HSEQ Lead - Solutions at Ocean Infinity in Southampton, England, GB

Worker Type: Employee

Application End Date: 20-07-2026

We are using and creating technology to transform operations at sea to enable people and the planet to thrive.

We are open-minded and fearless in our approach to innovation and don't believe in boundaries. We challenge everything and have massive ambitions to drag aging industries into the tech era.

We take safety, equality and education very seriously, and our responsibilities don't stop at our front door. Our business is built on the belief that there's definitely a more environmentally responsible way to operate at sea.

We employ people who share our core values. We expect our people to be courageous, trustworthy, and conscientious, driven by a desire to do the right thing. We strive for excellence, work collaboratively, and are genuinely excited by our work.

We offer opportunities for our people to develop beyond their role and span a multitude of disciplines. These are open to all, regardless of background and experience level. Working with us means being part of a team that is harnessing technology and creativity to disrupt a traditional industry.

We are not your average workplace.

Ocean Infinity is seeking a HSEQ Lead for our Solutions business unit to own and shape how health, safety, environment and quality is applied across Ocean Infinity's Solutions business — a growing portfolio that designs, integrates, and delivers bespoke autonomous and remote systems for clients across defence, government, and commercial sectors.

Solutions delivery is fundamentally different from repeatable marine service operations. It involves novel system configurations, rapid design iteration, compressed decision timelines, global reach, and sovereign or defence customers with non-negotiable assurance expectations. The primary HSEQ challenge is not execution-phase oversight — it is ensuring that decisions about whether a system is safe to operate, sell, and stand behind are made early, with the right evidence, at the right level, and to a standard that is externally defensible.

This is a senior leadership role with a dual mandate. The HSEQ Solutions Lead will build and own the HSEQ framework for Solutions — tailoring how the Group management system is implemented in defence and sovereign environments, establishing assurance and readiness standards, and acting as the single senior HSEQ interface for Solutions leadership. In the first 12 months, the role will also carry direct advisory work on Solutions projects as the team scales.

What you will do:

HSEQ Framework Ownership for Solutions

• Own how HSEQ is applied across the Solutions portfolio — ensuring it is proportionate to delivery context.
• Define and maintain the Solutions approach to system assurance and operational readiness — establishing what must be demonstrated before a system is accepted as safe to operate, deploy, or deliver to a client.
• Establish readiness and mobilisation criteria for Solutions projects — governing the transition from design and integration into live operations with consistent, auditable, and proportionate evidence.
• Ensure the framework meets the specific requirements of defence and sovereign customers — where assurance expectations are non-negotiable, and where security clearance, export controls, and segregation of duties constrain how work is delivered.
• Own the HSEQ interface with security obligations — ensuring that where physical, personnel, or information security intersects with safety and assurance, responsibilities are clear and coordinated.
• Maintain current knowledge of legal, regulatory, and client-specific HSEQ requirements relevant to the Solutions portfolio — including UK MoD standards, NATO requirements, ITAR, and evolving defence procurement frameworks.
• Act as the senior HSEQ point of contact for defence and sovereign client programme offices — representing Ocean Infinity's assurance credibility at programme level, attending programme governance forums where required, and ensuring HSEQ commitments made at bid are delivered through to acceptance.

Assurance Standards, Criteria & Evidence Requirements

• Define what "safe to operate" means for Solutions — including the assurance criteria, evidence requirements, and acceptance thresholds that must be met before a system is approved for deployment, client delivery, or live operations.
• Set the standard for how risk acceptance decisions are taken across Solutions — including who has authority, what evidence is required, and how decisions are recorded and traceable.
• Define what design and engineering evidence must be produced across the Solutions lifecycle (e.g. FMEA, design review outputs, test results, configuration records) — and ensure the Advisor and project teams can deliver against those requirements.
• Own the assurance approach for Solutions as a whole — ensuring it is consistent across the portfolio, proportionate to the delivery context, and credible to external audiences including clients, regulators, and auditors.
• Represent HSEQ in Solutions governance forums, bid/no-bid reviews, contract reviews, and programme steering groups.

Hands-On Advisory Contribution (transitional)

• In the first 12 months, while the Solutions HSEQ team is being established, the Lead will carry direct advisory work on priority Solutions projects alongside the framework-building responsibilities above. This includes attending design reviews, supporting readiness assessments, and contributing to client-facing assurance activities where capacity requires it.
• This hands-on advisory load will reduce as the team is onboarded and established. The Lead's steady-state focus is framework ownership, assurance standards, senior stakeholder engagement, and team leadership — not ongoing project-level delivery.

Team Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Line manage the Solutions HSEQ Advisor (and any future Solutions HSEQ resources).
• Act as the single senior HSEQ interface for Solutions leadership — building trust, credibility, and a shared understanding of how HSEQ adds value in a fast-paced, engineering-led environment.
• Facilitate coordination between engineering, commercial, and operations teams to ensure HSEQ is integrated early and practically — not imposed late.
• Build capability within Solutions project teams so that routine HSEQ expectations are understood and applied without permanent HSEQ presence.
• Contribute to broader HSEQ leadership — including cross-functional alignment with Data Services, Quality Governance, and the Management System & Assurance function.

Security Clearance & Export Controls

This role involves access to UK Government / UK MoD customer information and export-controlled data. Appointment is subject to candidates being eligible for and able to obtain/hold UKSV Security Check (SC) clearance, as required by contract, and to ongoing compliance with information security obligations and export controls (including ITAR, where applicable). DV clearance eligibility is highly desirable.

Candidates must be sole UK nationals for security clearance purposes.

Essential:

• Significant experience in HSEQ, safety assurance, or system safety leadership within defence, maritime, aerospace, autonomous systems, or complex engineering environments.
• Demonstrable experience building or shaping HSEQ frameworks — ideally in an environment where processes were still maturing.
• Strong understanding of system-level assurance: design evidence, engineering acceptability, FMEA, readiness and mobilisation frameworks.
• Experience working with defence or sovereign customers where assurance expectations are non-negotiable and externally scrutinised.
• Understanding of export controls, security clearance requirements, and how they constrain delivery.
• Knowledge of relevant ISO standards (9001, 45001, 14001) and their practical application in engineering-led environments.
• NEBOSH IGC Certificate or equivalent; further qualifications in system safety, quality, or assurance desirable.
• Eligible for and able to obtain UKSV SC clearance; sole UK national required.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills — able to influence at senior levels and build credibility with engineering teams.
• Comfortable operating in fast-paced, scaling environments with compressed timelines and evolving designs.

Desirable:

• Experience with autonomous or remote systems, uncrewed vessels, or robotics.
• Familiarity with relevant defence assurance standards (e.g. DEF STAN 00-56, IEC 61508, or equivalent).
• DV clearance eligibility.
• Chartered IOSH membership, or equivalent.
• Experience leading small teams and developing junior HSEQ professionals.

Salary for this position: Up to £75,000 per annum

Salary: The salary varies for this position as we are recruiting in multiple regional locations and job grades. The salary process is based on skills, abilities, and experience required.

What you can expect:

At Ocean Infinity, we believe in creating equal opportunities for all, celebrating each and everyone’s differences. We are driven by transforming the industry, through our technology, thoughts, behaviours and actions. Being inclusive and respectful to all is fundamental to who we are. It is the right thing to do and enables innovation and creativity to thrive.

There is more work to be done, and we know that we aren’t perfect, but our commitment to these values is unwavering. They are central to our mission and the impact we have on the industry, meaning, we cannot live without them.