Lead EHS Engineer

Description

The company was founded in 2023 and builds autonomous defense platforms, aiming for scalable, decentralized systems that support the United States and its allies. It has about 350 employees and works with startup speed.

This is a senior technical EHS role across engineering, manufacturing, prototyping, testing, and operations. You will work closely with engineering, manufacturing, operations, facilities, and site leadership.

Conditions change often as new equipment, processes, materials, and hazards come in. You will spend much of your time in manufacturing, lab, prototype, test, and other operating areas.

The team favours engineering solutions that remove or reduce hazards over relying on procedures alone.

Responsibilities

• Act as the go-to technical expert on environmental, health, and safety across company operations.
• Find, assess, and reduce occupational and environmental hazards in manufacturing, engineering, prototyping, testing, maintenance, and facilities.
• Lead or support JHAs, JSAs, risk assessments, and task-level hazard reviews.
• Apply the hierarchy of controls, favouring engineering controls and inherently safer designs where workable.
• Work with engineering during equipment, tooling, process, and facility design so safety is built in early.
• Review new or changed equipment, processes, materials, and operations before they start, and support pre-startup safety reviews for new equipment and higher-risk processes.
• Spot high-consequence hazards and build practical ways to lower their risk.
• Provide technical EHS support on high-hazard work such as electrical systems, machinery, hazardous energy, chemicals, pressure systems, hot work, material handling, lasers, robotics and automation, and other production hazards.
• Build and maintain programs for machine safety and guarding, LOTO, electrical safety, confined spaces, fall protection, hot work, and other applicable areas.
• Support process safety evaluations for hazardous, energetic, or flammable materials, compressed gases, and other high-consequence hazards.
• Take part in PHAs, What-If analyses, FMEAs, or similar structured risk reviews where suited.
• Keep safety controls effective as prototype processes move into higher-rate production, working with engineering and operations.
• Evaluate employee exposure to chemical, physical, and environmental hazards.
• Run or support industrial hygiene assessments and exposure monitoring for noise, airborne contaminants, chemicals, welding fumes, particulates, and other exposures.
• Manage third-party industrial hygiene monitoring and act on the results.
• Build or support respiratory protection, hearing conservation, PPE, ergonomics, and other occupational health programs.
• Keep exposure records that meet regulatory requirements.
• Lead or support environmental compliance across facilities under federal, state, and local rules.
• Run hazardous materials and waste programs covering identification, classification, labeling, storage, handling, transport, and disposal under EPA, DTSC, RCRA, and applicable California regulations.
• Manage environmental permits, compliance monitoring, and reporting for air emissions, wastewater, stormwater, and hazardous material storage.
• Maintain HMBPs, chemical inventories, SDSs, and reporting through CERS.
• Coordinate with regulators including local CUPAs, DTSC, Regional Water Quality Control Boards, and Air Quality Management Districts.
• Assess new processes, equipment, facility changes, and expansions for permit needs and environmental impact.
• Set up and maintain hazardous waste accumulation areas, inspections, manifests, disposal records, and waste reduction efforts.
• Build and run spill prevention, containment, and emergency response procedures, including SPCC plans where they apply.
• Run routine environmental inspections and audits, identify gaps, and drive fixes to completion.
• Work with engineering, manufacturing, facilities, and operations to build pollution prevention and responsible material use into planning.
• Keep compliance calendars, permit conditions, inspection records, and reporting deadlines so submissions go in on time.
• Stay current on OSHA, Cal/OSHA, EPA, and other relevant rules, and make sure programs and practices meet them and company requirements.
• Keep regulatory documents, inspection records, permits, and compliance reports up to date.
• Act as the technical contact during inspections, agency questions, audits, and enforcement matters.
• Track regulatory changes, judge their effect on operations, and put needed measures in place with other teams.
• Lead or support investigations of injuries, illnesses, near misses, spills, releases, property damage, and other EHS events.
• Use structured root-cause analysis to find system, process, equipment, and behavioral causes.
• Write corrective and preventive actions that target root causes rather than symptoms, then track them to closure and check they work.
• Share lessons learned and help roll out corrective actions across other operations.
• Support incident notifications, recordkeeping, and regulatory reporting.
• Run routine EHS inspections and audits across manufacturing, engineering, lab, test, and support areas.
• Identify unsafe conditions and behaviors and work with operating teams on fixes.
• Design risk-based inspection programs focused on the most serious hazards.
• Support internal EHS assessments and external audits.
• Review leading and lagging indicators for trends and set improvement priorities.
• Create practical metrics for hazards, near misses, incidents, corrective actions, inspections, and other EHS performance.
• Support contractor safety for construction, maintenance, equipment installation, commissioning, and other work on site.
• Review contractor work plans and higher-risk activities for suitable EHS controls.
• Take part in contractor onboarding, pre-job planning, permitting, and field safety observations.
• Identify contractor safety gaps and coordinate fixes with project and operations owners.
• Develop and deliver EHS training for employees, contractors, supervisors, engineers, and operators.
• Turn regulatory and technical requirements into plain expectations people can follow on the floor.
• Coach employees and leaders on hazard recognition, risk assessment, incident prevention, and regulatory requirements.
• Encourage early reporting of hazards, near misses, and safety concerns.
• Build working relationships with engineering and operations so EHS is seen as a technical partner, not only a compliance function.
• Reinforce ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Environmental Health & Safety, Occupational Safety, Engineering, Industrial Hygiene, Environmental Science, or a related technical discipline.
• At least 5 years of professional EHS experience in manufacturing, aerospace, defense, automotive, energy, chemical processing, industrial operations, or another high-hazard technical setting.
• Proven experience building and running occupational safety and environmental compliance programs.
• Solid working knowledge of OSHA and Cal/OSHA regulations.
• Experience with hazard assessments, risk assessments, incident investigations, and root-cause analysis.
• Experience supporting manufacturing equipment, industrial processes, labs, test environments, or other technically complex operations.
• Working knowledge of hazardous materials and hazardous waste management requirements.
• Ability to read technical drawings, equipment documentation, SDSs, engineering specifications, and regulations.
• Proven ability to work directly with engineers, technicians, operators, contractors, and leadership.
• Ability to spot hazards independently and drive corrective actions to closure.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Preferred: 10+ years of EHS experience in aerospace, defense, advanced manufacturing, energetics, automotive, energy, or other high-reliability or high-hazard industries.
• Preferred: professional certification such as CSP, ASP, CIH, CHMM, or equivalent.
• Preferred: experience with Process Safety Management (PSM), process hazard analysis, or high-hazard manufacturing operations.
• Preferred: experience with industrial hygiene sampling and exposure assessment.
• Preferred: experience with electrical safety and NFPA 70E.
• Preferred: experience with machine guarding, robotics and automation, laser safety, pressure systems, combustible materials, and hazardous energy control.
• Preferred: experience with hazardous waste requirements, including applicable RCRA and California hazardous waste regulations.
• Preferred: experience supporting prototype-to-production or New Product Introduction (NPI) environments.
• Preferred: experience developing EHS programs or systems in a rapidly growing organization.
• Preferred: familiarity with ISO 45001, ISO 14001, AS9100, or similar management systems.
• Preferred: experience with EHS software, incident-management systems, corrective-action tracking, and data analytics.

Conditions

Salary range is $125,000 to $175,000 USD, base salary only.

Actual offers may vary based on experience, education, training, critical skills, and business considerations.

Available to work extended hours and weekends as needed.

The role may require access to information controlled under EAR and ITAR. Any offer may be conditioned on authorization to receive controlled software or technology without sponsorship for an export license.

To meet U.S. export rules, you must be a U.S. citizen or national, a U.S. lawful permanent resident, a refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or an asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision plans.
• Retirement savings and paid time off.
• Performance-based bonus tied to individual and company results.
• Stock options or equity, with highly competitive equity grants included in most offers.
• Funds for continuing education, training, and career growth.
• Open communication about pay tiers and how pay decisions are made.