Vice President of Environmental, Health and Safety

About the role

The Vice President, Environmental, Safety & Health (EHS) – Global provides strategic and functional leadership for environmental, occupational safety, and health programs across all the regions. The position establishes regional governance, standards, priorities, and performance expectations for a diverse portfolio of manufacturing, technology, life-sciences/biopharma, pharmaceutical manufacturing sites. The Vice President partners affiliate and subsidiary entity presidents, site leaders, Legal, Engineering, Operations, Human Resources, and stakeholders to strengthen compliance, reduce enterprise risk, improve EHS performance, and build a consistent culture of prevention and accountability. The role has regional accountability for environmental strategy and compliance—including permitting, air emissions, wastewater, stormwater, hazardous materials and waste, spill prevention, environmental incident response, audits, management systems, remediation, environmental due diligence, resource conservation, and environmental performance improvement—while also leading Safety & Health strategy, risk management, occupational health/industrial hygiene, fire and property risk, emergency preparedness, incident management, and capability development across all the regions.

Responsibilities

• Develops and executes the Global EHS strategy aligned with company requirements, corporate objectives, business priorities, applicable laws and regulations, and the risk profile of each operating entity.
• Serves as the senior EHS Global functional leader and subject-matter authority for Environmental, Safety & Health, establishing regional standards, governance, technical direction, management-system expectations, and minimum performance requirements.
• Partners with affiliate and subsidiary entity presidents and site leadership to establish annual EHS priorities, goals, resource plans, and accountability measures while preserving appropriate functional independence for compliance and risk escalation.
• Leads regional EHS performance reviews, management reviews, and executive reporting; identifies trends, material risks, recurring issues, and cross-entity opportunities for improvement.
• Provides leadership for the development, coaching, and succession of EHS professionals across the region and promotes consistent role clarity, capabilities, and professional standards.
• Owns the regional environmental compliance framework across multiple industries and operating models, ensuring sites maintain effective programs for applicable federal, state/provincial, local, and federal environmental requirements throughout the regions.
• Provides governance and technical oversight for environmental permitting and compliance, including air emissions, wastewater and pretreatment, stormwater, hazardous and non-hazardous waste, hazardous materials, spill prevention and response, chemical management, and applicable reporting obligations.
• Ensures each entity has processes to identify legal and permit requirements, maintain compliance calendars, complete required monitoring and reporting, and escalate actual or potential noncompliance promptly.
• Leads or oversees response to significant environmental incidents, releases, notices of violation, regulatory inspections, agency inquiries, and corrective-action plans in partnership with Legal and local leadership.
• Establishes regional environmental audit and assurance programs, tracks findings to closure, and verifies sustainable corrective and preventive actions.
• Provides functional direction for environmental management systems and continuous improvement, including ISO 14001 where applicable, environmental aspect/impact assessments, operational controls, and management review.
• Guides environmental capital planning and risk-reduction investments, including