Are you an Experienced Ergonomist / Human Factors expert with experience working for a client organisation in any safety critical industry – Rail, Medical, Aviation, Defence, Nuclear, Automotive, Oil & Gas etc.

The HS2 programme is currently valued c£60 billion and has 10 years left to run.  This is the largest construction project in Europe, the project reached an important milestone last week with 11 major Rail System Contracts Awards (Signalling, Telecom, Power, Track, M&E Systems etc) as the project moves from a predominately civils project to what will become an operational Railway.

The Lead Ergonomist will report to the head of Ergonomics and will be responsible for Human Factors across all the Rail Systems Contracts – these include vitally important safety critical systems including Signalling, Telecoms, Train Control, Scada all absolutely crucial for the safe running of this brand-new railway.  The Human Factors department manage human factors right across the programme (Civils, Stations, Train & Rail System contracts)

Job Purpose

The Lead Ergonomist role is to lead the Ergonomics and Human Factors assurance of major Rail Systems contracts in HS2 and alignment with future operations and maintenance.

The human factors team sit within the Operations & Maintenance department (End State) of HS2, but firstly you will be used as a Project Resource within the delivery of the Design & build of the railway (10 years), with likely opportunities once HS2 becomes an operation railway.  Each Rail Systems contract will have dedicated requirements and standards around Human Factors which have to be met you will lead the assurance of these and act as an intelligent client actively helping, guiding the main contractors and their supply chain to make the right decisions and problem solve.  This is an incredibly complex large project with real challenges not least in the integration between contracts / disciplines.

Working Situation – Hybrid

The office location is either Birmingham Snowhill or Euston (London) which ever suits.  They operate a flexible hybrid working model typically 2 days a week.  Overall, this is a very flexible modern employer who cares about delivery not where you deliver from, however, if you wish to be based front the office more you can.

Salary  

Birmingham                   £75 – 81,780 + Pen (6:12) + health + 25 days (potentially £85,859)

London                         £90 – 94,560 Pen (6:12) + health + 25 days (potentially £99k)

Duties & Responsibilities

• Manage multiple contractors and their deliverables across the different work packages to make sure they are delivering to the HS2 specification and requirements with respect to ergonomics. 
• Leading in providing Ergonomics integration across the contracts where required.
• Contract manage and accept the delivery of activity by expert technical consultants to supplement the work of the in-house team
• Provide technical expertise to HS2 and external stakeholders (where delegated by the Head of Ergonomics)
• Support the Head of Ergonomics in in providing assurance for ergonomics to HS2
• Lead work to ensure that human performance is integrated into the design from concept through to specification and demonstration validation.
• Support the Head of Ergonomics and their team, inputting into the development of the operational model of the HS2 Infrastructure manager including evaluating and assessing appropriate values for human factors of the operational process and of passenger user behaviour and for technical capability of the system sub-elements including trains and infrastructure.
• Provide and manage specialist support and subject matter expertise to HS2 Delivery teams to ensure that Ergonomics requirements are fulfilled by the contractors
• Provide specialist input to understand the impact of likely technology changes and their potential implications on human behaviour and performance, particularly in respect of the transitions between autonomous, semi-autonomous and manual systems for key roles such as train drivers, station staff and passengers (e.g. booking, ticketing and passenger real time flow management) to ensure HS2 is specified to meet its continuing needs at and after opening - connecting with diverse expert organisations beyond the transport sector.
• Manage the expert analysis of mental and physical workload of proposed activities..
• Actively promote and embed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies and procedures in EDI.

Require Criteria

Qualified Ergonomist / Human Factor expert with safety critical industry expedience open to a range of sectors – Rail, Medical, Aviation, Defence, Nuclear, Automotive, Oil & Gas, Mining etc.

The idal candidate will have client experience – rather then purely consultancy, specific client experience is important due to understanding the risks and responsibilities of delving in safety critical environments and client experience tends to be broader experience than working on niche short term consultancy assignments.  Interested to talk to People who have worked consultancy and been seconded into Client organisation.

Must have good Stakeholder Management & Communication skills - ability to form strong working relationships coupled with that the ability to manage & influence others you don’t have direct authority over.

Skills:

• Ability to produce high quality reports and strategic level documents
• Ability to review, assess and assure reports from contractors
• Ability to provide Ergonomics and Human Factors input on systems and operations to project engineering and delivery teams

Knowledge:

• Knowledge of the railway domain (engineering and operational) – nice to have but open to any safety critical sector experiencer – Nuclear, Maritime, Aviation, Defence, Oil & Gas etc
• Knowledge of health and safety and systems safety engineering (CSM)
• Knowledge of Infrastructure Manager operational organisational structures
• Knowledge of processes required to introduce new technology
• Financial and commercial knowledge of Human Factors contracts
• Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF), or demonstrable knowledge and experience as would be required for by the CIEHF for Chartered status.

Type of experience:

• Experience of the working within complex human system engineering multi-stage projects in a safety and performance sensitive industry
• Experience of assuring Ergonomics in a safety critical environment
• Experience of leading Ergonomics integration into engineering design & development
• Experience of implementing and adapting to change, creating an environment that helps people to change