Sr. EHS Specialist

Victaulic•Carol Stream, IL

2d•$85,000 - $100,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior EHS Specialist leads and sustains environmental, health, and safety programs at Victaulic’s Carol Stream, Illinois site. Reporting to the Regional EHS Manager, this site-facing role provides technical guidance to operations, maintenance, engineering, human resources, occupational health, and site leadership. The specialist ensures regulatory compliance, reduces risk, and strengthens employee engagement in proactive hazard identification, with particular focus on chemical management, hazardous waste, and Hazard Communication. The role operates with a high degree of independence and leads incident investigations, program audits, and continuous improvement initiatives across safety, health, environmental, and compliance programs. The position is onsite, includes travel of up to 30%, and requires work in active manufacturing environments. It combines production-floor duties with computer-based administrative work and may require responding to EHS needs across shifts or outside normal business hours.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Health & Safety, Occupational Safety, Environmental Science, Industrial Hygiene, Engineering, or a related field.
At least 4 years of EHS experience in a manufacturing setting, such as fabrication, foundry, heavy industrial, or other multi-hazard operations.
Hands-on hazardous waste and environmental compliance experience, including work with hydrochloric acid (HCl), sulfuric acid (H2SO4), hydrofluoric acid (HF), and/or nitric acid (HNO3).
Expertise in chemical management and Hazard Communication.
Workers’ compensation experience; direct ownership of claims is not required.
Machine safety knowledge.
Demonstrated experience leading incident investigations, audits, training, and corrective and preventive action (CAPA) management.
Strong communication, coaching, problem-solving, data analysis, documentation, and cross-functional influencing skills.
Ability to work in active manufacturing environments and respond to EHS needs across shifts or outside normal business hours as required.
Ability to walk the production floor for extended periods, climb ladders, and wear PPE including respirators, with exposure to noise, heat, and industrial equipment in an indoor/outdoor mix.
Comfort performing desk-based work on a computer as a primary part of the role.
Ability to travel up to 30%, primarily to a single site.
Must be currently authorized to work in the applicable country full-time without employer-sponsored immigration support now or in the future.

Nice To Haves

Personnel management experience, including supervisory, lead, or people-leadership roles.
Multi-site EHS experience.
Experience developing EHS programs from the ground up.
Experience with EHS software or systems integration.
Professional certification such as ASP, CSP, CHST, CIH, OHST, NEBOSH, CHMM, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

Lead the day-to-day execution of site EHS programs, ensuring requirements are current, documented, communicated, and consistently applied across shifts and work areas.
Develop, maintain, and improve written EHS programs, procedures, JSAs, inspections, and training materials.
Partner with site leadership to strengthen accountability for safe work, timely corrective actions, and proactive risk reduction.
Oversee the site EHS budget for compliance, training, PPE, corrective actions, emergency preparedness, and risk-reduction priorities.
Lead incident, near-miss, first-aid, and hazard investigations using root-cause methodology, and ensure corrective and preventive actions address systemic causes.
Classify and escalate serious injury and fatality potential events, significant hazards, and compliance concerns.
Analyze incident trends, audit findings, near misses, and exposure data to identify risk patterns, recommend controls, and inform coaching.
Lead site environmental programs and compliance obligations for hazardous and non-hazardous waste, air quality, stormwater, wastewater, chemical management, permits, and regulatory reporting.
Manage environmental inspections, monitoring, manifesting, recordkeeping, and regulatory interactions.
Partner with operations, maintenance, and engineering to reduce environmental risk through waste minimization, pollution prevention, spill prevention, resource conservation, and site sustainability initiatives.
Plan and conduct safety walkthroughs, program audits, regulatory self-assessments, and compliance inspections; verify corrective actions are completed and effective.
Serve as the site EHS contact during corporate, third-party, customer, insurance, and regulatory reviews; prepare documentation and coordinate follow-up.
Maintain EHS records, permit obligations, environmental compliance documentation, and regulatory reporting accurately and on time.
Develop, deliver, and maintain training for regulatory, site-specific, and operational requirements, including new-hire orientation, LOTO, PPE, Hazard Communication, emergency response, forklift/PIT, machine guarding awareness, hot work, and confined space.
Track training completion, identify gaps, evaluate training effectiveness, and work with supervisors to support employee understanding and accountability.
Coach employees, supervisors, and managers on hazard recognition, safe work expectations, incident reporting, and corrective-action follow-through.
Collaborate with Occupational Health on first response, recordability support, exposure data, medical surveillance, return-to-work coordination, emergency response planning, and employee health-related EHS needs.
Partner with operations, maintenance, engineering, quality, contractors, and regional EHS resources to integrate safety and environmental expectations into daily operations, projects, equipment changes, and process improvements.
Support emergency preparedness, evacuation drills, spill response planning, and site-specific emergency procedures.
Use EHS systems and data to maintain records, track corrective actions, monitor trends, and communicate performance to site and regional leadership.
Contribute to enterprise EHS initiatives by sharing site-level feedback, lessons learned, and scalable solutions.