safety Manager to join our Bishops Cleeve site in Cheltenham.

You’ll play a key role in shaping and embedding a positive health and safety culture across the site, ensuring that our operations continue to meet the highest standards of safety, compliance, and employee well-being.

This role will be based at our Ontic Bishops Cleeve site, although occasional travel between our Gloucestershire sites should be expected.

Ontic is more than just a business – we’re a community of innovators who pride ourselves on fostering a culture where talent thrives, ideas flourish, and careers are built. We’re committed to excellence and continuous improvement, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of our industry.

The Role:

Reporting directly to the Site Director, you'll be responsible for leading our approach to environmental, health and safety risks across our Bishops Cleeve site. This is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact, influencing how EHS is understood, valued and embedded across a complex and evolving manufacturing environment. You will lead the development and implementation of our EHS management systems, strengthen our safety culture and work collaboratively with leaders and employees to ensure EHS is an integral part of operational excellence.

We are looking for someone who can balance strong technical knowledge with a pragmatic, engaging and people-focused approach and someone who sees EHS not simply as a compliance function, but as an enabler of safe, efficient and sustainable operations.

The role is based at our Bishops Cleeve facility, with occasional travel between our Gloucestershire sites.

As a EHS Manager, you’ll need to:

• Champion a positive, proactive and inclusive EHS culture where everyone understands their responsibilities and feels empowered to contribute to a safer workplace.
• Act as a trusted advisor to the Site Director and wider leadership team, providing strategic direction and constructive challenge on EHS matters.
• Promote employee engagement, consultation and participation in identifying risks, developing solutions and driving improvements.
• Facilitate effective EHS committees, leadership reviews and employee consultation.
• Lead the ongoing development, implementation and continuous improvement of the site's EHS management systems, aligned with ISO 45001 principles and relevant legislative requirements.

• Collaborate with Facilities on all aspects of facility development, maintenance, contractor management and improvement.
• Support the safe introduction, modification and recommissioning of equipment, processes and facilities.
• Develop, maintain and improve EHS policies, procedures, risk assessments and safe systems of work.
• Attend site-specific leadership meetings and site walks.
• Deliver proactive site-wide EHS training.
• Lead EHS assurance activities, including audits, inspections, performance reviews and corrective action management.
• Provide technical guidance on occupational health, hazardous substances, machinery safety, electrical safety, contractor management and other manufacturing-related risks.
• Lead investigations, root cause analysis and organisational learning.
• Develop and monitor meaningful EHS performance indicators that measure both compliance and proactive risk management.
• Provide clear, insightful EHS reporting to site leadership, identifying trends, priorities and opportunities for improvement.
• Drive the timely and sustainable closure of EHS actions, ensuring improvements are embedded into everyday operations.
• Collaborate with the wider Ontic EHS community to share best practice and support organisational improvement.

About You

At Ontic, our culture is integral to making sure we enjoy our work and deliver for our customers. While we look for the right skillset, we're also looking for someone who will thrive within our culture of recognition and empowerment.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience:

We are looking for a confident, credible and engaging EHS professional who combines technical expertise with strong leadership and influencing skills.

You will be passionate about developing people, improving systems and creating an environment where safety is genuinely owned by everyone, not just the EHS function.

You'll be comfortable operating at both strategic and operational levels, from influencing senior leaders and developing long-term improvement plans to working directly with employees to understand practical challenges and deliver effective solutions.

Technical knowledge in the following areas: COSHH, DSEAR, radiation safety, electrical and high-voltage safety, Occupational Hygiene, pressure systems, machinery safety and ergonomics.

Qualifications

• NEBOSH Level 6 National Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety (or recognised equivalent).

• Desired knowledge of environmental management systems and ISO 14001.

Benefits

At Ontic, we care about your financial, physical, and mental wellbeing, so we offer a range of benefits to support what matters to you. We have a valued culture of recognition and empowerment, accompanied by benefits that support a healthy work/life balance.

Our benefits package highlights include:

• Up to 29 days’ annual leave plus Bank Holidays
• 10 hours’ paid volunteering time
• Annual goal share bonus scheme for all employees
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Discounts and offers from a range of retailers

Best place to work

We are more than the sum of our parts, and we’ve been recognised internally and externally for being so:

• We were ranked #9 in Best Companies’ Q3 leaderboard for Best Manufacturing Company based on our employee feedback.
• 72.5% of employees who took part in our 2023 employee satisfaction survey said they are proud to work at Ontic.

We are a fast-paced business with ambitious growth plans; so if you are dedicated, enthusiastic and always seeking ways to improve, you'll enjoy a career with us!