Explosives and Hazardous Materials Team Lead

Description

About Us

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. Our work helps to protect people and places, ensuring everyone can lead safer and healthier lives at work.

Our Science Division is a world-leading provider of health and safety solutions to industry and government.

We are now looking for an Explosives and Hazardous Materials Team Lead to join us on a full-time or part-time basis. Options for flexible working or job shares will be considered. Part-time applicants must be able to commit to working a minimum of 30 hours per week.

The Benefits

– Salary of £70,935 – £80,330 per annum (pro rata for part-time)
– A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
– 25 days’ annual holiday increasing to 30 days after 5 years’ service, plus bank holidays and 1-day Civil Service privilege leave
– Learning and Development tailored to your role
– An environment with flexible working options
– A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
– Competitive rates of pay
– Family-friendly policies and working hours to help balance your home life and career
– Carer-friendly policies to help create a supportive working culture
– Parental leave benefits
– Access to a wide range of fantastic benefits, such as the Cycle to Work Scheme, E-Gift Cards, and Vouchers via our partner EdenRed

This is a unique opportunity for an experienced explosives scientist or engineer to play a key role in leading hazardous materials research within our specialist team.

Leveraging your expertise, you’ll be at the forefront of pioneering projects that not only protect lives in workplaces but also shape the safe future of new and emerging technologies, giving your work a lasting national impact.

What’s more, you will have access to cutting-edge facilities and advanced technologies, enabling you to push the boundaries of research and develop solutions that influence safety standards across the industry.

The Role

As the Explosives and Hazardous Materials Team Lead, you will provide leadership and technical insight to a team within our hazardous materials testing and research.

Specifically, you will lead the safe delivery of experimental explosives and pyrotechnics testing at our licensed explosives site, ensuring all work meets the highest scientific and safety standards.

Leading and supporting incident investigations, you will work with other government agencies such as the Police, attend incident sites and act as an expert witness. You will also support commercial research opportunities by engaging with potential customers, shaping proposals, and presenting technical solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.

Additionally, you will:

– Mentor and coach colleagues to support continuous development
– Review technical work to continuously improve methodologies and outcomes
– Develop a network with the wider explosives community

About You

To be considered as an Explosives and Hazardous Materials Team Lead, you will need:

– Experience of leading technical teams undertaking explosives and pyrotechnics testing across a range of standard (UN and EMTAP) and bespoke test scenarios
– A clear understanding of explosives and pyrotechnics testing across standard (UN and EMTAP) and bespoke test scenarios
– A strong understanding of explosives and pyrotechnics safety and testing principles
– The ability to work well both independently and as part of a team
– Excellent communication skills
– An honours degree in Explosives Engineering, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Physics, or a closely related subject
– Full Membership of a relevant professional body OR sufficient experience and qualifications to apply for Membership
– A full, valid driving licence

The closing date for this role is 5th January 2026.

Other organisations may call this role Explosives Engineer, Hazardous Materials Scientist, Explosives Testing Lead, Explosives Safety Specialist, or Hazardous Materials Technical Lead.

Webrecruit and the Health and Safety Executive are equal opportunities employers, value diversity and are strongly committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and all applicants for employment. Equal opportunities are the only acceptable way to conduct business and we believe that the more inclusive our environments are, the better our work will be.

So, if you want to take on this exciting opportunity as an Explosives and Hazardous Materials Team Lead, please apply via the button shown. This vacancy is being advertised by Webrecruit. The services advertised by Webrecruit are those of an Employment Agency.