Health & Safety Specialist

Orn a dairy co-operative which sells dairy products on behalf of its members, Ireland’s dairy processors and, in turn, Irish dairy farmers . Founded in 1961, the Ornua Co-operative has become Ireland’s largest exporter of Irish dairy products, exporting to 110 countries worldwide. Headquartered in Dublin, it has annualized sales of over $4.3 billion and a global team of 2,900 employees.

Ornua operates from 10 global business units, including 13 production facilities located worldwide.

The Ornua family is structured across two divisions:
Ornua Foods and Ornua Ingredients. Ornua Foods is responsible for the marketing and sales of Ornua’s consumer brands including Kerrygold, Dubliner, Pilgrims Choice, Forto and BEO. Ornua Ingredients is responsible for the procurement of Irish and non-Irish dairy products and for the sale of ingredients to food manufacturing and food service customers around the world.

Ornua Ingredients North America is the largest of the four global Ornua Ingredients organizations worldwide, with USA-based processing and innovation that services customers across the western hemisphere.

At Ornua, our Values lie at the core of everything that we do and how we behave both individually and as a business. Our five values, and their underlying behaviors, encourage us to Seek and Embrace New Ideas , Make It Happen , Be Our True Selves , Show You Care and Achieve Great Things Together.

At Ornua , our co-operative ethos lies at the heart of how we do business. We care passionately about driving sustainable, profitable growth, underpinned by our ambitious ‘Path to Prosper’ strategy. We have delivered significant growth in our core business, and we have ambitious plans for continued growth over the next five years.

The Health and Safety Specialist supports the implementation and ongoing practice of Ornua’s Health and Safety (H&S) programs across Ornua Ingredients North America (OINA) facilities in pursuit of a best-in-class safety culture and incident-free work environment. This role plays a vital part in ensuring compliance with safety regulations, promoting a safe and healthy work environment, and supporting sustainability initiatives. The Specialist actively engages employees at all levels—collaborating with site teams and leadership—to build ownership of safety practices and foster a culture of shared responsibility, continuous improvement, and proactive participation in safety efforts.

Reporting directly to Plant Manager for Ornua Ingredients North America, this position will support manufacturing facilities located in Hillsboro, WI and Byron, MN and will collaborate closely H&S colleagues at the company’s Hilbert and Whitehall, WI manufacturing facilities.

Executes health, safety, and sustainability programs and initiatives across assigned manufacturing facilities, ensuring alignment with company standards and federal, state and local regulatory bodies.

Serves as a subject matter expert to provide guidance and technical support to site teams and facility leaders to identify opportunities for employee engagement and continuous improvement in workplace safety.

Conducts post-incident investigations, prepares reports, and supports the development and follow-through of corrective action plans with the applicable key stakeholders.

Conducts proactive, routine inspections and audits in the plants and warehouses to identify hazards and recommend corrective or preventive measures to mitigate risk.

Serves as point of contact forthird-party Workers’ compensation administrators and takes ownership of workers’ compensation case management, including leave tracking, return-to-work activities, and liaising with employee – working in collaboration with operations, human resources and site teams.

Maintains employee medical records and all recordkeeping for safety and health activities.

Coordinates and/or conduct safety training including but not limited to lockout/tagout, machine guarding, chemical safety, hazard communication, personal protective equipment, blood borne pathogens, confined space entry, power industrial trucks, fall protection, and emergency…