Project Construction Health and Safety Lead

Scenario Cockram•Charlottesville, VA

1d•$120,000 - $160,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Project Construction Health and Safety Lead is responsible for leading the client’s health and safety strategy, governance, and performance for a major capital project within the company’s global project portfolio. The role ensures that project activities are planned and executed in a manner that protects people, supports business continuity, and meets legal, corporate, and ethical standards. The role will provide expert construction health and safety leadership throughout the project lifecycle. The post holder will ensure implementation the company’s global construction health and safety framework at project level. The Project Construction Health and Safety Lead will work collaboratively with the wider Global Engineering Project Delivery team and Construction Health and Safety Function, Global SHE, Procurement, Commissioning and Qualification, Senior Leadership, and external design, engineering, and construction partners. The role will influence project leaders, contractors, and site teams to embed a proactive, high-performing safety culture and ensure that critical risks are effectively managed throughout project execution.

Requirements

A degree or equivalent professional education in Occupational Health and Safety, Construction Management, Environmental Health and Safety, Engineering, or a related discipline.
A recognised advanced health and safety qualification, such as CSP, ASP, CHST, MSP, CSM, SMS, NEBOSH certification or other equivalent certification.
Knowledge of OSHA 29CFR1926 and applicable ANSI standards
Significant experience in construction health and safety, typically gained over 10 or more years, including major or complex project environments.
Demonstrated experience leading health and safety on significant capital projects, preferably within pharmaceuticals, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, industrial, process, or similarly industries.
Strong experience in contractor health and safety management, including prequalification, mobilisation, onboarding, governance, performance management, assurance, and intervention.
Deep practical knowledge of high-risk construction activities and critical control management, including work at height, lifting operations, excavation, electrical safety, temporary works, confined space entry, hot work, traffic management, and permit-to-work systems.
Experience developing and implementing project construction health and safety plans, procedures, governance, arrangements, and assurance programs.
Demonstrated capability in incident investigation, root cause analysis, audit and inspection, critical control verification, and corrective action management.
Experience working in a highly regulated or operationally sensitive environment where quality, compliance, business continuity, and safe delivery are critical.
Strong experience engaging and influencing project directors, construction managers, engineering leaders, site leadership teams, procurement, quality, commissioning teams, and external contractors.
Experience leading, coordinating, or developing construction safety professionals and influencing multidisciplinary project teams.

Responsibilities

Lead the project construction health and safety strategy, ensuring alignment with company expectations, the global construction health and safety framework, project objectives, and applicable legal requirements.
Ensure the development and maintenance of an effective project construction health and safety plan, including project-specific procedures, minimum requirements, governance arrangements, assurance activities, emergency preparedness, and arrangements for managing high-risk work.
Provide construction health and safety expertise across all project phases, including concept and design, procurement, contractor mobilisation, construction, commissioning, qualification, and handover to operations.
Establish robust contractor health and safety management arrangements for the project, including prequalification, selection support, mobilisation, onboarding, performance monitoring, assurance, intervention, and corrective action management.
Drive consistent control of high-risk construction activities, including, but not limited to, work at height, lifting operations, excavations, temporary works, electrical safety, confined spaces, hot work, traffic management, and permit-to-work systems.
Partner with project, engineering, and design teams to promote early risk elimination during concept, design development, construction planning, and change management.
Lead or oversee project health and safety assurance activities, including audits, inspections, management reviews, contractor reviews, project health checks, critical control verification, and follow-up of findings.
Develop, monitor, and analyse project safety performance data, including leading and lagging indicators, trends, audit findings, observations, incidents, high-potential events, and lessons learned.
Support all incident reviews and investigations relating to project construction activities, ensuring effective root cause analysis, corrective action, escalation, and communication of lessons learned.
Support and influence project leadership to promote visible safety leadership, appropriate risk-based decision making, clear accountability, and timely intervention where controls are inadequate.
Build capability within the project team, including coaching project leaders, construction managers, supervisors, site teams, and contractors in construction safety management and high-risk work controls.
Lead the clients project construction safety team, setting clear expectations, allocating resources, supporting development, and ensuring effective coverage of the project’s activities and risk profile.
Coordinate with the global construction health and safety function to ensure consistent application of standards, access to technical expertise, sharing of lessons learned, and escalation of significant project risks or performance concerns.
Ensure compliance with applicable regulations and internal standards, maintaining a consistent and pragmatic approach to risk management while recognising local legal and operational requirements.
Represent construction health and safety in project governance forums, design reviews, contractor meetings, planning sessions, risk reviews, and leadership discussions, providing clear recommendations and escalation where required.
Contribute to emergency preparedness and crisis response planning for the project, including construction-related scenarios, coordination with site operations, and participation in exercises and reviews.
Support a safe and effective transition to operations, ensuring that construction, commissioning, qualification, and handover activities are appropriately planned, controlled, and documented from a health and safety perspective.