The Opportunity
We’re looking for a Head of QHSE to lead and shape our quality, health & safety, environmental and facilities functions at OpenWorks Engineering as we continue to scale as a rapidly growing defence technology and engineering business. This is a high-impact leadership role with the opportunity to influence operational maturity, manufacturing excellence and organisational standards.
You’ll work closely with senior leadership, engineering and manufacturing teams to build robust, scalable and pragmatic systems that support rapid growth without compromising agility or innovation. This role is ideally suited to a leader who thrives on shaping strategy, developing high-performing teams and influencing stakeholders at all levels. The successful candidate will combine a strong commitment to people development with hands-on operational leadership and be comfortable operating in a fast-paced, engineering-led environment.
Security Vetting Information
OpenWorks Engineering operates within the defence sector. As part of our recruitment and onboarding processes, we collect information that may be required to support future security vetting and clearance requirements, should these become necessary during employment.
Who We Are
OpenWorks is a rapidly growing business operating globally with a passion for exceptional engineering and building on a legacy of defence innovation in the North East of England.
Our products provide ultra-high performance, real-time detection, tracking, identification and targeting of dynamic aerial threats. They have been deployed internationally to protect high profile military and civilian assets, and contribute towards the defeat of nuisance, misguided and maliciously deployed drones during operations.
We are very proud to have supported a wide range of law enforcement and military operators, protecting many of the most high profile sites and individuals around the world.
The amazing things we do are only possible because of a dedicated and passionate team.
Why You’ll Love Working With Us
Join a high-energy, collaborative team where great ideas thrive, challenges are embraced, and people genuinely love what they do.
Here’s what our benefits have to offer:
Rewarding Success - Competitive salary and bonus package, with performance bonuses of up to 25% and clear opportunities for career progression.
Enhanced Pension – Up to 8% employer-matched contributions to help you plan for the future.
More Time to Recharge – 25 days holiday plus bank holidays, long-service rewards, and the option to buy up to 5 extra days.
Breakfast & Lunch on Us – Enjoy team breakfasts and freshly prepared lunches every day courtesy of Chef Mark and his team.
Health & Wellbeing – Private healthcare and life assurance for added peace of mind.
Sustainable Travel – Salary sacrifice schemes, including EV car and Cycle to Work options.
Team Socials – Regular events, from quiz nights and football to board games and more.
Learning & Growth – A culture that empowers you to challenge, grow and make an impact, plus a £250 annual learning budget to invest in the development that matters most to you.
What you’ll be doing:
Leadership and Team Development
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Influence quality culture: Use excellent communication skills to influence other stakeholders to ensure quality is seen as the responsibility of the whole company.
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Lead and develop teams: Support and develop the Quality and H&S teams, creating an environment that encourages ownership, accountability and continuous improvement.
- Provide leadership and coaching: Strengthen capability, consistency and structure across the function as the business continues to scale.
- People & Capability: Foster talent development through effective performance management, coaching, succession planning, recruitment and wellbeing initiatives.
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Build strong relationships: Foster effective collaboration across Engineering, Manufacturing and wider business functions.
Quality Leadership and Governance
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Quality Leadership: Own the QMS, quality strategy and governance framework, ensuring compliance, scalability and continuous improvement.
- Business Improvement: Influence and partner with leaders across the organisation to drive quality excellence and operational performance.
- Issue Management: Lead the resolution of significant quality, customer and audit-related issues, ensuring effective corrective action and risk mitigation.
Manufacturing and Operational Quality
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Support manufacturing excellence: Work closely with Manufacturing, Production Engineering and Supply Chain teams to improve operational quality and manufacturing consistency.
- Drive practical improvements: Implement risk-based quality improvements that enhance reliability, throughput and scalable operations.
- Oversee operational quality activities: Manage NCRs, supplier quality, audits, inspection systems and process validation activities.
Health, Safety and Environmental
- Lead HSE strategy: Ensure compliance with relevant legislation, regulations and safe working practices across the business.
- Promote a proactive safety culture: Support effective risk management, training and continuous improvement initiatives.
Facilities Management
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Facilities & Growth: Lead facilities management and infrastructure planning to support safe operations, compliance and business scalability.
ERP System Alignment
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Support systems integration: Help align ERP and operational systems with the QMS and wider business management systems.
What we’re looking for:
Quality leadership experience: Significant experience leading Quality functions within engineering or manufacturing.
Strong QMS expertise: Experience developing and managing ISO-based Quality Management Systems within regulated industries.
Operational quality knowledge: Strong understanding of manufacturing quality, audits, RCCA processes and continuous improvement methodologies.
Collaborative leadership style: Able to build credibility and influence across engineering, manufacturing and senior leadership teams.
Pragmatic approach: Comfortable balancing rigour, compliance and operational agility within a fast-paced business.
Hands-on mindset: Equally comfortable contributing strategically and engaging operationally where required.
Calm and credible: Maintains a calm, methodical approach under pressure and is confident constructively challenging and influencing across functions.
ERP and systems experience: Experience integrating quality processes within ERP/MRP-driven manufacturing environments.
Strong communication skills: Able to influence across functions and promote a positive, company-wide quality culture while remaining calm and methodical under pressure.
Desirable
Sector experience: Experience within defence, aerospace, electronics, electro-optics or other complex engineering sectors.
Growth and scaling experience: Experience supporting rapid organisational growth and operational scaling. I.E. integrating Quality Systems into ERP environments.
AS9100 knowledge: Experience working within AS9100 environments.
Health & Safety qualifications: NEBOSH qualification or equivalent H&S certification.
Audit qualifications: Lead Auditor qualification.
Lean and problem-solving methodologies: Familiarity with lean manufacturing and structured problem-solving approaches.
Other: A full UK driving licence is required for this role. The position will involve occasional travel.
More about us:
Vision
Help protect the territory and airspace of NATO countries and their allies.
Mission
Be a world-leading provider of autonomous technology for Surveillance applications and Defence
Values
Be a Good Egg: Earn respect, have mutual trust and be honest
Do cool stuff: We develop cool tech with an awesome team, and we get stuff done
Be empowered: We are autonomous, reliable and take personal responsibility
We are one team: Look out for each other and the team
Things go wrong: Fail fast, learn and move on
Have fun: We’re doing amazing things with passionate people
