Lab Safety Lead - Compliance, Risk & Training (Onsite)

Commonwealth of VA Careers; Richmond (VA); On-site; USD 59,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

Commonwealth of VA Careers seeks a Laboratory Safety Specialist within the Occupational Health & Safety team to foster a strong safety culture and ensure chemical hygiene across VCU and health system laboratories.

The role emphasizes inspections, risk mitigation, policy enforcement, and collaboration with faculty and staff to maintain compliant, safe laboratory environments while supporting ongoing professional development in environmental health and safety.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, or related field.
• Strong knowledge of federal, state, and local safety and environmental codes.
• Solid understanding of laboratory processes and chemical hazard mitigation.
• Ability to collaborate with stakeholders to identify operational risks.
• Technical writing skills for incident reports and safety reviews.
• Excellent interpersonal and customer service skills.
• Advanced analytical and critical thinking to resolve safety issues.
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to meet deadlines.
• Willingness to adapt to evolving compliance requirements.

Responsibilities

• Laboratory inspections and assessments across VCU and VCU Health laboratories.
• Risk mitigation and advisory to faculty, staff, and students.
• Enforce OHS policy with 30-60-90 day escalation procedures to resolve safety issues.
• Maintain the OHS Chemical Hygiene Plan (CHP) to ensure laboratory compliance.
• Engage stakeholders to foster safety culture and collaborate on mitigation strategies.
• Support safety training delivery for departmental leadership and staff.
• Provide technical/operational EHS support including IH surveys and incident response.
• Maintain accurate reports and records in SciShield and shared drives.
• Pursue ongoing professional development in environmental health and safety.

Skills

Laboratory safety

Chemical hygiene

Regulatory knowledge

Technical writing

Communication

Time management

Safety training

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering

Job description

Commonwealth of VA Careers seeks a Laboratory Safety Specialist within the Occupational Health & Safety team to foster a strong safety culture and ensure chemical hygiene across VCU and health system laboratories.

The role emphasizes inspections, risk mitigation, policy enforcement, and collaboration with faculty and staff to maintain compliant, safe laboratory environments while supporting ongoing professional development in environmental health and safety.