Safety, Health and Environment Director

Greencore

Remote-friendly
Why Greencore?
Following the combination with Bakkavor in January 2026, we're one of the UK's leading creators of convenience food, driven by a simple purpose: to make everyday taste better.
As a vibrant and fast-moving business, we're proud to employ over 28,000 talented colleagues across 36 manufacturing sites and 21 distribution depots in the UK and the US. Together, we bring delicious food to life. Our products cover every meal occasion from breakfast through to dinner and dessert, with lunch and snacking in between. In FY25, our shared passion helped us achieve combined revenues of approximately £4bn.
Our extensive direct-to-store network enables us to deliver fresh and frozen food, both our own and from trusted partners, to thousands of stores every day.
This is a significant moment for Greencore. As our new Safety, Health and Environment Director, you'll have the opportunity to shape the strategy, standards and culture of an enlarged organisation and make a lasting difference to colleagues across our business.

What you'll be doing
Reporting at executive level, you'll provide enterprise leadership for Safety, Health and Environment through a Centre of Excellence model. You'll set the strategic direction and establish the policies, standards, assurance and capability needed to protect our people, enable safe growth and embed a proactive, values-led safety culture.
You will:
  • Develop and lead the Group SHE strategy, translating it into clear standards, frameworks and implementation plans across the business.
  • Provide visible leadership for behavioural and cultural change, building ownership and capability among leaders and operational teams.
  • Establish consistent Group-wide performance, assurance, incident and risk-management processes that generate insight and drive continuous improvement.
  • Interpret changing legislation and regulation, ensuring risks are understood, mitigated and managed effectively.
  • Advise executive leaders on SHE risk across business activity, strategic growth, acquisitions and due diligence.
  • Build and lead a high performing SHE Centre of Excellence and strengthen capability across a wider professional community of approximately 130 colleagues.
  • Work with senior governance stakeholders on regulatory processes, insurance risk, claims management and plc-level oversight.
  • Represent Greencore with regulators, industry bodies and other external stakeholders, enhancing our reputation and influence.
  • Lead the environmental dimension of the Group SHE agenda and support delivery of our wider sustainability commitments.
The role will ideally be based at our Leeds Head office and will involve regular travel across our UK manufacturing and distribution network.

What we're looking for
We're looking for an established senior SHE leader who can operate credibly in the boardroom while remaining connected to the operational realities of a large, multi-site food-manufacturing organisation. This is a senior enterprise appointment requiring directly relevant scale and sector credibility; it is not intended as a first move into food manufacturing or a speculative step up.
You will bring:
  • Senior enterprise-level leadership experience in Safety, Health and Environment across a large, complex and geographically dispersed organisation.
  • Substantial senior SHE leadership experience in food manufacturing. Exceptionally, we may consider a closely comparable high-volume, multi-site and highly regulated manufacturing environment with a genuinely similar operational-risk profile and workforce complexity.
  • Current Chartered status with IOSH (CMIOSH or CFIOSH) and up-to-date knowledge of relevant legislation and regulation.
  • A strong record of developing and implementing SHE strategy, standards and governance across a complex organisation.
  • Evidence of leading large-scale transformation or integration, including behavioural and cultural change, leadership alignment and the implementation of consistent standards across previously distinct operations.
  • Experience of regulatory processes, risk oversight, insurance risk and claims management.
  • The credibility to influence, advise and constructively challenge executive leaders, operational stakeholders, regulators and external partners.
  • Strong communication, judgement and relationship-building skills.
Post-acquisition integration experience and genuine ownership of environmental or sustainability strategy would be particularly valuable.

What you'll get in return
  • Competitive salary and job-related benefits
  • Annual performance bonus and long-term incentive opportunity
  • Car allowance
  • Family private medical cover
  • Competitive matched pension contributions
  • Life assurance
  • Company share-save scheme
  • Exclusive Greencore employee discount platform
  • Access to a comprehensive wellbeing platform
Throughout your time at Greencore, you will be supported with development opportunities to help you succeed and continue building your career.
We reserve the right to close this advertisement before the stated closing date.
Apply Now →

Application opens at the source listing. Free for jobseekers.