Senior Environmental health & safety officer

Role: Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Officer

Salary range: £50,000 - £60,000

Location: Oxford

Exclusive opportunity - Carriera

Carriera is working exclusively with a world-leading scientific and technology institute to appoint experienced Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Officers for a highly advanced pharmaceutical and biotechnology environment in Oxford.

Our client is a mission-driven organisation focused on translating scientific discovery into real-world impact. Its multidisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, technologists, and innovators are addressing some of the most complex global challenges across health and medical science, food security, climate change, and advanced technologies. This is an organisation defined by ambition, pace, and purpose.

We are seeking established EHS professionals to play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering a robust health, safety, and environmental strategy within a regulated, high-risk environment. This role offers genuine influence, visibility, and the opportunity to embed a culture of safety and continuous improvement at scale.

The Role

You will take a lead role in driving EHS compliance and best practice across laboratories, R&D, manufacturing, and facilities, ensuring the highest standards of safety, sustainability, and operational excellence.

Key responsibilities include:

• Maintaining site-wide health and safety policies aligned with UK legislation and industry best practice (HSE, COSHH, MHRA, COMAH)
• Leading and supporting risk assessments, audits, and incident investigations across all operational areas
• Ensuring compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act and COSHH regulations
• Partnering with QA, Facilities, Manufacturing, R&D, and HR to embed EHS into day-to-day operations and projects
• Delivering EHS training, inductions, and refresher programmes for employees and contractors
• Managing biological, chemical, radiological, and ergonomic risks typical of pharmaceutical and biotech environments
• Monitoring, reporting, and improving safety KPIs and performance metrics
• Supporting and representing the organisation during external audits and regulatory inspections (HSE, MHRA, Environment Agency)
• Contributing to environmental and sustainability initiatives including waste management, energy efficiency, and permitting

About You

This role will suit a confident, hands-on EHS professional with experience operating in regulated, complex environments.

Essential:

• Formal qualification in Occupational Health & Safety (or equivalent)
• Minimum 5 years' experience in a health and safety leadership role within pharmaceutical, biotech, or similarly regulated industries
• Strong working knowledge of UK health and safety legislation and laboratory/manufacturing risk management
• Experience with biosafety and GM regulations

Desirable:

• Experience working in GxP environments and with regulatory frameworks (MHRA, EMA, FDA)
• Exposure to environmental compliance and sustainability programmes

Package & Benefits

• Competitive salary + travel allowance + bonus
• Enhanced annual leave
• Pension
• Life assurance & income protection
• Private medical insurance
• Hospital cash plan
• Therapy and wellbeing services
• PerkBox benefits
• Electric car scheme

Equal Opportunities Statement

Carriera Limited is committed to promoting diversity and equality. We welcome applications from all sections of society and are happy to discuss reasonable adjustments or additional arrangements to support your application.

All applicants must be eligible to live and work in the UK. When advertising permanent vacancies, we act as an Employment Agency; for temporary vacancies, we act as an Employment Business under the Conduct Regulations 2003. All applications will be handled in strict confidence and in accordance with our privacy policy,

If you're an EHS professional looking to make a meaningful impact within a world-class scientific environment, please apply directly and Alex Harcombe from Carriera would welcome a confidential discussion.