Safety Officer

Under the general direction of the District Safety Manager, the Safety Officer is responsible for promoting and maintaining a safe, accident-free, and healthy work environment.

Because the Authority has a responsibility to serve the public 24 hours a day, an employee in this class is expected to work overtime as conditions demand and on short notice during emergency conditions.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

1. Implement, coach and enforce VIWAPA safety policies and procedures on all job sites in compliance with local and federal rules and regulations including Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Continuously monitor health and safety programs for effectiveness in the field by ensuring that crews conduct quality job briefings, JHA’s, and other hazard analysis tools through coaching demonstration and work site audits.
2. Conduct internal audits of SMS, procedures, policies, standard operating procedures, best practices and Jobsite Audits. Improve the Safety Department’s SMS by identifying and tracking leading indicators to eliminate hazards.
3. Identify and promptly act upon all unsafe actions, behaviors, and work conditions. Investigates complaints and responds to unresolved safety issues, develops recommendations for revisions to safety policies and develops solutions to workplace safety issues and problems.
4. Provide technical expertise in the development Job Hazard Analyses for high-risk work environments. Participate in Process Hazard Analysis of new facilities, audit project activities to make sure that they are complying with the Authority’s Safety Programs, audit employees for safety compliance.
5. Respond to incidents/accidents and reports of hazardous conditions at the workplace or involving VIWAPA’s equipment or property. This includes assisting injured workers and coordinating efforts to appropriately address the incident, customer safety complaints, vehicular accidents, and property damages. Thereafter review and conduct safety accident investigations to determine root cause and mitigate risks, and ensure follow-up corrective action, when applicable.
6. Effectively present information to the Director of Safety, District Safety Manager, Project Teams, Employees, Clients, and Subcontractors. Conduct periodic safety meetings with each identified work group to address safety concerns.
7. Conduct field audits of Safety Management Systems metrics and the Safety program. Generate monthly departmental Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Score Cards to track leading and trailing indicators to identify opportunities for improvement.
8. Generate Mitigation Reports for the various departments to mitigate Safety Hazards identified in the monthly KPI scorecard. Effectively update the department’s (SMS) to keep track of job injuries and investigations, identify trends and develop solutions.
9. Participate in regulatory audits and Safety Management Systems SMS audits to identify safety hazards and compliance liabilities. Follow up to ensure action is taken on any safety and other OSHA citation abatement notices to ensure the Authority complies to alleviate the safety of the employees.
10. Maintain Safety Department PPE inventory and facilitate PPE inspections programs. Exercises authority to enforce safety policies and standards when monitoring and following up on their implementation by department managers and supervisors.
11. Develop and sustain positive relationships with employees, management, and client representatives by participating in weekly safety meetings and call-ins. Also, by representing the organization in community or industry safety groups and programs.
12. Maintain membership on the Authority’s Employee Relations Safety Committee.
13. Ensure daily tailgate meetings are conducted by relevant departments. Organize and provide monthly safety topics and materials for departmental meetings.
14. Coordinate, facilitate, and track employee’s mandatory training. Safety Officer will conduct the Safety Policies training. Maintain records of trainings conducted.
15. Identify areas of improvement and make recommendations for improvement, document changes to the existing Management System to reflect the required improvement and retrain employees.
16. Identify hazardous and mitigation measures (during emergency response operations) for operational strike teams and task force, provide safety messages and event logs to incident command structure using the appropriate ICS forms.

1. Well versed in utility-specific industrial safety practices, occupational health and safety requirements, fire protection, traffic safety, and hazardous materials abatement and management.
2. Possess knowledge and application of Root Cause Analysis methodology, Regulatory requirements, Management of Change Process, Lean Six Sigma methodology and processes and Safety Culture Change Management as it relates to the Authority’s Safety Management Program.
3. Maintain training and knowledge in the use of personal protective equipment, construction and work zone traffic safety, fall protection, lifting techniques, hearing protection, hazard communications, hazardous waste operations and emergency response.
4. Demonstrated knowledge of electronic permitted system and red vector computer-based training for safety training.
5. Demonstrated knowledge of power plant or transmission distribution specific safety.
6. Possess knowledge of critical safety systems.
7. Knowledge and understanding of decontamination procedures.

Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor’s degree in Safety and Occupational Health Applied Sciences, Safety Engineering, or other related field and 2-5 years of work experience in a plant or utility with demonstrated knowledge of industrial plant safety instrumented systems and engineered safeguards preferred; would consider candidates with a high school diploma or equivalent, and 5-7 years of experience in a safety position within a large plant or utility.