Safety Engineer
Position Reference: RRSafetyEngineer

ABS Consulting wish to recruit engineers to join our Safety Support Team, based at our offices in Derby or Helensburgh.   The team undertakes work for a key client in the defence sector.

To be considered for this position, candidates must have the following essential attributes:

• Degree qualified or Chartered status (or equivalent)
• At least the last 5 years spent in a Nuclear Safety role

Candidates offering civil nuclear experience or defence related nuclear experience in any of the main engineering or physics disciplines will be of interest. Formal safety case training would be an advantage, such as recognised Author-Verifier or Case Officer status within a client organisation, as would a higher degree in safety and reliability engineering.

Special note will be taken of experience in naval nuclear propulsion systems, and submarine berthing facilities.

Appointments on Contract or Staff Grades are available.

For a contract position, a graded hourly rate to cover all travel and subsistence expenses will be applicable, based on a maximum of maximum of 2000 hours over a 48 week year, Monday to Friday.

For a staff position, the salary will be commensurate with skills/experience and benefits offered include life insurance (4 x annual salary), private medical cover through BUPA, private dental cover, company contribution into either a company scheme or a scheme of your choice, flexible working hours, 23 days annual leave, and critical illness cover. For higher grades (principal and above) the additional benefit of a company or car allowance will apply.

The grade of appointment will be made as Project Engineer, Senior Engineer or Principal Engineer and will be appropriate to the experience of the candidate.

Mechanical/Electrical/Procurement Engineers
Position Reference: SecondarySystems

We are currently seeking a number of engineers to join our existing team supporting our client in Derby.  The Secondary Propulsion Systems team is looking to broaden its capability and capacity in submarine propulsion systems and equipment.  Its current work streams include propulsors, steam turbo-generators, flexible couplings and noise attenuators, and overall propulsion plant architecture.  To assist this growth a number of mechanical, electrical and procurement engineers are sought.

The placement is to be based at the client’s Derby office and is expected to last between 1 and 3 years.

Recognising the restricted nature of this work, candidates must have SC clearance.

A background and knowledge of submarine systems is advantageous but not essential.

Key Experience Requirement

Successful candidates will need to have experience in one or more of the following areas:

• Marine propulsion and related equipment (including condensers, steam turbines, generators, propulsors/propellers, noise attenuating devices)
• Fibre composites or similar materials;
• Writing Product Definitions;
• Finite Element Analysis;
• Boiler and Pressure Vessel Codes eg BS5500, ASME VIII;
• Noise and vibration for rotating machinery and its attenuation;
• Rotating plant;
• Fluid systems design;
• Submarine systems;
• Nuclear engineering;
• Power electrics;
• Energy storage equipment and systems;
• Plant system design and integration;
• Procurement management

Project Engineers
Position Reference: ProjectEngineer

We are currently seeking a number of Project Engineers to join our existing team supporting our client in Derby. A background and knowledge of submarine systems is advantageous but not essential. Current SC clearance is also required.

The placement is to be based at the client’s Derby office and is expected to last between 1 and 3 years.

Key Experience Requirement

• At least 1 to 3 years experience in a relevant discipline, preferably on project work (either an Integrated Programme Team, or functionally based)
• At least 1 year experience in the application of specific project management processes (e.g. cost or scope management)
• Nuclear defence experience an advantage
• Knowledge of project management processes and good knowledge of the project control process defined therein
• Experience in setting up and applying project control processes
• Have sound general engineering knowledge and understanding
• Experience in project/programme management
• Understanding of safety and risk principles and their application
• Good communication skills and a proactive approach to problem solving

Key Accountabilities

• Act as the management focal point for the work and provide the Project Manager with information necessary to control and manage the overall Project.
• Assist in the collation of estimates and plans for projects and contract amendments/variations.
• Assist in the definition, agreement and change of customer deliverables
• Ensure that all required outputs are satisfactorily delivered to the customer and that this can be demonstrated
• Prepare necessary reports/information to support both internal reporting and external reporting to the customer.
• Analyse project performance and explain variances to scope, schedule and cost.
• Identify issues relating to project performance and highlight these to the Project Manager
• Implement and manage an effective Risk Register for the project.
• Produce a Risk Management plan
• Produce a Project Management Plan

Principal Engineer - Safety Case Management Systems
Position Reference: Principal-SCMS

ABS Consulting wishes to recruit an engineer to join their Safety Case Management Systems Team, based at our office in Derby. The Safety Case Management Systems Team undertakes work for a key client in the defence sector.

To be considered for this position, candidates must have the following attributes:

• Degree qualified or chartered status.
• At least five years spent in a nuclear safety role.
• Ability to develop strategic improvements to business processes.

The candidate will be responsible for day-to-day operations, development of IT facilities and resulting migrations from the existing IT facilities, and also for the identification and implementation of general improvements to the team’s activities.

Day-to-day operations involve:

1. Document Issue Plans which define the safety cases for all the clients’ assets.
2. Management and maintenance of the database which contains the full safety case documentation.
3. Management of issues arising from peer and regulator reviews.

Special note will be taken of hands-on experience of databases and document management systems. Knowledge of Microsoft Access would be advantage, as would experience of defining user requirements or functional specification for such facilities.

Candidates offering civil nuclear experience or defence related nuclear experience in any of the main engineering or physics disciplines will be of interest. Formal safety case training would be an advantage such as recognised Author, Verifier or Case Officer status within a client organisation, or a higher degree in safety and reliability engineering.

The appointment will be made at Principal Engineer grade.

Product Representative - EQECAT Product Support and Training Division
Position Reference: London E1

EQECAT is a leading provider of state-of-the-art products and services for managing natural and manmade risks.  The company meets the needs of its customers by providing innovative catastrophe management solutions for property and casualty insurance underwriting, accumulation management and transfer of natural hazard and terrorism risk.

EQECAT, which is part of the ABS Consulting’s Corporate Market Sector, has expanded at a record rate and as part of this continued expansion programme there is a requirement for a Product Representative(s) to join the Product Support and Training Division, based in London.

The aims of this division are to ensure that clients have a thorough knowledge of products through:

• Training in the use and technical background of the models;
• Front-line support for queries and problems;
• Installation and configuration of the software.

Each member of the team is responsible for representing an area of expertise (eg windstorm in Europe, loss calculations etc) and the team acts as a technical interface between clients and internal technologists.  A close working relationship with internal teams is essential to understand the models and to be able to effectively convey this understanding to clients.

The successful candidate(s) is likely to have previous catastrophe modelling experience in the insurance sector (brokers, insurance/reinsurance companies or modelling companies).  Ideally they should have a numerate degree either from a scientific discipline (geology, meteorology or earthquake engineering) or from a mathematical or actuarial discipline.

Proficiency with IT tools for data manipulation (spreadsheets, databases, etc) will be useful as will good diagnosis and troubleshooting skills.

This role is customer facing so good communication and interpersonal skills are essential.

Nuclear Services  - Engineering
Position Reference: ABS001

Candidates with the following disciplines/experience are sought for, to expand further our skills and capabilities within the Nuclear Services department to meet our growth opportunities:

• Mechanical Stress Engineer
• Civil/Structural Engineers with engineering substantiation experience
• Electrical, Control and Instrumentation Engineers
• Nuclear Mechanical Handling Specialist

Security Risk
Position Reference: ABS002

The individual may have gained his technical experience via a military or more likely hazardous industry route via a similar consultancy environment to ABS Consulting.  Although the opportunity is predominantly biased to assessment of terrorism threats, individuals with experience of modelling extreme load scenarios e.g. conventional man made hazards, and assessing their consequence may possess the required blend of skills required.
 

• Ability to make practical engineering judgements.
• Experience with origination of design/assessment calculations along with technical reports etc.
• Risk modelling experience.
• Development of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans.
• Terrorism Threat scenario development.
• Explosion Modelling.
• Consequence modelling in terms of property loss, casualty and business interruption.
• Understanding of security hardware.
• Understanding of the security vulnerability assessment process.

Commercial Risk
Position Reference: ABS003

These roles offer exciting opportunities to join a world leading technical team in the areas of natural hazard and man made hazard assessment/design.  The technical challenges are as diverse as our clients and provide excellent career opportunities in the UK, along with possible involvement in international projects.  Some typical projects which candidates may become involved in are summarised below:

• The structural assessment of a manufacturing facility against earthquake loading
• Design of a critical building to withstand blast loading.
• Assessment of a number of commercial buildings against windstorm loading or flood.

The company also offers excellent training opportunities to develop careers to the full.  This goes hand in hand with the company’s philosophy of offering early responsibility based on your ability and the chance to develop a broad skill base across a wide range of industries and technologies.

Applicants for these positions must expect, or have achieved a good degree in Civil or Structural Engineering and have a genuine interest in structural dynamics.  Successful candidates are likely to be highly motivated, possess good communication and IT skills, along with being able to thrive in a diverse team orientated consultancy environment.

Nuclear Services – Safety Engineer
Position Reference: ABS004

Your background ideally includes:

• Minimum of three years experience in Safety and Risk management
• Have sound general engineering knowledge and understanding
• Commercial awareness
• Understanding of safety and risk principles and their application

What we are looking for:

The role for a Senior Safety Engineer includes responsibilities for providing consultancy services to a wide range of clients. You will be primarily working in the nuclear defence sector but the Company services a broad spectrum of other industries here in the UK and overseas. Therefore, flexibility is an essential prerequisite. Previous consultancy experience would be useful, as would experience of working in major project environments. Some travel will occasionally be required.

Applicants should have experience in as many of the following skill areas as possible:

• Nuclear Safety Case writing
• Safety Management/Safety Management Systems
• Risk Management
• Design Basis Assessment,  Probabilistic Safety Assessment and/or Hazard Analysis (HAZAN)
• Safety/RAMs engineering
• Hazard and operability studies (HAZOPS), with HAZOP chair experience advantageous
• Safety analysis using fault tree analysis (FTA), event tree analysis (ETA), and/or  Failure Modes and effects Criticality Analysis (FMECA)
• ALARP Principle and Cost Benefit Analysis
• Peer review

Safety/Risk – Oil & Gas, Marine
Position Reference: ABS005

ABS Consulting Ltd is seeking a suitable(s) candidate for the post of Safety/Risk Engineer (Project Engineer and or Senior engineer grade).  The individual(s) will be based in our Birchwood, Warrington, UK.  The candidate will be employed by the Oil & Gas/Commercial Risk section.

We are looking for an engineer(s) with a chemical, process or safety related degree who is able to contribute to existing projects as well as supporting those which are developing.  The suitable candidate should be experienced with at least 2 to 3+ years (junior) and 5+ years (senior) in carrying out risk/safety related assessments in the oil and gas, petrochemical or related industries.

The technical workload will encompass the following techniques:

• Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Assessment
• Consequence modelling, including use of packages such as Shell FRED, Shepherd and various fire/blast CFD codes
• Bow-Tie modelling using ABS Consulting THESIS code
• Safety Case/COMAH Case development and support
• HAZID/HAZOP/SIL

The individual will be expected to have experience of some of the above and a willingness to develop skills in those areas in which he or she is weak.  Mentoring will be provided in this regard.

The expected work profile would require the person to both work on his own initiative and with the other team members including other offices with the group.  Work is ultimately likely to require some travel both within the region (Europe and Middle East) and possibly beyond.

Inspection and Survey Opportunities
Position Reference: NA

As part of our continued expansion, we are seeking to recruit the following on a subcontract basis (full or part –time) for work in the UK, BENELUX, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe:

Marine Services:

• Marine Surveyors

• Marine Plan Approval Engineers

• Marine New Building Inspectors (overseas assignments)
  Hull, Coating, Machinery, Electrical and Control Systems
  

Oil and Gas Industrial Services:

• Vendor Equipment Inspectors

• Electrical and Instrumentation Inspectors
  Cables, Switchgear, Generators, Motors, Transformers and HVAC

• Machinery and Equipment Inspectors
  Rotating Equipment, Compressors, Gears, Pumps, Turbines, Diesel and Gas Engines

• Pressure Systems and Piping Inspectors
  Heat Exchangers, Boilers, Pressure Vessels, Line Piping, Valves and Fittings

• Offshore Wellhead Equipment Inspectors

• Crane Inspectors

• ISO Auditors

It is likely that the successful candidates will be appropriately qualified and have in the region of 10 years relevant experience in the above areas.  To apply for any of the above positions, please email your CV to Christine Appleby (cappleby@absconsulting.com) indicating availability and rate expectations.