Environmental Health & Safety, Director

Job Summary

Provide enterprise-level leadership for environmental, health, safety, industrial hygiene, emergency preparedness, and regulatory compliance for a vertically integrated acrylic/glass transparency manufacturing operation supporting civil and military aircraft programs.

Protect employees, neighbors, customers, and the business by building prevention-focused systems that control high-consequence risks associated with methyl methacrylate (MMA), monomer/polymer processing, solvent bonding, coatings, cleanroom/optical finishing, glass cutting/grinding, furnaces/autoclaves, pressure systems, and hazardous material storage.

Serve as the site’s senior EH&S authority and primary interface with regulators, emergency responders, aerospace prime customers, and executive leadership; translate complex city, county, California, and federal requirements into practical controls, accountable ownership, and measurable performance.

Job Responsibilities

1. Strategic EH&S Leadership

• Lead the EH&S function as a business partner to the VP/GM and operating leadership; establish annual EH&S objectives, risk-reduction roadmap, budget, staffing plan, capital needs, and management review cadence.
• Build a prevention-oriented culture rooted in visible leadership, supervisor accountability, employee engagement, learning from near misses, and disciplined corrective-action closure.
• Advise executive leadership on EH&S risk acceptance, production changes, capital projects, new product introduction, customer requirements, and business continuity implications.

2. Regulatory Compliance and Agency Interface

• Own site compliance with Cal/OSHA Title 8 requirements, including the Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP), hazard correction, employee communication, training, injury/illness investigations, and recordkeeping.
• Maintain compliance with federal OSHA requirements applicable through California’s state-plan framework and direct federal standards such as Hazard Communication elements for chemical classification, SDS, labels, and employee training.
• Ensure environmental compliance with South Coast AQMD stationary-source permitting and VOC/emissions requirements for operations such as tanks, coating/adhesive use, ovens, boilers, dust collectors, and control equipment.
• Oversee DTSC/RCRA/California Title 22 hazardous waste determinations, generator category management, accumulation areas, labeling, inspections, manifesting, vendor due diligence, training, and cradle-to-grave liability controls.
• Ensure timely and accurate CERS/Hazardous Materials Business Plan submissions and EPCRA Tier II reporting where thresholds are met; maintain emergency contacts, site maps, chemical inventories, and storage compatibility documentation.
• Serve as primary contact for Cal/OSHA, SCAQMD, Orange County Health Care Agency CUPA, Orange County Fire Authority, City of Garden Grove, DTSC, EPA, RWQCB/State Water Board, and other authorities having jurisdiction.

3. Vertically Integrated Acrylic / Glass Manufacturing Risk Control

• Develop risk-based controls for bulk MMA and other monomers, polymerization inhibition, storage tank cooling/venting, temperature monitoring, flammable vapor controls, bonding operations, solvent cleaning, coatings, adhesives, and resin handling.
• Lead process hazard reviews, management of change (MOC), pre-startup safety reviews, chemical compatibility assessments, and safeguards verification for new or modified processes, tanks, mixers, ovens, autoclaves, furnaces, CNC equipment, and utility systems.
• Oversee industrial hygiene strategy for MMA, VOCs, isocyanates or coating constituents where applicable, respirable crystalline silica/glass dust, noise, heat, ergonomic stressors, and nuisance/combustible dust where applicable.
• Partner with engineering and maintenance to ensure LOTO, machine guarding, electrical safety, pressure systems, hoists/cranes, powered industrial trucks, confined spaces, hot work, contractor safety, and preventive maintenance controls are effective.

(cont...)

4. Aerospace & Defense Customer and Mission Assurance Linkage

• Embed EH&S requirements into aerospace production discipline, configuration/change control, special process governance, contamination control, and production readiness reviews, recognizing that EH&S events can disrupt defense and civil aviation supply commitments.
• Support customer, insurance, AS9100/NADCAP-related, and government/prime contractor audits by maintaining defensible records, corrective action evidence, training matrices, chemical approvals, and compliance calendars.
• Collaborate with quality and trade-compliance/security teams where EH&S activities intersect with controlled programs, critical manufacturing areas, customer property, government-furnished information, or restricted access spaces.

5. Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Community Protection

• Maintain and exercise Emergency Action Plan, Fire Prevention Plan, spill response procedures, earthquake preparedness, evacuation/shelter-in-place protocols, hazardous material release response, and interface with incident command.
• Coordinate drills, tabletop exercises, after-action reviews, and response capability for chemical releases, overheating/reactive tanks, fires, power loss, earthquake impacts, wastewater/stormwater releases, and off-site impacts.
• Ensure emergency equipment, detection/monitoring tools, PPE, spill kits, alarms, eyewash/showers, fire protection, and response contractor arrangements are inspected and ready.

6. EH&S Systems, Metrics, Training, and Continuous Improvement

• Own the EH&S management system, compliance calendar, procedures, document control, audit program, corrective/preventive action system, management reviews, and performance reporting.
• Develop role-based training matrices for operators, maintenance, supervisors, engineers, contractors, emergency responders, and managers; ensure training is practical, multilingual where needed, and competency-based.
• Track leading and lagging indicators including serious-risk observations, closure aging, inspection findings, injuries, exposure results, VOC/waste/water metrics, spills, permit deviations, and agency interactions.
• Lead incident investigations using rigorous root-cause methods; ensure corrective actions address design, engineering controls, work methods, supervision, training, and verification of effectiveness.

Job Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, occupational safety, industrial hygiene, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, or related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of progressive EH&S experience, including 5+ years in a manufacturing, chemical processing, aerospace, defense, automotive, electronics, or similarly regulated industrial environment.
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing EH&S professionals and influencing plant leadership teams in a 24/5 or 24/7 manufacturing setting.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of Cal/OSHA Title 8, IIPP, OSHA general industry standards, HazCom/GHS, LOTO, confined space, machine guarding, respiratory protection, hearing conservation, IH exposure assessment, and OSHA recordkeeping.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of California environmental programs including SCAQMD permitting/VOC rules, hazardous waste management under DTSC/Title 22, CERS/HMBP, CUPA inspections, stormwater/wastewater controls, SPCC/AST/UST requirements as applicable, and EPCRA Tier II reporting.
• Experience managing chemical risk in operations involving flammables, solvents, adhesives, coatings, resins, monomers, tanks, ovens, autoclaves, furnaces, dust collection, glass grinding/cutting, or similar process hazards.
• Proven ability to interact credibly with regulatory agencies, firefighters/hazmat responders, aerospace customers, executive leadership, hourly employees, and cross-functional technical teams.
• Strong written communication, incident investigation, training facilitation, audit management, data analysis, and corrective-action management skills.
• Must be a U.S. Person per ITAR regulations to comply with export compliance requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in safety, industrial hygiene, environmental engineering, chemical engineering, business, or related field.
• CSP, CIH, CHMM, PE, ARM, REM, or equivalent professional certification.
• Experience in aerospace transparency, acrylic casting/stretch forming, PMMA/MMA processing, laminated glass, optical coatings, cleanroom/controlled finishing, or FAA/DoD/prime-contractor supply environments.
• Experience with AS9100, NADCAP special process audit culture, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, VPP/SHARP-style systems, or mature enterprise EH&S management systems.
• Experience implementing process safety/MOC/PHA practices even where formal PSM or CalARP thresholds may not apply.
• Experience leading post-incident recovery, agency negotiations, community-facing response, environmental remediation, or emergency operations center / incident command coordination.
• Bilingual English/Spanish capability or demonstrated success deploying multilingual safety communication in Southern California manufacturing environments.

Compensation Data

Salary Range: $149,600.00 - $187,001.00