Safety Director I- Manufacturing Construction

Gilbane Building Company•Syracuse, NY

4d•$170,000 - $220,000

About The Position

Gilbane Building Company is seeking a Project Safety Director to provide senior health, safety, and wellbeing leadership for a large, complex construction project in Clay, New York. The position serves as a trusted advisor to project leadership, the client, trade partners, and the workforce, driving expectations for planning, risk management, accountability, and field execution. The Project Safety Director is expected to lead safety on a complex project, work effectively with clients with rigorous safety and operational requirements, and engage at executive, planning, and field levels. Using Gilbane’s R3 approach—Recognize, Respond, Respect—the Project Safety Director translates safety expectations into consistent project execution throughout the project lifecycle. The role partners with project leaders and trade partners to integrate health and safety into planning, procurement, scheduling, logistics, execution, commissioning, and closeout; leads risk assessment and control verification; and maintains project compliance with applicable regulatory, contractual, Gilbane, and client requirements. The position also leads and develops the project’s safety professionals, coaches operations and trade partner personnel, communicates performance and risks to leadership, and manages client and regulatory interactions. The role requires construction safety leadership, sound operational judgment, and the ability to influence stakeholders in routine and high-pressure situations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Safety, Occupational Health, Construction Management, Engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant construction safety leadership experience.
10+ years of progressive construction safety experience, including significant responsibility on large or complex projects.
Demonstrated experience leading health and safety on large-scale construction projects with significant operational complexity.
Demonstrated experience managing relationships with demanding or highly involved clients, including organizations with mature internal safety organizations and project-specific requirements.
Demonstrated ability to influence Project Executives, Superintendents, Project Managers, client representatives, trade partner executives, and field supervision.
Strong working knowledge of applicable OSHA construction standards and construction risk-management principles.
Demonstrated experience with significant construction hazards, as applicable, including cranes and lifting operations, excavation and trenching, electrical and hazardous energy, working at heights, mobile equipment, material handling, and temporary structures.
Demonstrated ability to lead effectively during high-pressure situations, including serious incidents, client escalations, regulatory activity, and significant operational risk.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate from craft-level conversations through executive presentations.

Nice To Haves

Certified Safety Professional (CSP).
Construction Health and Safety Technician (CHST).
OSHA 30-Hour Construction.
OSHA 500/502 or equivalent advanced OSHA training.
Experience supporting large, technically complex, mission-critical, advanced manufacturing, federal, healthcare, life sciences, aviation, or similarly demanding construction environments.
Experience working on projects where client requirements exceed the contractor’s normal minimum standards.

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior health and safety leader for the project and provide strategic direction and visible leadership to Gilbane, the client, trade partners, and the workforce.
Partner with project leaders to integrate health and safety into planning, procurement, scheduling, logistics, execution, commissioning, and closeout.
Set project and trade partner expectations and promote health and safety as an operational responsibility.
Lead in the field through engagement, coaching, intervention, and practical construction risk judgment.
Serve as Gilbane’s principal project-level health and safety representative to the client and other key external stakeholders.
Develop productive relationships with highly engaged clients and reconcile Gilbane, client, contractual, and regulatory requirements into clear, executable expectations.
Present safety performance, critical risks, incidents, trends, corrective actions, and improvement strategies to Gilbane and client leadership.
Lead implementation of the project-specific Health and Safety Plan and applicable client requirements, including application of R3 throughout the project lifecycle.
Identify significant risks early enough to influence means and methods, logistics, procurement, sequencing, scheduling, and trade partner planning.
Focus on high-energy and serious-injury-and-fatality potential exposures and the effectiveness of Direct Controls.
Lead or oversee critical-risk planning, High-Energy Control Assessments, High-Energy Control Standards, pre-task planning, inspections, and field verification.
Reevaluate controls when conditions, work, sequencing, or project risks change; coordinate corrective action before unacceptable-risk work proceeds.
Participate in preconstruction, procurement, constructability, logistics, scheduling, and work-planning discussions to identify risks before field operations.
Review scopes of work and trade partner safety qualifications and advise on significant or unusual project risks.
Work with Purchasing and project leadership to incorporate appropriate health and safety requirements into trade partner expectations and agreements.
Set trade partner safety expectations before mobilization and engage trade partner leadership when performance or risk requires intervention.
Verify that project planning aligns with actual field execution and address gaps between planned controls and work performed.
Maintain a disciplined system of inspections, verification activities, audits, observations, and performance reviews.
Analyze safety indicators, inspection results, control performance, incidents, corrective actions, and trends, translating findings into operational actions.
Communicate performance, exposures, emerging risks, and improvement priorities to project and client leadership.
Lead incident reviews and ensure corrective actions address underlying system and operational conditions; share lessons for future planning and operations.
Lead, mentor, develop, and hold accountable project health and safety professionals; establish their roles, responsibilities, expectations, and priorities.
Assess safety staffing needs as workforce, risk, scope, schedule, complexity, and contractual requirements evolve, and recommend adjustments.
Coach project personnel and trade partner leadership in risk recognition, planning, intervention, and accountability.
Promote an environment in which employees and trade partners raise concerns, stop work when appropriate, and challenge unacceptable risk.
Ensure compliance with applicable Federal, State, and Local regulations, Gilbane requirements, contractual requirements, and applicable client standards.
Maintain current knowledge of regulatory developments and industry practices affecting project operations.
Coordinate interactions with OSHA and other regulatory authorities with appropriate Gilbane leadership, and support inspections, investigations, documentation, corrective actions, and project responses.
Identify conflicts or gaps among regulatory, owner, Gilbane, and trade contractor requirements and work with leadership to determine an appropriate path forward.