Executive Director, Environmental Health & Safety

Department:

Office of Research & Innovation

Location:

Health Sciences Center

Time Type:

Full time

Worker Type:

Regular

Job Req ID:

R109586

Minimum Requirements:

Bachelor's degree in a related field and ten (10) years of relevant experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience. Grade 13 (Salaried)

Position Description:

The Office of Research and Innovation is searching for an Executive Director of Environmental Health and Safety. This position provides enterprise-wide leadership, institutional accountability, and strategic direction for the University of Louisville's comprehensive environmental health and safety portfolio. Reporting to the Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation, the Executive Director serves as the University's institutional authority and principal advisor on environmental health and safety governance, regulatory compliance, risk management, operational readiness, and continuity of critical safety functions across research, teaching, clinical, and administrative environments. The Executive Director establishes institutional strategy, governance frameworks, internal controls, performance expectations, and resource priorities; exercises judgment regarding risk acceptance and mitigation; and leads partnerships with University administration, deans, faculty, staff, oversight committees, and external agencies to protect people, the environment, institutional assets, and the responsible growth of the University's research and academic missions.

 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide enterprise-wide leadership and strategic direction for DEHS, integrating environmental health and safety governance with the University's research, academic, clinical, operational, and institutional priorities.
• Serve as the institutional authority and principal advisor to the AVP and EVPRI and other executive leaders on significant EHS risks, regulatory developments, high-consequence events, institutional vulnerabilities, resource requirements, and matters requiring leadership-level action or risk acceptance.
• Establish and maintain an enterprise EHS governance framework, including policies, management systems, internal controls, standards, decision rights, and accountability mechanisms designed to ensure effective risk management and compliance assurance.
• Exercise oversight and institutional accountability for research and teaching laboratory safety, biosafety and high-containment research support, radiation safety, chemical safety, occupational safety and health, industrial hygiene, environmental compliance, hazardous materials and waste management, and occupational health coordination.
• Ensure strategic integration of EHS programs with research administration and institutional priorities, enabling responsible teaching, research, clinical activity, innovation, and service while maintaining proportionate and defensible risk controls.
• Provide oversight for and administration of institutional committees and regulated research-safety processes, including the Institutional Biosafety Committee, Radiation Safety Committee, and other governance bodies or programs within the position's assigned scope.
• Act as the University's authorized institutional representative for EHS-related regulatory matters; direct inspections, inquiries, permits, reporting obligations, investigations, formal responses, corrective and preventive actions, and verification of sustained compliance.
• Maintain effective communication pathways across University operating units and cultivate working relationships with deans, principal investigators, research administration, legal counsel, risk management, emergency management, public safety, facilities, occupational health, and other institutional partners.
• Provide organizational leadership and direct supervision for DEHS personnel, including responsibility for workforce planning, recruitment and selection, assignment of work, performance management, staff development, succession planning, and accountability, while ensuring the effective deployment of multidisciplinary expertise across the EHS enterprise.
• Provide stewardship of departmental financial, human, contractual, facility, equipment, and technology resources; establish priorities and recommend investments based on institutional risk, mission impact, service demand, and long-term sustainability.
• Oversee enterprise EHS management systems, digital platforms, analytics, performance dashboards, and continuous-improvement initiatives that strengthen transparency, data governance, decision-making, regulatory readiness, and service delivery.
• Advance a proactive and accountable safety culture grounded in shared responsibility, consultation, education, practical risk reduction, respectful engagement, and institutional learning.
• Direct institutional preparedness, response, continuity, and recovery for significant EHS events, including notification, technical coordination, incident investigation, regulatory communication, corrective action, and organizational learning.
• Represent the University with regulatory agencies, peer institutions, professional associations, governmental entities, and community partners for compliance, advisory, benchmarking, and strategic collaboration purposes.
• Perform related responsibilities and assume other duties as assigned.

  

This position may require access to export-controlled or sensitive technology. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of a work visa.

 

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in scientific field.
• Ten years of progressive experience in environmental health and safety, research safety, or a closely related safety and compliance field, including at least five years of leadership responsibility for a major program, unit, or department.
• Demonstrated experience leading comprehensive EHS programs in a complex, regulated organization with research, laboratory, healthcare, academic, or similarly diverse operations.
• Experience interacting with regulatory agencies, leading inspections or investigations, managing corrective actions, and communicating significant risks to leadership.
• Ability to obtain and maintain all federal and institutional approvals, registrations, suitability determinations, and security clearances required for assigned regulated programs.

• Demonstrated experience in strategic planning, budget and resource management, organizational leadership, personnel development, and cross-functional decision making.
• Leadership experience at an R1 or comparable research-intensive university, academic medical center, or similarly complex research institution. 
• Experience with high-containment research, Select Agent programs, institutional biosafety oversight, radiation safety, occupational health integration, and research compliance governance. 
• Experience implementing enterprise EHS information systems, analytics, dashboards, automation, and performance-management practices. 
• Demonstrated success strengthening safety culture while enabling responsible growth in research and complex academic programs.

 

Competencies 

• Enterprise and Strategic Leadership: Establishes institution-wide direction, anticipates emerging risks, and translates University priorities into integrated EHS governance, measurable outcomes, and sustainable organizational capability. 
• Executive Judgment and Institutional Accountability: Makes timely, defensible, risk-based decisions and accepts accountability for enterprise EHS outcomes, internal controls, and matters requiring institutional action or escalation. 
• Regulatory and Technical Authority: Integrates scientific, operational, and regulatory considerations and represents the University in complex compliance, inspection, investigation, and enforcement matters. 
• Communication and Influence: Communicates material risks, options, and recommendations clearly to leadership, deans, faculty, committees, employees, regulators, and external stakeholders and builds alignment across decentralized environments. 
• Governance and Organizational Leadership: Establishes clear decision rights and accountability, develops leaders and technical professionals, manages performance, and strengthens succession, workforce resilience, and service continuity. 
• Financial and Resource Stewardship: Aligns budgets, staffing, technology, facilities, and contracted services with institutional risk, mission priorities, service expectations, and long-term sustainability. 
• Data Governance and Continuous Improvement: Uses reliable data, performance dashboards, audits, incident learning, trend analysis, and stakeholder feedback to strengthen controls, transparency, organizational maturity, and decision-making. 
• Crisis, Continuity, and Recovery Leadership: Maintains sound judgment and coordinated action during significant incidents, regulatory matters, operational disruptions, and other high-consequence events. 
• Integrity, Credibility, and Accountability: Demonstrates ethical leadership, protects confidential information, addresses concerns promptly, and sustains the trust of University leadership, employees, regulators, and external partners. 
• Mission Enablement and Service: Applies governance and risk controls in a practical, proportionate manner that protects people and the environment while enabling teaching, research, clinical activity, and innovation.  

 

Compensation will be commensurate to candidate experience.

Equal Employment Opportunity

The University of Louisville is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. The University strives to provide equal employment opportunity on the basis of merit and without unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, color, national origin, ethnicity, creed, religion, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, veteran status, marital status, or pregnancy. In accordance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Vietnam Era Veteran Readjustment Act of 1974, the University prohibits job discrimination of individuals with disabilities, Vietnam era veterans, qualified special disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, and other protected veterans. The University acknowledges its obligations to ensure affirmative steps are taken to ensure equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants for employment. It is the policy of the University that no employee or applicant for employment be subject to unlawful discrimination in terms of recruitment, hiring, promotion, contract, contract renewal, tenure, compensation, benefits, and/or working conditions. No employee or applicant for employment is required to endorse or condemn a specific ideology, political viewpoint, or social viewpoint to be eligible for hiring, contract renewal, tenure, or promotion.

Consistent with applicable law, demographic information is collected for aggregate reporting requirements. Demographic information provided through this application is not available to hiring managers/committees and is not considered in hiring or employment decisions.

Assistance and Accommodations

Computers are available for application submission at the Human Resources Department located at 2315 South First Street Walk, Room 02C - Louisville, Kentucky 40292.

If you require assistance or accommodation with our online application process, please contact us by email at [email protected] or by phone 502-852-6258.