Corporate Director of Safety; North America

Overview

Description
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Job Title
Corporate Director of Safety (North America)

Reports To
Director, Corporate Manufacturing Engineering and Advanced Technology

Location
Thomasville, GA with frequent travel (40-60%) to manufacturing plants

The Corporate Director of Safety provides strategic leadership and enterprise-wide governance of occupational safety programs across multiple heavy manufacturing plants in North America. This role is responsible for developing, implementing, and sustaining a world-class safety management system that protects employees, contractors, and visitors while ensuring regulatory compliance and supporting operational excellence. The Director serves as a key advisor to executive leadership and plant management, driving a proactive, data-driven safety culture aligned with the company’s business objectives, OEM manufacturing risks, and continuous improvement philosophy.

• Strategic Leadership & Governance
  • Develop and execute a North America–wide safety strategy aligned with corporate values, operational goals, and risk profile of heavy OEM manufacturing.
  • Establish standardized safety policies, procedures, and management systems across all plants while allowing for site-specific risk controls.
  • Serve as the corporate authority on safety governance, escalation, and decision-making.
  • Lead the evolution of the company’s safety culture from compliance-based to proactive and prevention-focused.
• Regulatory Compliance & Risk Management
  • Ensure compliance with all applicable safety regulations and standards, including OSHA (U.S.), provincial OHS (Canada), Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS), CSA, ANSI, NFPA, and relevant industry standards.
  • Oversee regulatory inspections, audits, citations, and corrective action plans.
  • Anticipate regulatory changes and assess their impact on manufacturing operations.
  • Lead enterprise-level risk assessments for high-hazard activities (e.g., machine guarding, LOTO, confined space, cranes/rigging, robotics, welding, foundry/forge operations).
• Manufacturing Safety Programs
  • Direct the design and implementation of critical safety programs, including: machine safeguarding and automation safety; safe lifting using overhead systems; LOTO; contractor and visitor safety; powered industrial vehicles and material handling; ergonomics and human factors; electrical safety and arc flash; hot work, confined space, and working at heights.
  • Development of plant specific annual safety training that meets regulatory agency requirements.
  • Partner with Engineering and Operations to integrate safety into equipment design, capital projects, and new product introductions.
  • Develop a Cleaver Brooks specific training certification program for engineers, supervisors and other floor level leadership positions.
• Incident Prevention & Investigation
  • Establish and maintain leading and lagging safety metrics, dashboards, and performance targets.
  • Thoroughly investigate lost time and recordable incident investigations, determine actionable root cause analyses, and enterprise-wide corrective actions.
  • Ensure lessons learned are shared and standardized across all facilities.
  • Champion near-miss reporting and hazard identification programs.
• Leadership, Coaching & Culture
  • Lead, mentor, and develop a regional safety team supporting plant-level safety professionals.
  • Influence plant managers and operations leaders to own their safety performance.
  • Drive leadership safety engagement, including safety walks, reviews, and accountability systems.
  • Support labor relations and union environments where applicable.
  • Support, drive and execute a continual training system.
• Data, Systems & Continuous Improvement
  • Implement and optimize safety management systems (SMS), digital reporting tools, and analytics platforms.
  • Use data and trends to prioritize risk reduction and resource allocation.
  • Integrate safety into Lean, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement initiatives.
  • Benchmark safety performance against industry…