Senior Specialist, High-Risk Safety & Machinery

Merck & Co.; West Point (PA); Hybrid; USD 106,000 - 167,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

401(k) plan

Paid holidays

Vacation and sick days

Hybrid work arrangement

Job summary

Merck & Co., Inc. in West Point, PA is seeking a Senior Specialist to lead high-risk work and machinery safety across West Point, North Wales, and Springhouse Innovation Park.

You will partner with operations, engineering, and maintenance to prevent injuries and improve risk controls through data, training, and rigorous field execution. The role requires a bachelor's in safety or engineering, 5+ years in safety programs, strong knowledge of OSHA standards and machinery safety, and excellent

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Occupational Safety, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• At least 5 years of safety program or technical safety experience in a manufacturing, laboratory, engineering, or similarly complex environment.
• Strong knowledge of high-risk work controls, including hazardous energy control and activities such as line breaking, confined space entry, work at height, excavation, lifting and rigging, or hot work.

Responsibilities

• Lead the West Point HRW Steering Committee and HRW Councils, aligning all site organizations to one site program, following GSE procedures and training.
• Serve as the site subject matter expert and procedure owner for high-risk work, including hazardous energy control, line breaking, confined space entry, work at height, hot work, and other critical-risk activities.
• Develop and deliver technical training and qualification support for employees, contractors, and program owners responsible for high-risk work and machinery safety.
• Manage HRW contractor, partnering to deploy the HRW Auditing Tool and drive timely, effective improvement to permit compliance.
• Partner with Facilities, Engineering, Operations, and project teams on P&ID reviews, commissioning, and equipment handover.
• Provide technical leadership for machinery safety, including machine risk assessments, safeguarding controls, and verification of risk-reduction measures across the equipment lifecycle.
• Conduct and facilitate field risk assessments, machinery safety reviews, pre-startup reviews, and critical-control verifications; document gaps, establish risk-based priorities, and drive actions to timely closure.
• Lead or support investigations of high-potential events, near misses, and machinery-related incidents; identify systemic causes, evaluate control failures, and ensure corrective and preventive actions are effective and sustained.
• Support regulatory inspections, internal audits, management reviews, and enterprise or divisional initiatives related to high-risk work and machinery safety.

Skills

HRW leadership

Machinery safety

Risk assessment

OSHA standards

Investigation skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Occupational Safety, Engineering, or related technical field

Tools

MS Office

Regulatory systems

Job description

Merck & Co., Inc. in West Point, PA is seeking a Senior Specialist to lead high-risk work and machinery safety across West Point, North Wales, and Springhouse Innovation Park.

You will partner with operations, engineering, and maintenance to prevent injuries and improve risk controls through data, training, and rigorous field execution. The role requires a bachelor's in safety or engineering, 5+ years in safety programs, strong knowledge of OSHA standards and machinery safety, and excellent