Environmental Health & Safety Manager, Reactive Chemistry

OSI Engineering; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 325,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

OSI Engineering, Inc. in Menlo Park, CA, is seeking a senior, hands-on process safety expert to help manage hazardous chemistry, safety reviews and lab readiness for autonomous operation.

This role works directly with scientists to build scalable safety review processes and extend EHS programs across expanding lab spaces. You will collaborate with ML teams to teach models to reason about hazards while maintaining a strong safety culture in a high‑hazard environment.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in reactive chemistry and chemical hazards.
• Senior experience in process safety, EHS or chemical operations in a lab, pilot plant or manufacturing setting.
• Hands-on experience leading HAZOPs, FMEAs or similar risk assessments.
• Experience designing or reviewing functional safety systems.
• Wants to work on-site in a lab with changing hazard profile.

Responsibilities

• Run hazard analysis for new chemistries and processes (HAZOPs, PHAs, FMEAs, reactivity assessments).
• Build the safety review pipeline for submissions by scientists, engineers and technicians.
• Set up readiness for autonomous operation: pre-startup safety reviews, commissioning, alarm rationalization and equipment inspections.
• Design and review life safety systems with controls/automation teams (gas detection, interlocks, e-stops, fire suppression).
• Extend EHS program (permitting, chemical inventory, hazard communication, inspections) to new lab spaces.
• Collaborate with ML engineers to teach models to reason about process hazards and safety constraints.
• Be visible in the lab and foster a safety culture accepted by scientists.

Skills

Reactive chemistry

Process safety leadership

Hazard analysis (HAZOPs/FMEAs)

On-site lab operations

Safety culture development

Education

CSP or CIH certification

Job description

Our client is an AI and physical sciences company running a high-throughput materials lab, where hazardous and air-sensitive chemistry, high-temperature and high-pressure processing, and thin-film deposition run around the clock, much of it autonomously overnight. With reactive chemistry as the lab’s primary hazard and new lab space coming online, they’re looking for a senior, hands-on process safety expert who can work through the details with scientists while building the review processes a growing team depends on. Along the way, you’ll also help teach the company’s AI to reason about hazards as it plans experiments.

What you’ll do:

• Run hazard analysis for new chemistries and processes. This includes HAZOPs, PHAs, FMEAs and reactivity assessments, from lab scale through scale-up.
• Build the safety review pipeline: how scientists, engineers and technicians submit work for review, with enough time and flow to analyze it properly.
• Set up readiness for autonomous operation: pre-startup safety reviews, commissioning, alarm rationalization and equipment inspections.
• Design and review life safety systems with the controls and automation teams. That covers toxic gas detection, interlocks, e-stops, fire suppression, scrubbers, safety PLCs and robotics safety.
• Extend the existing EHS program (permitting, chemical inventory, hazard communication, inspections) to new lab spaces.
• Work with ML engineers to teach a model to reason about process hazards and safety constraints.
• Be visible in the lab and build a safety culture that the scientists buy into.

Must-haves:

• Deep expertise in reactive chemistry and chemical hazards. You have spent years judging whether a new chemistry or process can run safely.
• Senior experience in process safety, EHS or chemical operations in a lab, pilot plant or manufacturing setting.
• Hands‑on experience leading HAZOPs, FMEAs or similar risk assessments.
• Experience designing or reviewing functional safety systems.
• You want to work in the field, on site, in a lab with a changing hazard profile.

Nice-to-haves:

• Membership on an NFPA, OSHA or IEC standards or technical committee.
• CSP or CIH certification.
• Experience with solid‑state chemistry, materials processing or lab automation.
• Experience with a new lab build‑out, including permitting and safety design alongside construction.
• Experience with, or strong interest in, AI/ML tools for risk assessment or experiment planning.
• People leadership experience.

Location: Menlo Park, CA (on‑site, in the lab)

Employment type: Full‑time

Salary: $250,000 – $325,000 per year, plus equity