Director of Health, Safety & Environmental (HSE)

The Nuclear Company•Washington, DC

2d•$198,000 - $228,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Nuclear Company is a rapidly growing AI tech-enabled startup in the nuclear and energy sector, focused on a fleet-scale approach to developing next-generation nuclear reactors. They utilize a 'design-once, build-many' model to expedite the deployment of safe, reliable, and affordable nuclear energy. The company emphasizes an AI-first mindset, expecting all employees to leverage AI, technology, and their Nuclear Operating System (NOS) to enhance their work's quality, speed, and impact. Team members are encouraged to automate workflows, improve decision-making, refine processes, and contribute to NOS's evolution as a strategic capability for scaling the company. The Nuclear Company seeks individuals driven by purpose, comfortable with ambiguity, and excited by innovation. The team values intellectual curiosity, high agency, candid feedback, continuous learning, and exceptional standards. Their core values—Transparency, Responsibility, Unity, Scrappy, and Tenacity—guide all operations. TRUST is central to their safety culture, promoting honesty, accountability, and open communication. TNC Services, the services division, offers field execution, specialized workforce solutions, and Professional Services for the nuclear industry across the entire asset lifecycle. While The Nuclear Company focuses on new nuclear power deployment, TNC Services supports the industry through outage and maintenance execution (TNC Field Services and TNC FieldWorks) and Professional Services in areas like project delivery, engineering, licensing, security, cybersecurity, compliance, and workforce development. Together, they combine nuclear expertise, technology, and AI to help utilities operate safely and reliably today while building capabilities for future nuclear fleets.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive HSE leadership experience supporting nuclear, energy, construction, manufacturing, industrial maintenance, or other complex, highly regulated operations.
Bachelor’s degree in Occupational Safety, Environmental Science, Industrial Hygiene, Engineering, Construction Management, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
Demonstrated experience building, implementing, or significantly scaling an enterprise or multisite HSE management system.
Experience establishing HSE strategy, policies, governance, performance measures, and executive-level reporting.
Hands-on experience supporting field operations, construction projects, major capital programs, outages, or other high-risk industrial environments.
Strong working knowledge of OSHA requirements, environmental compliance, industrial safety, incident investigation, root-cause analysis, and corrective-action programs.

Nice To Haves

Commercial nuclear power experience, including new nuclear construction, operating plants, outages, or major nuclear capital projects.
Experience preparing HSE metrics and disclosures for Boards, annual reports, investors, or public-company reporting.
CSP, ASP, CIH, PMP, or another relevant professional certification.
Familiarity with NRC-regulated environments, nuclear safety culture, Human Performance, INPO standards, or EPRI guidance.
Experience leading HSE programs across both union and non-union workforces.
Experience implementing AI-enabled safety tools, predictive analytics, or digital HSE reporting platforms.

Responsibilities

Build and own the enterprise HSE function across The Nuclear Company and TNC Services, including strategy, policies, programs, governance, and performance measures.
Assess organizational needs and develop a phased roadmap and operating model supporting corporate operations, greenfield projects, construction, fleet deployment, field services, and outages.
Establish and continuously improve enterprise standards for safety leadership, Human Performance, job hazard analysis, pre-job briefs, stop-work authority, contractor safety, industrial hygiene, occupational health, corrective actions, and organizational learning.
Ensure compliance with applicable OSHA, EPA, DOT, state environmental, customer, and commercial nuclear requirements.
Establish accurate HSE metrics and reporting for executive leadership, the Board, annual reports, investor communications, audits, inspections, and other external requirements.
Lead and directly support incident response and investigations involving injuries, near misses, environmental events, property damage, and nuclear safety concerns.
Oversee root-cause analysis, corrective actions, lessons learned, workers’ compensation, and return-to-work programs.
Partner with Operations, Engineering, Construction, Project Management, and TNC Services to embed HSE into greenfield development, construction, field services, and outage execution.
Provide hands-on guidance and site support while assessing when dedicated project, field, or business-level HSE resources should be added.
Use AI, technology, and the Nuclear Operating System to improve risk identification, analytics, reporting, and organizational learning.
Develop the HSE organizational structure, recruit and mentor future team members, and foster a culture of trust, accountability, and employee ownership of safety.