Director, Environmental Health & Safety, NA

Vantage Data Centers•Shackelford County, TX

1d•Onsite

About The Position

This role is based on-site in Abilene, Texas. The Director, Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) will serve as the Owner/Developer’s senior site EHS leader for Project Frontier, a large-scale AI data center development in Abilene, Texas. The role is accountable for governing and executing the established EHS strategy across white space construction, equipment installation, testing, commissioning, and turnover activities. This position will provide visible field leadership and independent assurance across the retained General Contractor, OFCI vendors, commissioning teams, and specialty trade partners. The Director will integrate EHS into planning and execution, establish clear accountability across interfaces, and ensure that high-risk work is properly planned, controlled, verified, and escalated when required.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Health & Safety, Occupational Safety, Engineering, Construction Management, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience.
Typically 10+ years of progressive EHS experience in complex construction, commissioning, mission-critical, industrial, or infrastructure environments.
Demonstrated leadership of EHS programs, teams, and contractor performance on large, fast-paced projects.
Strong working knowledge of OSHA construction requirements and the practical application of the hierarchy of controls.
Ability to interpret project plans, schedules, work packages, risk assessments, method statements, and commissioning documentation.
Proven ability to communicate with field teams and executive stakeholders, make sound risk-based decisions, and act decisively when critical controls are not effective.

Nice To Haves

Data center, hyperscale, AI infrastructure, or other mission-critical construction experience.
Owner/Developer or owner’s representative experience overseeing a retained GC and multiple vendor-led workstreams.
Experience managing white space construction, OFCI installation, commissioning readiness, energized environments, and construction-to-operations transitions.
Professional certification such as CSP, CHST, CIH, or an equivalent recognized EHS credential.
OSHA 500/510, NEBOSH, ISO 45001 Lead Auditor, or relevant electrical-safety and incident-investigation training.
Experience with risk registers, assurance programs, contractor performance metrics, action-tracking systems, and executive reporting.

Responsibilities

Lead execution of the established Owner/Developer EHS strategy for Project Frontier’s white space scope, serving as the senior EHS authority across all assigned construction and commissioning activities and delivery partners.
Build, lead, coach, and deploy the EHS team based on project risk, schedule, work intensity, and changing field conditions.
Partner with Construction, Commissioning, Operations, Engineering, Security, and project leadership to integrate EHS into project decisions and execution planning.
Provide EHS governance for data halls, critical electrical and mechanical systems, controls, OFCI equipment, battery and energy-storage interfaces, testing, start-up, and integrated systems activities.
Ensure EHS involvement in constructability reviews, work packaging, sequencing, system energization, turnover boundaries, and commissioning readiness.
Oversee controls for high-risk work, including energized electrical work, LOTO and energy isolation, temporary power, arc-flash exposure, work at height, lifting and rigging, confined spaces, hot work, chemical management, and simultaneous operations.
Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local EHS requirements, Owner standards, project requirements, and contractual obligations.
Lead or oversee significant incident and high-potential near-miss investigations using effective root-cause methods.
Maintain a strong field presence and reinforce stop-work authority, leadership accountability, and timely escalation of unresolved high-risk conditions.
Verify that work plans, JSAs/JHAs, method statements, permits, commissioning procedures, and contingency plans are specific, coordinated, understood, and executable in the field.
Develop and execute a risk-based assurance plan using project risk registers, look-ahead schedules, and field intelligence, leading audits, inspections, readiness reviews, and critical control verifications while ensuring corrective actions are effectively tracked and closed.
Maintain accurate EHS records and provide concise reporting on leading indicators, significant risks, contractor performance, trends, incidents, and leadership support required.
Establish clear EHS roles and accountability across project stakeholders while reviewing and challenging contractor and vendor EHS plans, staffing, risk assessments, permits, and high-risk work controls to ensure alignment across all workstreams.
Hold delivery partners accountable for timely incident notification, investigation quality, corrective action, and verified prevention of recurrence.
Influence senior project leaders and external partners without relying solely on direct authority.
Coordinate incident and emergency management activities, including notification, evidence preservation, reporting, corrective actions, lessons learned, preparedness planning, response drills, and event management.
Additional duties as assigned by Management.

Benefits

medical
dental
vision coverage
life and AD&D
short and long-term disability coverage
paid time off
employee assistance
participation in a 401k program that includes company match
many other additional voluntary benefits
above market total compensation package
comprehensive suite of health and welfare, retirement, and paid leave benefits exceeding local expectations
array of benefits, recognition, training and development