Secret Compass is a Bristol-based risk management company, our ambitious projects seek to achieve the extraordinary in the world’s wildest places.

We are lucky to support an exciting slate of TV and Film projects across the world spanning the breaking news, drama, natural history, reality TV and factual genres. We’ve dropped Will Smith into a cave in Namibia to go diving as part of Welcome to Earth, got Chris Hemsworth to rope climb up to a cable car in Limitless, helped the team to film the fantastic Queens series, supported Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold to achieve some epic ascents, and many more.

As the company continues to evolve, Secret Compass is recruiting an additional TV Risk Manager to join us in delivering our growing portfolio of work across the full range of our projects.

Outline of role

For successful candidates, you can expect to be an integral part of the Secret Compass Operations Team, focused on the delivery of high quality, professional support to our client base across a wide range of varied projects in the TV and Film sphere. The day to day work of this role will focus primarily on the delivery of risk management paperwork, through understanding, analysing and assessing the requirements of the client for that project within its own unique context. We will be required to be part of the team developing and reviewing risk assessments and safety plans, and assisting with the  support of our clients to  successfully achieve their goals.

Please note, this role is desk/office based, and primarily focused on researching and writing necessary safety documentation.

Key areas of responsibility

1. Project Risk Management. We expect our TV Risk Managers to jump into any project across the broad spectrum of our work. This often means juggling the demands of multiple projects at any one time. You will be involved in delivering high quality support, focusing on risk and safety management, across all of our business phases. Segments will include research and development, budgeting, invoicing, briefings etc.
2. Risk Documentation. With guidance and support of the Project Lead, you will be heavily involved in the development and review of Risk Assessments, Safety Plans and other key documentation. You will need to work collaboratively and in conjunction with your fellow TV risk managers, operations coordinators and Project Leads.
3. Project Delivery. Where required, help to deliver the necessary preparation, logistics and admin support for any project, anywhere in the world. We will be required to work collaboratively with our operations coordinators, stores personnel, consultants and the wider SCHQ team.

The successful candidate – what we’re looking for from you

Ideally, you will have experience of analysing, researching and writing risk management paperwork within the expedition, outdoor, security or military sectors. We are looking for candidates with first hand experience in understanding environmental, safety and security risks, who are able to succinctly detail this in document form. This is not traditional Project Management – we are not looking for professional project management qualifications or experience.

On-the-ground experience and understanding of the type of projects we deliver is desirable for this role. This could be from expedition, TV and Film or security sectors and we welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds. Note, the majority of our work is environmental and activity risk management in remote locations and so candidates with experience in a range of environments (jungle, desert, mountain etc) and activities (mountaineering/climbing, white water, small boats, etc) are at an advantage.

This role requires you to be a dynamic and adaptable individual who takes a positive, solution-oriented approach to problem solving. You will need to be able to keep pace with the dynamic aims of TV production teams. Good report writing and a studious attention to detail is essential for the role and we are particularly looking for candidates who are highly organised and efficient, with excellent time management skills. In addition, you will be personable, flexible, team focused and have a willingness to be client-facing.

Candidates who have professional or personal experience of living or working in remote outdoor environments or of the outdoor industry would be of interest. A working knowledge of ISO31000, BS8848, or IOSH related experience is also advantageous but not essential.

As a company, we take a grown up approach – we want our team to use their initiative, grasp challenges and share ideas. We are small and dynamic and rely on our ability to work collaboratively, supportively and with excellent communication. We want motivated people who think laterally & critically towards all aspects of SC work.

Life at SCHQ – what you can expect from us

We’re a fun team at SCHQ! We’re a busy organisation operating in support of a highly creative industry, there is no such thing as a ‘normal’ day. As a team we work hard and expect a lot from each other, but we do this in a relaxed and informal environment.

We value our people, and are interested in who you are and your experiences and we think it’s important to foster and encourage diversity across our team. It’s our people who are our strength. 

The dog-friendly office is situated in South Bristol within walking distance of shops, town and a park with many of the team choosing to walk or cycle to work – not exactly a hardship in the South-West’s adventure capital and ‘Best Place to Live in the UK’!

Sustainability is something we care about. We are committed to developing our Sustainability policy and doing our best to reduce our footprint and minimise our impact across all of our business processes.

Our informal office is populated by ‘outdoorsy-types’ with hobbies ranging from climbing to cycling, horse riding to hiking, and surfing to skiing – and our annual staff days out often reflect these interests with previous trips including coasteering, SUPing and a mountain-bike pub crawl. Safe to say, we work hard but play hard too!

Key benefits include

1. Competitive salary dependent on experience
2. Comprehensive onboarding and training programme including CPD opportunities
3. 20 days leave (increasing each year) plus bank holidays and Christmas close-down
4. Generous kit discounts for staff
5. Pension, cycle to work scheme and options to request specific benefits
6. Relaxed dress-code, dog-friendly office, in-house bar, unlimited tea, coffee and strange international concoctions

This role will be open until we find the right candidate, therefore we will be sifting applications as we go – don’t hang around! For those who we feel are suitable potential candidates, we will be sending a set of pre-interview tasks in advance. Interviews will take place at a time convenient to the recruitment team, with the first wave happening before the Christmas break. Once the application process has formally closed, we will be in touch with all candidates to let you know of any next steps, however please bear with us on this.

Apply here