Head of EHS Americas

Job Title

Head of EHS Americas

Job Description Summary

The key objective of the role is to lead Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) for the Americas region and act as a trusted business partner to the Americas Executive Leadership team(s). In addition to traditional EHS responsibilities, the role will also support and collaborate on Crisis Management & Resiliency across the region to help further execute our global standards of practice, processes and associated technology. The Head of EHS Americas will work in partnership with key operational service line and regional stakeholders as well as the EHS global functional organization to align strategic objectives and implement relevant programs, initiatives and associated KPI’s/metrics to continuously improve EHS management and deliver measurable outcomes across the region.
This is a senior corporate role reporting directly to the Global Head of EHS, with indirect reporting lines into key senior operational leadership within the region.

Job Description

Core Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of senior EHS leaders across the region with direct line management responsibilities, including hiring, retention and personal development; partner closely with EHS counterparts.
• Drive a culture of Environmental, Safety & Health (EHS) and visible leadership commitment in everything we do across people, assets and brand; continuously assess our organizational maturity across the region.
• Identify potential organizational risk across the region and work with operational leaders and regional EHS teams to develop appropriate EHS governance, guardrails, standards of practice and processes in alignment with the C&W global EHS strategy.
• Provide a strong focus on serious incident prevention and regional EHS initiatives prioritizing high potential risk to the business.
• Foster and maintain relationships with key service line and geographical stakeholders across North America as well as Central and South America; a critical aspect of these relationships will be advising and supporting senior stakeholders in understanding and managing critical and at times complex EHS matters, including crisis events as and when these may arise.
• Implement and maintain the EHS management system for the region, including critical standards that drive EHS expectations on the ‘why’ and ‘what’; ensure appropriate connectivity into the broader global integrated management system; support ISO accreditation, surveillance auditing and any expansion to scope.
• Develop and implement the annual audit and assurance plan for the region in partnership with service line EHS teams; actively manage close out of findings across the region and prepare/deliver periodic report-out on assurance activity.
• Initiate and lead the EHS Ambassadors (champions) initiative, designed to engage operations and front-line employees in safety, health and wellness in a way that embeds these tenants within the business.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders within the Americas region when CMT is activated, with a permanent position on the North America Crisis Management Team(s).

Any candidate for the role must have proven experience in developing and implementing basic EHS initiatives and those that enable EHS, including but not limited to:

• Risk mitigation and hazard identification processes and tools.
• Incident investigation & root-cause analysis; developing lessons learned from critical incidents; leading initiatives, programs and processes to prevent recurrences.
• Contractor and vendor supplier management EHS governance, including risk review/qualifications, on-boarding and assurance through active program management; partnering closely with procurement.
• Tiered-audit, compliance and assurance frameworks, intended to drive a three-lines of defense model. 
• Regulatory experience, including U.S. CFR 1910 & 1926, OHS Laws through the Internal Responsibility System in Canada and emerging laws in LatAm countries.
• Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, standard base EHS software solutions and Business Continuity & Resilience software to help modernize decision making, drive automation & enhance data intelligence capabilities.     
• Ability to review corporate risk profiles across the variety of business lines we operate and support risk tolerance reviews with partners across risk management, legal, procurement, etc.
• Use of KPI’s/metrics and identify trends and applying strategic initiatives to improve outcomes and contribute to corporate compliance reporting.
• Demonstrated experience in developing senior stakeholder relationships and influencing change at a senior level within a multinational business. 
• Ability to create and execute education/training to drive competence & confidence of employees within lines of business; continually evaluate effectiveness through a variety of systems & methods; ability to closely partner with learning & development teams. 
• Provide support and technical advice to senior leaders to enable them to discharge their accountabilities and responsibilities for health, safety and the environment within their service line.
• Monitor trends in legislation and best practice to support continuing legal compliance and best practice operations globally. Horizon scanning for new relevant legislation and supporting the business to prepare for new requirements.
• Manage critical, contentious and complex EHS matters in a professional manner, acting as trusted advisor to senior leadership.
• Assist regional crisis management teams with the development, review and testing of local procedures for critical incident management.
• Support client relationships, business development and solutioning activities.

Qualifications | Knowledge & Experience:

• Degree in Occupational Health and Safety, Business Management or an equivalent discipline.
• Minimum 12 years experience in senior EHS roles in a heavy matrix environment, preferably across multi-site and multi-sector organizations.
• Detailed knowledge and practical application of EHS in construction, integrated facilities management and property management.
• Well-versed in OSHA CFR 1910 & 1926 standards and knowledge of OSH Canadian Law across providences.
• Relevant EHS certification of ASP/CSP through the Board of Certified Safety Professionals or equivalent qualifications/certifications.
• Understand at a detailed level how to drive change across the business; experience with change management models such as PROSI, Kotter and/or Bridges. Professional acumen to influence change, working in partnership and collaboration across the business.

Proven Skills & Personal Qualities in the following areas:

• Demonstrated ability to interact and provide senior-level presentations to executive stakeholders.
• Developing and executing key EHS programs necessary to activate management system standards, targeted initiatives to manage risk and maintaining minimal compliance.
• Possess a degree of emotional intelligence when interacting with leadership, clients, operational teams and line employees.
• Foster relationships and stakeholder management, demonstrating strong influencing skills and pragmatic problem-solving skills.
• Ability to operate at a senior level with senior executive stakeholders. Resilience and tenacity will be required in order to achieve the objectives and targets of the role.
• Acting with authority in a crisis; this includes ability to deal with major incidents if they were to arise and provide expert counsel to members of the company executive on appropriate action to be taken in the event of any EHS related incident.
• Ability to effectively respond to complex enquiries, solve complex problems and provide innovative solutions, whilst considering the bigger picture and commercial factors, anticipating potential issues and future needs of the business.

• Exceptional time management skills; work as a self-start, self regulator and an ability to work flexibly and deliver under pressure.
• Fluent in English; additional languages skills including Spanish / Portuguese are a plus.

Cushman & Wakefield also provides eligible employees with an opportunity to enroll in a variety of benefit programs, generally including health, vision, and dental insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement savings plans, life, and disability insurance programs, and paid and unpaid time away from work. In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, Cushman and Wakefield provide eligible employees with competitive pay, which may vary depending on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire, total hours worked, job type, business line, and applicability of collective bargaining agreements.

The compensation that will be offered to the successful candidate will depend on factors such as whether the position is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the geographic area in which the work will be performed, market pay rates in that area, and the candidate’s experience and qualifications.

The company will not pay less than minimum wage for this role.

The compensation for the position is: $ 188,615.00 - $221,900.00

Cushman & Wakefield is an Equal Opportunity employer to all protected groups, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. Discrimination of any type will not be tolerated.

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), if you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation in order to apply for a position at Cushman & Wakefield, please call the ADA line at 1-888-365-5406 or email [email protected]. Please refer to the job title and job location when you contact us.

INCO: “Cushman & Wakefield”