Principal Program Manager, Corporate Environmental Compliance

Job Responsibilities

- Provide corporate-level technical guidance and expertise for environmental compliance, permitting, environmental engineering controls, and environmental risk management across all cheese manufacturing and cheese packaging facilities. - Provide multi-site environmental compliance oversight for all cheese manufacturing and cheese packaging facilities in the network. - Provide site leadership guidance for the day-to-day environmental execution responsibility of local plants, including providing corporate governance, technical support, escalation, and assurance. - Lead and maintain oversight of environmental compliance programs across the organization, including wastewater, air emissions, stormwater, spill prevention, waste management, chemical reporting, permitting, recordkeeping, and regulatory submissions. - Maintain and guide the corporate environmental compliance governance model, ensuring clarity of roles and responsibilities across EHS, plant leadership, engineering, maintenance, operations, and external consultants. - Lead and support the development of corporate responses, technical guidance, implementation plans, and standardized interpretations to drive consistent action by plants. - Review and provide direction on environmental aspects of facility design, process changes, capital projects, equipment upgrades, wastewater treatment systems, air emission controls, utilities, refrigeration-related programs, and other operational changes to support compliance by design. - Develop and maintain a standardized environmental data management framework for permits, sampling results, inspections, waste profiles, emissions calculations, compliance calendars, corrective actions, and key performance metrics across facilities. - Strategically develop and implement corporate environmental policies, procedures, standards, playbooks, and best practices aligned with regulatory requirements, corporate risk tolerance, operational needs, and customer expectations. - Develop, implement, and audit environmental compliance programs required by local, state, and federal regulations, including programs related to the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, RCRA, EPCRA/SARA, SPCC, stormwater, wastewater pretreatment, and other applicable requirements. - Support environmental permitting, regulatory inspections, agency reporting, and agency follow-up, ensuring communications are coordinated with plant leadership, Corporate EHS leadership, and legal counsel as appropriate. - Track, analyze, and report environmental compliance metrics, leading indicators, permit status, agency interactions, corrective action performance, and environmental risk trends to Corporate EHS and plant leadership. - Support environmental stewardship and sustainability initiatives where they intersect with compliance, resource efficiency, waste reduction, water use, wastewater performance, emissions, customer expectations, and operational risk reduction. - Partner with plant leadership and resources to embed environmental compliance into daily operations through training, auditing, compliance calendars, standard work, permit-condition ownership, and corrective/preventive action follow-up.

Required Education and Experience

- Bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science, Environmental Management, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, or a related field. - 6 years of progressive environmental compliance or environmental management experience in manufacturing. - Demonstrated success leading environmental compliance programs in a manufacturing environment, with strong preference for wastewater treatment, dairy, cheese, food manufacturing, or other high-strength wastewater operations. - Ability to develop, interpret, and lead performance against environmental key performance indicators, leading indicators, and corrective action metrics. - Strong leadership, organization, project management, prioritization, and influencing skills in a matrixed, multi-site environment. - Ability to communicate effectively with plant personnel, operators, maintenance, engineering, site leadership, corporate leaders, regulators, consultants, and legal counsel. - Demonstrated understanding of environmental permitting, reporting, recordkeeping, compliance calendars, agency submissions, environmental metrics, and audit/corrective action processes. - Proficient in Microsoft Office and environmental data management or compliance tracking systems; ability to use data visualization and reporting tools preferred. - Ability to travel up to 40% to support plant visits, audits, agency inspections, project reviews, and compliance assurance across the nine-plant network. - Must be legally authorized to work for a company in the U.S. without sponsorship. - Working knowledge of federal environmental regulations and the ability to interpret state and local requirements applicable to manufacturing facilities. - Experience building practical compliance systems that can be executed consistently by plant teams. - Ability to balance compliance assurance, operational practicality, risk escalation, and continuous improvement across multiple facilities.

Preferred Education and Experience

- Wastewater treatment certifications or operator licensure; professional certification such as CHMM, REM, PE, or equivalent credential preferred. - 8-12 years of progressive environmental compliance or environmental management experience in manufacturing. - Experience supporting multiple facilities. - Experience with EPA RMP, OSHA PSM interface, ammonia refrigeration environmental considerations, SPCC, stormwater, air permitting, EPCRA/Tier II/Form R, hazardous and non-hazardous waste, and wastewater pretreatment requirements.