Job Description
Job Description
SUMMARY:
The Safety Manager is responsible for building, sustaining, and continuously advancing a proactive safety culture that protects people, strengthens operational reliability, and supports long-term business performance. This role leads the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of site safety systems, programs, training, emergency preparedness, incident response, and risk reduction efforts across the organization. The Safety Manager partners closely with operations, maintenance, engineering, and HR to embed safety ownership, hazard anticipation, regulatory compliance, and corrective action discipline into daily behaviors, leadership practices, and decision-making.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Safety Strategy & Culture Leadership
- Serve as the organization’s subject matter expert and cultural leader for occupational safety, health, and risk prevention.
- Translate leadership priorities into practical, site-level safety expectations aligned with company values and business goals.
- Partner with leadership to reinforce safety as a core value, not a priority that shifts with production demands.
- Champion a “prevent before it happens” mindset consistent with OSHA Recommended Practices and Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) principles.
- Lead cross-functional safety governance through regular safety committee meetings, leadership reviews, and structured follow-up on site risks and improvement priorities.
- Exercise authority to intervene, stop work, and elevate conditions that present unacceptable risk to people, property, or operations.
Floor Presence & Engagement
- Maintain a consistent and visible presence on the production floor. Reinforce safe behaviors through observation, coaching, and real-time feedback.
- Partner with supervisors to integrate safety into daily operations, including job hazard analyses and pre-task planning.
- Promote employee engagement by encouraging participation in safety conversations, observations, and improvement efforts.
Proactive Hazard Identification & Risk Reduction
- Lead job safety analyses (JSAs), risk assessments, and hazard identification processes across all operations.
- Own and maintain site safety programs including, as applicable, lockout/tagout, machine guarding, hazard communication, PPE, powered industrial trucks, ergonomics, hearing conservation, and other regulatory or site-critical programs.
- Ensure risks are clearly identified and corrective actions are implemented, assigned, monitored, verified for effectiveness, and sustained.
- Drive use of proactive tools such as near-miss reporting, safety observations, and leading indicator tracking.
- Partner with engineering, maintenance, and operations to review new equipment, process changes, and facility modifications to ensure risks are identified and controlled before implementation.
Incident Management & Continuous Improvement
- Ensure all incidents are investigated promptly using structured root cause analysis focused on system improvement.
- Establish clear expectations for investigation timelines, corrective action ownership, due dates, and completion.
- Analyze incident trends and communicate lessons learned to drive improvement across the organization.
- Partner with HR and operations on workers’ compensation case management, post-injury follow-up, and return-to-work planning to reduce repeat injuries and lost time.
Safety Performance & Reporting
- Monitor and analyze safety performance metrics, including TRIR, DART, near misses, and leading indicators.
- Provide regular reporting to leadership and use data to guide decisions and improvement efforts.
- Identify trends and recommend actions that reduce risk and improve overall safety performance.
Regulatory Compliance & External Interface
- Ensure compliance with all federal, state, and local safety and environmental regulations.
- Maintain accurate OSHA logs, reporting, training records, inspection documentation, and other required compliance records.
- Serve as the primary contact for OSHA, insurance carriers, auditors, and regulatory agencies.
- Support site readiness for inspections and audits.
- Lead emergency preparedness planning, drills, and response coordination for fire, medical, severe weather, chemical spill, and other site emergencies.
- Establish and maintain contractor and visitor safety requirements, including onboarding, permit controls, PPE expectations, and site compliance.