Director of Safety, BME Family of Companies

Orion Group • Erlanger, KY

3d • Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Safety leads a proactive safety program across BME, Bertke, and Survoy's, built on a simple belief: safety is created before work begins, not measured after something goes wrong. The role combines proven safety programs, advanced technology, and well-maintained equipment with a strong Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) framework, human performance principles, and behavior-based safety. This proactive, data-driven approach reduces risk, protects our people, and delivers consistent, high-quality results for our customers. The Director will make safety a core operating value owned by field leadership, put the best tools, PPE, and equipment in our crews' hands, and build the observation, feedback, training, and learning systems that reinforce safe behavior and keep every employee returning home safely. The role serves as the safety authority for Bertke while aligning and elevating safety across all three companies, reporting directly to the President of the BME Family of Companies.

Requirements

• 7+ years of industrial or electrical safety experience.
• Demonstrated experience building or transforming a proactive, human-performance-based safety culture, ideally gained at a mature, safety-led organization (for example, American Electric Power, Lewis Tree Service, APi Group, or similar).
• Hands-on experience implementing behavior-based safety (BBS) or observation programs.
• Strong working knowledge of OSHA regulations and NFPA 70E.
• OSHA Authorized Trainer.
• Minimum 2 years of leadership or supervisory experience.
• Ability to complete OSHA documentation and reporting.
• Valid driver's license with a clean driving record.
• Willingness to travel regularly to job sites.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor's degree in Safety, Engineering, Construction, or a related field.
• Formal training in Human & Organizational Performance (HOP/HuP) or serious-injury-and-fatality (SIF) prevention.
• Professional certification (CSP, ASP, CHST, or equivalent).
• First Aid and CPR certification.
• Experience supporting multi-state operations.
• Experience building safety programs from the ground up.

Responsibilities

• Lead a Culture Change: Reset the safety culture from reactive and compliance-driven to proactive, human-performance-based, and field-owned. Establish safety as a core operating value owned by field leadership, not the safety department alone. Serve as a visible, credible safety leader through regular, hands-on job-site presence and engagement with crews. Coach supervisors and service managers to lead safety conversations, recognize good catches, and hold the line with respect.
• Proactive Hazard Mitigation & Human Performance: Build a proactive program centered on identifying and controlling high-energy and life-critical hazards before work begins (serious injury and fatality prevention). Implement human and organizational performance (HOP) principles and error-reduction tools such as pre-job briefs, job hazard analysis, take-2 and take-5 checks, and verified critical controls. Champion energy-based hazard recognition and ensure crews can identify, isolate, and control hazardous energy on every job. Own the equipment-for-safety agenda: evaluate and upgrade PPE, tools, and clothing so crews are the best-equipped in the trade. Empower and reinforce stop-work authority for every employee. Anyone can stop a job, no questions asked.
• Behavior-Based Safety: Implement a data-driven behavior-based safety (BBS) program that focuses on workers' actions and their consequences, targeting at-risk behaviors and reinforcing safe ones. Establish systematic, routine observation of employees performing tasks to identify both safe and at-risk behaviors. Identify and prioritize the critical behaviors with the highest potential to cause an accident or injury. Provide immediate, constructive feedback and recognition to encourage safe behavior and correct unsafe acts. Engage employees at all levels in the program to build ownership and accountability for safety. Use observation data to continuously refine interventions, training, and processes over time.
• Field Engagement, Inspections & Stand-Downs: Run routine job-site safety inspections and audits across all Bertke locations, and establish a cadence and oversight model for BME and Survoy's site visits. Lead safety stand-downs and stop-work events to reset focus after a near-miss, a trend, or a high-risk phase of work. Implement daily and weekly job briefings (tailboard talks) and toolbox talks across all operating companies. Partner with operations leaders so field leadership conducts inspections and engagement on a routine, expected basis.
• Training & Development: Build a proactive training program that goes beyond required certifications to the skills that prevent the next injury. Ensure OSHA 10 completion for all field employees and maintain the broader training matrix by role and hazard. Deliver and coordinate hands-on, task-specific training and develop field leaders as safety coaches. Use lessons learned and incident findings to drive targeted, just-in-time training.
• Learning & Continuous Improvement: Lead incident investigations and post-event learning using a learning-team and after-action approach focused on understanding, not blame. Drive root-cause analysis and verify that corrective actions actually reduce risk. Build a near-miss and good-catch reporting culture where reporting is expected, easy, and never punished. Capture and share lessons learned quickly across crews and across BME, Bertke, and Survoy's.
• Measurement & Compliance: Track and report both leading indicators (inspections, behavior observations, training completion, near-miss reporting, control verification) and lagging indicators (EMR, TRIR, OSHA recordables, incidents). Own and administer the KPA safety system as the system of record. Ensure compliance with OSHA, NFPA 70E, and state and local regulations across OH, KY, IN, and TN. Create and maintain safety policies, procedures, and SOPs that reflect how work is actually done.
• Client & External Engagement: Serve as the safety point of contact for client onboarding, audits, and prequalification. Maintain prequalification standing and represent our safety performance credibly to customers and partners.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director