Director of EHS

About the Job

A leading food packaging company is seeking a Director of Environmental, Health & Safety to provide strategic leadership for EHS programs across a multi-site manufacturing organization. This role is responsible for developing and executing the company's EHS vision, ensuring regulatory compliance, protecting employee health and safety, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement within complex, process-driven manufacturing environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of the company's Environmental, Health & Safety strategy across multiple manufacturing facilities.
• Establish and drive corporate EHS objectives, policies, standards, and best practices to ensure compliance with OSHA, EPA, and all applicable federal, state, and local regulations.
• Provide strategic oversight of environmental compliance, industrial hygiene, occupational health, process safety, and risk management initiatives.
• Partner with executive leadership and operations teams to develop a proactive, behavior-based safety culture that prioritizes employee engagement and accountability.
• Lead environmental permitting, reporting, inspections, and regulatory interactions across the organization.
• Develop and implement company-wide EHS management systems, policies, procedures, and key performance metrics.
• Oversee incident investigations, root cause analyses, corrective actions, and organizational learning initiatives to prevent recurrence.
• Drive continuous improvement efforts focused on reducing recordable injuries, environmental incidents, workers' compensation costs, and overall organizational risk.
• Manage industrial hygiene programs, including exposure monitoring, respiratory protection, hearing conservation, hazard communication, and medical surveillance.
• Develop and manage departmental budgets, resource allocation, and EHS staffing strategies.
• Provide regular EHS performance updates and strategic recommendations to executive leadership.
• Support sustainability and environmental stewardship initiatives that align with corporate objectives and customer expectations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Safety, Industrial Hygiene, Engineering, Environmental Science, Chemistry, Occupational Health, or a related technical discipline required.
• Master's degree and/or professional certifications such as CSP, CIH, CHMM, or equivalent preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive EHS leadership experience within manufacturing environments, including multi-site responsibility.
• Proven experience leading EHS programs within food manufacturing, food packaging, chemicals, consumer products, paper & packaging, or other process-driven industries.
• Strong working knowledge of OSHA, EPA, industrial hygiene principles, environmental compliance, and risk management practices.
• Demonstrated success developing and implementing corporate EHS strategies that improve safety performance and regulatory compliance.
• Experience managing regulatory inspections, audits, permitting activities, and agency interactions.
• Strong leadership skills with a track record of influencing senior leaders and driving cross-functional initiatives.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management abilities.
• Experience supporting 24/7 manufacturing operations and complex organizational structures.