Hazardous Materials Specialist

A chemical inventory tells you what a business stores. A site inspection tells you a bigger story.

Are incompatible materials stored together? Does the emergency plan reflect what is actually happening on site? Would first responders have the information they need when it matters most?

If those are the questions that get your attention, bring your curiosity, technical knowledge, and practical judgment to the City of Mountain View.

As our Hazardous Materials Specialist
, you’ll help businesses operate safely, support firefighters with technical expertise, and protect the people and places that make up our community. Reporting to the Fire Marshal in the Fire and Environmental Protection Division, you’ll connect science, fieldwork, education, and enforcement with opportunities to see the direct impact of your work.

Your morning might begin with reviewing hazardous materials business plans in the California Environmental Reporting System (CERS) for the sites that will be inspected. This includes familiarizing yourself with the site and their prior inspection history.

Later, you head into the field. An inspection gives you the chance to compare the paperwork with actual conditions, evaluate potential hazards, and explain corrective actions in clear, practical terms.

Back at the office, you could review construction plans, document inspection findings, or coordinate with another agency on a regulatory question. When a hazardous materials emergency occurs, you may be called on to provide technical guidance to the Incident Commander.

Across these assignments, your judgment matters and so does your ability to help people understand and act on it.

Your assignments will connect you with work such as:

• Safer business operations: Review hazardous materials business plans, process permits, and help facilities understand and meet applicable requirements.
• Underground storage tank oversight: Inspect monitoring systems, installations, and removals to evaluate compliance.
• Construction and facility changes: Review proposed construction and hazardous materials facility closure plans for compliance with applicable requirements.
• Field inspections and follow-through: Investigate concerns, document findings, explain necessary corrections, and take enforcement action when needed.
• Emergency readiness and response: Educate firefighters, City employees, and industry safety personnel, and provide technical expertise during hazardous materials incidents.

You can recognize a chemical hazard and explain why it matters to someone without your technical background. You ask thoughtful questions, write clear reports, and remain steady when circumstances change.

You understand that effective compliance takes both professional relationships and consistent follow-through. You’re comfortable helping someone work through a complicated requirement, and you can be firm when a condition needs to be corrected.

Relevant experience may come from hazardous materials compliance, environmental consulting, laboratory or industrial chemical safety, or other work involving hazardous materials storage and handling. Tell us how your background prepares you for this role.

Mountain View is a place where people come to develop ideas, build businesses, and shape what comes next. As our Hazardous Materials Specialist, you’ll help create the conditions for that work to happen safely—with attention to the people handling hazardous materials, the firefighters responding to emergencies, and the community around them.

Here, your expertise reaches across…