Arcadis is the world's leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets.
We are more than 34,000 people, in over 30 countries, dedicated to improving quality of life. Everyone has an important role to play. With the power of many curious minds, together we can solve the world’s most complex challenges and deliver more impact together.
The Opportunity
We are seeking an experienced EHS Assurance Manager to support one of the most significant hyperscale data centre developments in Europe.
This role sits within a major £10 billion data centre campus in Northumberland, North East England, spanning 540,000 sqm across 10 data centre buildings. The wider programme includes extensive enabling works, substation construction, and environmental remediation. With enabling works underway and main construction commencing from 2026, this is a unique opportunity to contribute to a landmark project of exceptional scale and complexity.
The Role
As EHS Assurance Manager, this role operates as the client-side EHS assurance and governance function, providing independent oversight of the General Contractor’s health, safety and environmental performance across the programme.
This is an assurance role, not a construction delivery role. The focus is on verifying that client EHS standards are being applied consistently, that critical risks are being effectively managed, and that the highest standards of safety are maintained across all workstreams.
This position is well suited to someone with strong technical EHS knowledge, sound judgement, and the confidence to challenge, influence, and provide clear assurance reporting at project leadership level.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Provide independent assurance of the General Contractor’s EHS management systems and performance
- Verify compliance with client standards and statutory requirements
- Review EHS plans, procedures, and control systems
- Monitor high-risk construction activities and critical hazard controls
- Carry out inspections, audits, and structured assurance reviews
- Identify, record, and escalate non-conformances and high-risk conditions
- Analyse trends and proactively identify systemic risks
- Support project leadership in understanding EHS performance and required interventions
Key Responsibilities
- Oversee the assurance of EHS performance across multiple project workstreams
- Test the effectiveness of contractor controls, systems, and implementation on site
- Undertake targeted assurance inspections of high-risk works
- Review permit systems, safe systems of work, and workface controls
- Escalate critical risks and recurring failures in a timely and structured way
- Produce clear weekly and monthly assurance reporting for project leadership
- Contribute to governance reviews and senior leadership reporting
- Promote high standards of safety, environmental compliance, and continuous improvement
Key Interfaces
- Project Director and Project Management Team
- CSA and MEP Project Managers
- General Contractor leadership and EHS team
- Trade contractors and package teams
- Operations, logistics, and commissioning teams
Experience & Skills Required
- Strong experience in construction EHS management, ideally within data centres, mission-critical environments, or major infrastructure
- Deep understanding of:
- high-risk construction activities
- permit systems
- safe systems of work
- critical hazard controls
- Experience auditing and assuring contractor performance
- Ability to challenge and influence senior stakeholders
- Strong reporting, observation, and analytical capability
- Experience identifying trends, recurring failures, and emerging risk themes
Key Behaviours
- Independent and objective
- Detail-oriented and risk-focused
- Strong communicator
- High standards and zero tolerance for unsafe practices
- Proactive and solutions-driven
What This Role Is Not
This role is not:
- A contractor EHS delivery role
- Responsible for writing or approving RAMS
- A site supervision role
- Responsible for managing construction activities directly
It is a client-side assurance and governance role focused on oversight, compliance, reporting, and risk-based intervention.
Typical Deliverables
Daily
- Targeted assurance inspections of high-risk works
- Spot checks of:
- permits
- RAMS compliance
- workface controls
- Immediate escalation of critical risks
Weekly
- Prepare a Weekly EHS Assurance Report covering:
- key observations
- red / amber risks
- non-conformances
- actions and escalations
- Attend:
- weekly progress meetings
- H&S coordination meetings
- Review trends in:
- near misses
- inspections
- repeated failures
Monthly
- Prepare a Monthly EHS Assurance Report covering:
- performance summary
- trend analysis
- critical risk status
- General Contractor performance assessment
- Undertake audits or structured reviews of:
- EHS management systems
- plans and controls
- Provide input to:
- senior leadership reviews
- governance reporting
Why Apply?
- Join a landmark data centre programme at exceptional scale
- Play a key role in maintaining high EHS standards on a major capital project
- Work in a strategic, independent assurance capacity
- Influence leadership decisions through insight, challenge, and governance
- Be part of a development with major regional and economic significance
Why Arcadis?
We can only achieve our goals when everyone is empowered to be their best. We believe everyone's contribution matters. It’s why we are pioneering a skills-based approach, where you can harness your unique experience and expertise to carve your career path and maximize the impact we can make together.
You’ll do meaningful work, and no matter what role, you’ll be helping to deliver sustainable solutions for a more prosperous planet. Make your mark, on your career, your colleagues, your clients, your life and the world around you.
Together, we can create a lasting legacy.
Join Arcadis. Create a Legacy.
Our Commitment to Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
We want you to be able to bring your best self to work every day which is why we take equality and inclusion seriously and hold ourselves to account for our actions. Our ambition is to be an employer of choice and provide a great place to work for all our people. We believe that by working together diverse people with different experiences develop the most innovative ideas. Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of how we improve quality of life and we work closely with our people across six ED&I Workstreams: Age, Disability, Faith, Gender, LGBT+ and Race. A diverse and skilled workforce is essential to our success.
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