Meet the people behind DE&S

What does your role entail?

My role consists of providing technical safety support to the delivery teams in order for them to be able to demonstrate compliance with their design and legal requirements.

Why did you choose a career in Safety Engineering? Where did you begin?

In all honesty, I rather stumbled into this profession. When I was leaving university with a Chemical Engineering degree I was offered a graduate job as a safety engineer with AMEC in Oil & Gas. What I discovered is that I really enjoyed the profession. As a safety engineer you have to have an understanding of the entire process, structure, and operation, not just one element, which makes it unique among the engineering professions.

What difference does your role make?

My role ensures that the equipment that goes out to the armed forces is fit for purpose and is safe for them to use.

Why DE&S? What makes it a great place to work?

I work for the Internal Technical Support (ITS) team within DE&S. The ITS team is a unique entity within DE&S, in that we cover all of the land, air and marine domains; we effectively do business in the manner of an independent consultancy within DE&S. Due to this we have a team that combines the working methodologies of both the public and private sector, which ensures that we get the best of both worlds and that there is no end to the list of interesting jobs. Effectively, if you are an engineer, no matter what area you are interested in, we will have something interesting for you to work on.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start a career in your field at DE&S?

My main advice would that it doesn’t matter what industry you have a background in, as long as you have experience in Safety Case or Technical Safety then you have the skillsets we are looking for in this team.