Environmental Health & Safety, Director

GKN Aerospace Careers • Garden Grove, CA

5d • $149,600 - $187,001 • Onsite

About The Position

Provide enterprise-level leadership for environmental, health, safety, industrial hygiene, emergency preparedness, and regulatory compliance for a vertically integrated acrylic/glass transparency manufacturing operation supporting civil and military aircraft programs. Protect employees, neighbors, customers, and the business by building prevention-focused systems that control high-consequence risks associated with methyl methacrylate (MMA), monomer/polymer processing, solvent bonding, coatings, cleanroom/optical finishing, glass cutting/grinding, furnaces/autoclaves, pressure systems, and hazardous material storage. Serve as the site’s senior EH&S authority and primary interface with regulators, emergency responders, aerospace prime customers, and executive leadership; translate complex city, county, California, and federal requirements into practical controls, accountable ownership, and measurable performance.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, occupational safety, industrial hygiene, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, or related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of progressive EH&S experience, including 5+ years in a manufacturing, chemical processing, aerospace, defense, automotive, electronics, or similarly regulated industrial environment.
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing EH&S professionals and influencing plant leadership teams in a 24/5 or 24/7 manufacturing setting.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of Cal/OSHA Title 8, IIPP, OSHA general industry standards, HazCom/GHS, LOTO, confined space, machine guarding, respiratory protection, hearing conservation, IH exposure assessment, and OSHA recordkeeping.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of California environmental programs including SCAQMD permitting/VOC rules, hazardous waste management under DTSC/Title 22, CERS/HMBP, CUPA inspections, stormwater/wastewater controls, SPCC/AST/UST requirements as applicable, and EPCRA Tier II reporting.
• Experience managing chemical risk in operations involving flammables, solvents, adhesives, coatings, resins, monomers, tanks, ovens, autoclaves, furnaces, dust collection, glass grinding/cutting, or similar process hazards.
• Proven ability to interact credibly with regulatory agencies, firefighters/hazmat responders, aerospace customers, executive leadership, hourly employees, and cross-functional technical teams.
• Strong written communication, incident investigation, training facilitation, audit management, data analysis, and corrective-action management skills.
• Must be a U.S. Person per ITAR regulations to comply with export compliance requirements.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in safety, industrial hygiene, environmental engineering, chemical engineering, business, or related field.
• CSP, CIH, CHMM, PE, ARM, REM, or equivalent professional certification.
• Experience in aerospace transparency, acrylic casting/stretch forming, PMMA/MMA processing, laminated glass, optical coatings, cleanroom/controlled finishing, or FAA/DoD/prime-contractor supply environments.
• Experience with AS9100, NADCAP special process audit culture, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, VPP/SHARP-style systems, or mature enterprise EH&S management systems.
• Experience implementing process safety/MOC/PHA practices even where formal PSM or CalARP thresholds may not apply.
• Experience leading post-incident recovery, agency negotiations, community-facing response, environmental remediation, or emergency operations center / incident command coordination.
• Bilingual English/Spanish capability or demonstrated success deploying multilingual safety communication in Southern California manufacturing environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead the EH&S function as a business partner to the VP/GM and operating leadership; establish annual EH&S objectives, risk-reduction roadmap, budget, staffing plan, capital needs, and management review cadence.
• Build a prevention-oriented culture rooted in visible leadership, supervisor accountability, employee engagement, learning from near misses, and disciplined corrective-action closure.
• Advise executive leadership on EH&S risk acceptance, production changes, capital projects, new product introduction, customer requirements, and business continuity implications.
• Own site compliance with Cal/OSHA Title 8 requirements, including the Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP), hazard correction, employee communication, training, injury/illness investigations, and recordkeeping.
• Maintain compliance with federal OSHA requirements applicable through California’s state-plan framework and direct federal standards such as Hazard Communication elements for chemical classification, SDS, labels, and employee training.
• Ensure environmental compliance with South Coast AQMD stationary-source permitting and VOC/emissions requirements for operations such as tanks, coating/adhesive use, ovens, boilers, dust collectors, and control equipment.
• Oversee DTSC/RCRA/California Title 22 hazardous waste determinations, generator category management, accumulation areas, labeling, inspections, manifesting, vendor due diligence, training, and cradle-to-grave liability controls.
• Ensure timely and accurate CERS/Hazardous Materials Business Plan submissions and EPCRA Tier II reporting where thresholds are met; maintain emergency contacts, site maps, chemical inventories, and storage compatibility documentation.
• Serve as primary contact for Cal/OSHA, SCAQMD, Orange County Health Care Agency CUPA, Orange County Fire Authority, City of Garden Grove, DTSC, EPA, RWQCB/State Water Board, and other authorities having jurisdiction.
• Develop risk-based controls for bulk MMA and other monomers, polymerization inhibition, storage tank cooling/venting, temperature monitoring, flammable vapor controls, bonding operations, solvent cleaning, coatings, adhesives, and resin handling.
• Lead process hazard reviews, management of change (MOC), pre-startup safety reviews, chemical compatibility assessments, and safeguards verification for new or modified processes, tanks, mixers, ovens, autoclaves, furnaces, CNC equipment, and utility systems.
• Oversee industrial hygiene strategy for MMA, VOCs, isocyanates or coating constituents where applicable, respirable crystalline silica/glass dust, noise, heat, ergonomic stressors, and nuisance/combustible dust where applicable.
• Partner with engineering and maintenance to ensure LOTO, machine guarding, electrical safety, pressure systems, hoists/cranes, powered industrial trucks, confined spaces, hot work, contractor safety, and preventive maintenance controls are effective.
• Embed EH&S requirements into aerospace production discipline, configuration/change control, special process governance, contamination control, and production readiness reviews, recognizing that EH&S events can disrupt defense and civil aviation supply commitments.
• Support customer, insurance, AS9100/NADCAP-related, and government/prime contractor audits by maintaining defensible records, corrective action evidence, training matrices, chemical approvals, and compliance calendars.
• Collaborate with quality and trade-compliance/security teams where EH&S activities intersect with controlled programs, critical manufacturing areas, customer property, government-furnished information, or restricted access spaces.
• Maintain and exercise Emergency Action Plan, Fire Prevention Plan, spill response procedures, earthquake preparedness, evacuation/shelter-in-place protocols, hazardous material release response, and interface with incident command.
• Coordinate drills, tabletop exercises, after-action reviews, and response capability for chemical releases, overheating/reactive tanks, fires, power loss, earthquake impacts, wastewater/stormwater releases, and off-site impacts.
• Ensure emergency equipment, detection/monitoring tools, PPE, spill kits, alarms, eyewash/showers, fire protection, and response contractor arrangements are inspected and ready.
• Own the EH&S management system, compliance calendar, procedures, document control, audit program, corrective/preventive action system, management reviews, and performance reporting.
• Develop role-based training matrices for operators, maintenance, supervisors, engineers, contractors, emergency responders, and managers; ensure training is practical, multilingual where needed, and competency-based.
• Track leading and lagging indicators including serious-risk observations, closure aging, inspection findings, injuries, exposure results, VOC/waste/water metrics, spills, permit deviations, and agency interactions.
• Lead incident investigations using rigorous root-cause methods; ensure corrective actions address design, engineering controls, work methods, supervision, training, and verification of effectiveness.

Benefits

• We’ll offer you fantastic challenges and amazing opportunities.
• This is your chance to be part of an organisation that has proven itself to be at the cutting edge of our industry; and is committed to pushing the boundaries even further.
• And with some of the best training on offer in the industry, who knows how far you can go?
• Everyone is welcome to apply to GKN.
• We believe that we can only achieve our ambitions through a coming together of diverse minds who enjoy collaborating in an inspirational environment.
• Through our commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging and by living our five powerful principles we’ve created a culture where everyone feels welcome to contribute.
• It’s a culture that won us ‘The Best Workplace Culture Award’.
• By embracing and celebrating what makes us unique we encourage everyone to bring their full self to work.
• We’re also committed to providing an accessible recruitment process, so if you require reasonable adjustments at any stage during our recruitment process please get in touch and let us know.

What This Job Offers

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