| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Environment, Health and Safety |
| Level | Senior management |
| Reports to | Chief Operating Officer |
| Direct reports | EHS Manager, Safety Manager, Environment Manager |
| Experience | 15+ years in EHS with senior multi site leadership |
Head of EHS job description template
Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.
Job title: Head of EHS
Department: Environment, Health and Safety
Reports to: Chief Operating Officer
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
A Head of EHS leads environment, health and safety across all of a company's plants and sites. They set EHS policy and systems, drive a strong safety culture, ensure legal compliance, and answer to leadership for incidents and audit results. Site EHS managers report to them. The role reports to the Chief Operating Officer. A good head of EHS drives incident rates down through systems and culture, keeps every site legally compliant, and makes safety a line responsibility that leaders and workers own together.
Key responsibilities
- Set the group EHS policy, standards and management system across all plants and sites.
- Drive a strong safety culture so that safety is owned by line managers and workers.
- Ensure every site meets statutory environment, health and safety requirements and holds valid consents.
- Review incidents, near misses and audit findings and drive corrective action across sites.
- Set EHS targets for incident rates, training and compliance and track them at group level.
- Lead serious incident investigations and make sure lessons are shared across all locations.
- Build EHS capability by recruiting, training and developing site EHS managers and teams.
- Guide capital projects and new plants so EHS is designed in from the start.
- Represent the company to regulators, auditors and the board on EHS matters.
- Report EHS performance, risks and improvement plans to company leadership regularly.
Requirements
- Engineering degree with a safety qualification
- Advanced Diploma in Industrial Safety or NEBOSH
- Extensive EHS leadership experience
- 15+ years in EHS with senior multi site leadership
KRAs and KPIs for a Head of EHS
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Safety performance | Lost time injury frequency rate reduced against the group target each year |
| Legal compliance | All sites legally compliant with valid consents and no statutory violation |
| Audit results | Site EHS audit scores meeting the group standard across locations |
| Incident closure | Investigation actions closed within the agreed time across sites |
| Training coverage | EHS training coverage meeting the annual target across the workforce |
| Culture | Near miss reporting and safety participation growing against the target |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: EHS management software, Incident and audit systems, Statutory compliance trackers, MS PowerPoint, Risk assessment tools.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Chief Sustainability Officer, Vice President Operations, EHS Director
Interview questions for a Head of EHS
- How do you build a safety culture where line managers own safety, not just the EHS team?
- How do you keep multiple sites compliant with changing environment and safety law?
- How do you respond to a serious incident and make sure it never repeats?
- How do you set and drive EHS targets across plants with different risks?
- How do you design EHS into a new plant or capital project?
- Describe an EHS transformation you led and the results it delivered.
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What does a head of EHS do?
A head of EHS leads environment, health and safety across a company's plants and sites. They set EHS policy and systems, drive a safety culture, ensure legal compliance, and answer to leadership for incidents and audits. They drive incident rates down through systems and culture and make safety a shared line responsibility.
What qualifications does a head of EHS need?
Most heads of EHS hold an engineering degree with a safety qualification such as an Advanced Diploma in Industrial Safety or NEBOSH. Employers look for extensive multi site EHS leadership, deep knowledge of environment and safety law, strong incident investigation and audit skills, and the ability to build a safety culture across an organisation.
What is the difference between head of EHS and safety manager?
A head of EHS leads environment, health and safety across all sites, setting policy, systems and culture and answering to leadership. A safety manager runs occupational safety at a single site. The head of EHS sets direction and standards for the whole company, while the safety manager delivers safety at plant level.