Regional Health & Safety Manager - Middle East

A day-to-day safety leadership rhythm

At the core, you’ll steer the design, rollout and ongoing improvement of the company’s corporate Health & Safety management system and support the creation of project-level plans and risk assessments. You’ll translate legal, contractual and industry requirements into workable processes that are embedded into tender reviews, contract handovers, project planning, progress reviews and site assessments, ensuring documentation reflects effective system implementation.

On a practical level, you’ll lead safety audits and inspections across projects and head office activities, coordinate external audits and certifications, monitor compliance with standards, and provide practical advice to managers and project teams to raise safety performance. You’ll oversee training programmes, identify learning needs and drive initiatives that build organisational capability while promoting proactive safety leadership and accountability across the workforce.

Performance reporting sits alongside hands-on safety work: you’ll chair safety committee and management reviews, deliver monthly safety performance updates to senior leaders, interpret data into clear priorities and action plans, and track progress toward safety objectives while sharing lessons learned and implementing corrective actions. You’ll also respond promptly to incidents, lead root-cause investigations, and ensure proper notifications, investigations and preventive actions are completed through the CORITY system where appropriate.

Travel is a built‑in part of the role, with extensive coverage across the Middle East to support operations in the region, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. You’ll act as a trusted adviser to the Profit Centre Manager and other senior leaders, work closely with project managers and operations teams, and influence leaders and staff to take ownership of safety performance and safer practices.

Must-have requirements

To fit this job, you’ll need a solid foundation in health and safety within construction and the experience to back it up with leadership and impact. Here are the essentials:

• A recognised health and safety qualification paired with relevant professional experience
• Possibly local registration as a safety professional in the region
• At least ten years in engineer or officer roles, including seven or more years focused on health and safety
• Strong knowledge of health and safety and risk management in construction and related activities
• Good understanding of applicable legal, contractual and industry requirements
• Experience designing and implementing corporate and project H&S management systems
• Proven track record conducting audits, inspections and root-cause investigations
• Solid data-analysis and reporting skills, with a knack for turning insights into practical improvements
• Experience running health and safety training programmes and managing certification needs
• Excellent leadership, influencing and stakeholder-management capabilities
• Integrity, accountability and the willingness to challenge underperformance
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Independent judgement, curiosity and a proactive approach to problem-solving
• Highly organised with disciplined administration and record-keeping
• Willingness and ability to travel extensively across the Middle East

Nice-to-haves

While not required, the following would help you hit the ground running:

• Experience using incident-reporting and management systems, such as CORITY, would be advantageous

Compensation, benefits and practical details

The role is based in Dubai and is on a full-time, onsite basis. It involves extensive travel across the Middle East, covering the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. The position reports to the Profit Centre Manager, with a functional line to the Group Manager – Health & Safety. CORITY experience would be a plus, and a recognised local safety registration may be required depending on regulatory needs.

Tips to help you shine in this role

Match your resume to the must-haves with concrete examples from your construction safety career. Start with a summary that foregrounds your seven-plus years in health & safety and your ten-plus years in engineering or officer roles, then back it up with outcomes from corporate and site-level safety systems you’ve led.

When you describe your experience, give specifics about the safety systems you’ve built or improved, the risk assessments you’ve authored, and how you embedded safety into tender reviews, project planning and handovers. If you’ve run audits or root-cause investigations, share the findings, actions taken and measurable safety improvements that followed.

Prepare for interviews with crisp stories that show how you’ve influenced leaders and challenged poor performance. Highlight training programmes you’ve led, how you built safety capability across teams, and how you promoted proactive safety leadership and accountability in multi-site environments.

Have a ready question that reflects the regional scope of the job. For example, ask how the company prioritises safety improvements across UAE, KSA, Qatar and Kuwait in the first six months and what success looks like for the regional safety function.

Submitting your CV for the Dubai Health & Safety leadership role

Apply now with your CV and a cover letter outlining your relevant Health & Safety experience, qualifications and achievements.