Regional Safety Director

Company Details

Darling Ingredients repurposes and recycles materials from the animal agriculture and food industries - transforming them into essential ingredients that do everything from feeding animals to fertilizing crops to fueling planes and nourishing people. We're the number one publicly traded company of our kind, operating a global family of brands and businesses that span more than 260 facilities in over 15 countries. Our unique scale allows us to make entire industries less wasteful and more sustainable, helping move the world toward a more circular economy.

Darling Ingredients offers full time employees a full suite of benefits including but not limited to the following: 401(k), Health, Dental and Vision Insurance, and Paid Time Off.

Territory: WEST

Job Summary

This position reports to the VP of Safety Management and will lead a proactive and collaborative team approach to promoting a culture of health and safety excellence. In partnership with Senior Operations Leadership, this leader will support their region achieve or exceed annual targets for leading indicators, injury rate reductions, and other elements of safety improvement. This leader will ensure and support the timely delivery of our company safety strategy, programs, processes, projects, and objectives for the region assigned to serve.

The Regional Safety Director will provide General Managers, Plant Managers, and Plant Safety Coordinators safety culture enabling leadership, reliable technical support and expertise, timely direction and decision making, and ensure safety programs are effectively adopted and executed with quality. In partnership with other safety practitioners, this leader will be innovative, and take industry leading approaches to drive continual improvement.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

Nothing in this job description restricts management's right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time.

• Serve as a primary health and safety expert, providing functional safety leadership and technical support within assigned Darling Ingredients North America region with the primary objective of reducing risk and preventing work-related injuries, vehicle incidents, regulatory violations, and other unwanted incidents.
• Works directly with all leadership and employee teams at all levels to foster a culture that recognizes safety as a core value. Leads by example and aims to responsibly engage and serve.
• Responsible for ensuring the timely delivery of the company safety strategy, programs, processes, projects, change management initiatives and other objectives. Directly assists operations leadership with the implementation and/or execution of technical solutions and expectations.
• Monitors, reviews, and analyzes safety performance and trends identifying appropriate initiatives and differentiators to enable continual improvement. Understands how to effectively leverage safety management software data to analyze performance, and prioritize support efforts.
• Implements solutions that will support regional management's efforts to control risk, and improve and/or maintain company, federal, state, local and industry regulations.
• Timely communicates all findings, concerns and deficiencies to the responsible management team, and ensures that issues, concerns, and deficiencies are corrected per pre-defined and agreed processes.
• Facilitate process and performance improvement plans unique to sites, locations, and teams with substandard safety performance. In partnership with management and other stakeholders, document results and track for sustained improvement.
• In a supportive manner, coaches teams and individuals in the moment when opportunities to correct at-risk behaviors are observed. Equally important, recognizes and reinforces those working safely and following safety standards.
• Partners with Engineering, Fleet Operations, Human Resources, Legal, Risk Management, and other business partners serving as an internal driver and regulatory expert in response to injuries, accidents, and regulatory matters. Directly engage and support in the investigation and mitigation of major injuries, accidents, incidents, and regulatory events. Coordinate, manage, and lead the regulatory agency response within assigned region.
• Support the delivery of internal and/or external safety auditing processes, and the actions needed in response to opportunities and/or deficiencies.
• Be good stewards of company resources through responsible monitoring of costs and spend.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 7+ years of safety management experience and a Bachelor's degree in Occupational Health and Safety or related discipline, OR in lieu of degree, must have a minimum of 10+ years' Occupational Health and Safety specific experience required in a manufacturing environment. Demonstrated knowledge of applicable federal/state health and safety regulations is required.
• Acts with integrity, is analytical, is a change agent, can critically make decisions, prioritizes effectively, is reliable, and values serving others.
• Demonstrates strong interpersonal skills; must work well in teams and be able to develop relationships with various levels of management.
• Proven ability to multi-task, complete projects on time and on budget and adjust to changing priorities.
• Exceptional communication skills both written and oral.
• Self-motivated; self-starter.
• Highly organized; superior time management skills.
• Professional experience, or certification, as a trainer.
• Ability to travel up to 70% of the time.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Occupational Safety or related field.
• Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and/or other related technical certifications.
• Experience developing and/or supporting delivery of Safety Management Systems, i.e. ISO 45001, OHSAS 18001, ANSI Z10.
• Strong math skills, including statistical analysis.
• Process Safety Management (PSM) experience.

The information contained in this job description is intended to describe the essential job functions required of those assigned to this job. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform the job. Please note that management retains the right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time. The ability to competently perform all the essential duties of the position, with or without reasonable accommodation, demonstrated commitment to effective customer service delivery, integrity, and the ability to work productively as a member of a team or work group are basic requirements of all positions at Darling Ingredients.

Darling Ingredients is an equal opportunity employer and gives consideration to qualified applicants without regard to race, age, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or, protected veteran status. Know Your Rights: If you would like more information, please click on the link and paste into your browser: https://www.eeoc.gov/know-your-rights-workplace-discrimination-illegal-poster