Environmental Health & Safety Manager

Job Title: Environmental Health & Safety Manager

Department: Administration

Reporting Relationship: Plant Manager

Job Purpose:

The EHS Manager is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining environmental, health, and safety programs. This position provides leadership to ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local regulations while fostering a proactive safety culture that protects employees, contractors, visitors, and the environment.

The EHS Manager partners with plant leadership, production, maintenance, sanitation, quality assurance, and human resources to identify hazards, reduce workplace injuries, manage environmental risks, and continuously improve safety performance in a food manufacturing environment.

• Develop, implement, and maintain EHS policies, procedures, and programs to meet applicable OSHA, EPA, Wisconsin DNR, and other regulatory requirements.

• Maintain compliance with applicable workplace safety, environmental permitting, wastewater discharge, air emissions, hazardous waste, and chemical management requirements.

• Conduct routine facility inspections, risk assessments, and compliance audits.

• Maintain required EHS documentation, permits, training records, injury logs, and regulatory reports.

• Serve as the primary contact for regulatory inspections and coordinate corrective actions and follow-up activities.

• Monitor changes in applicable regulations and communicate requirements to plant leadership.

• Lead the facility's safety culture and promote employee engagement, accountability, and continuous improvement.

• Identify and evaluate hazards associated with cheese production, packaging, warehousing, sanitation, and maintenance operations.

• Manage incident reporting, injury investigations, root-cause analysis, and corrective and preventive actions.

• Develop and monitor safety performance metrics, including recordable injuries, lost-time incidents, near misses, and corrective-action completion.

• Conduct job hazard analyses and implement appropriate engineering, administrative, and personal protective equipment controls.

• Coordinate workers' compensation activities, return-to-work programs, and injury prevention initiatives in partnership with Human Resources.

• Lead safety committee meetings and communicate safety performance to employees and leadership.

• Oversee safety programs specific to cheese processing operations, including:

  • Machine guarding, conveyors, mixers, cutting equipment, and packaging machinery.

  • Lockout/tagout (LOTO) for equipment servicing and maintenance.

  • Confined-space entry and permit-required confined spaces.

  • Chemical handling and sanitation activities, including caustics, acids, and cleaning and sanitizing chemicals.

  • Slip, trip, and fall prevention in wet processing areas.

  • Forklift, powered industrial truck, pedestrian, and dock safety.

  • Ergonomics, repetitive motion, lifting, and material handling.

  • Ammonia refrigeration systems and emergency response, where applicable.

  • Electrical safety, hot work, contractor safety, and fire prevention.

  • Personal protective equipment and hearing conservation.

• Coordinate with Maintenance to ensure appropriate safety controls are incorporated into equipment installations, modifications, and preventive maintenance.

• Support safe startup and shutdown procedures and management-of-change processes for new equipment, chemicals, and production processes.

• Partner with Quality Assurance and Sanitation to ensure safety practices support food safety, hygienic operations, and applicable sanitation requirements.

• Manage environmental compliance programs, including wastewater pretreatment and discharge, stormwater, air…