Global EHS Director

Vantage Specialty Ingredients; Deerfield (IL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Vantage Specialty Ingredients in Deerfield seeks a Global EH&S Director to establish, implement, and audit the company’s global EH&S strategy, systems, and standards. Reporting to the COO, you will collaborate with site leadership to ensure regulatory compliance and continuous safety and environmental improvement.

The role emphasizes building a proactive safety culture, leading behavior-based safety programs, and partnering with leadership and operations to manage high-hazard manufacturing risks

Qualifications

• Significant experience with OSHA regulations (e.g., PSM) and EPA regulations in chemical manufacturing.
• Experience implementing behavior-based safety (BBS) programs and driving safety culture.
• Strong leadership and ability to align EH&S with business objectives.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a global EH&S strategy aligned with operations and capital projects.
• Establish policies, standards, and metrics per RC14001/ISO 14001/45001 and ensure site execution.
• Advise COO and leadership on safety, environment, and regulatory risks.
• Define accountability for EH&S performance across the organization.
• Lead indicators and risk reporting to executive leadership, addressing regulatory issues.

Job description

The Role

Position Title: Global EH&S Director

Work Location: Deerfield

Position Summary

Establish, implement, and audit the company's global EH&S strategy, systems, and standards. Reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer, the Global EH&S Director works closely with site leadership and corporate functions to ensure strong regulatory compliance, effective management of high-hazard chemical manufacturing risks, and continuous improvement in safety and environmental performance. A critical component of the role is strengthening the organization's safety approach beyond regulatory compliance toward a proactive, prevention-focused safety culture. The successful candidate will have meaningful experience implementing behavior-based safety (BBS) programs and building leadership and employee ownership of safety. The position requires significant practical experience with OSHA and EPA regulations, preferably gained within chemical, specialty chemical, petrochemical, refining, or other high-hazard manufacturing environments.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a global EH&S strategy aligned with the company's operational and business objectives, including EH&S review of capital projects, design standards, and acquisitions.
• Establish global EH&S policies, standards, management systems, metrics, and expectations, aligned with recognized frameworks such as Responsible Care/RC14001 and ISO 14001/45001, while ensuring effective execution at the site level.
• Serve as the principal EH&S advisor to the COO and senior leadership team regarding significant safety, environmental, regulatory, and operational risks.
• Establish clear accountability and decision rights for EH&S performance throughout the organization, from senior leadership through plant management, supervisors, and frontline employees.
• Develop leading and lagging EH&S indicators (for example, TRIR/DARTprocess safety event rates, notices of violation, corrective-action closure, and near-miss reporting) and provide regular performance and risk reporting to the COO and executive leadership, including significant risks, compliance gaps, overdue corrective actions, and emerging regulatory issues.

Safety Culture & Behavior-Based Safety

Lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive behavior-based safety program across manufacturing locations.

Build a safety culture in which employees actively identify hazards, report near misses, intervene when unsafe behaviors or conditions are observed, and participate in improving workplace safety.

Define leadership expectations for visible safety leadership, including management safety observations, employee engagement, field presence, and corrective-action follow-through, and implement safety observation and feedback processes that identify at-risk behaviors and reinforce safe behaviors.

Use BBS data, near-miss information, incident trends, and leading indicators to identify systemic risks and improvement opportunities, and ensure that behavioral safety complements, and never substitutes for, strong engineering controls, process safety systems, operating discipline, and regulatory compliance.

Occupational Safety and OSHA Compliance

Provide corporate leadership and technical expertise regarding OSHA regulations, in particular PSM and injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting requirements (29 CFR 1904).

Ensure effective programs covering all life-critical procedures and core occupational safety requirements.

Process Safety

Provide leadership for process safety management across chemical manufacturing operations, including compliance with OSHA PSM (29 CFR 1910.119) and EPA Risk Management Program (RMP, 40 CFR Part 68) requirements. Ensure appropriate implementation of PSM and RMP program elements, including employee participation, process safety information, process hazard analyses, operating procedures, training, contractor management, pre-startup safety reviews, mechanical integrity, hot work permits, management of change, incident investigations, emergency planning, and compliance audits. Drive effective use of methodologies such as HAZOP, What-If analysis, LOPA, and other appropriate process hazard assessment techniques, including facility siting, safety instrumented systems, and reactive chemistry hazard evaluation where applicable. Manage fire, explosion, and combustible dust hazards, including hazardous area classification and applicable NFPA standards.

Environmental Compliance and EPA

Provide leadership and technical oversight of environmental compliance programs, with strong working knowledge and practical exposure to U.S. EPA regulations applicable to chemical manufacturing.

Areas of responsibility include the following federal programs and their state counterparts: Air (Clean Air Act): Title V operating permits, New Source Review/PSD and other air permitting programs; NESHAP/MACT and NSPS requirements, including leak detection and repair (LDAR); emissions reporting;