Director, EHS - Electric

Our purpose is sustaining energy and water for life, and it is demonstrated in everything we do as a business, and as an employee team.

At Liberty, we hire passionate people who care about doing the right thing for our customers. We are entrepreneurial, creative, and outcome-focused. Here, your natural talent and achievements will flourish in an inclusive environment of teamwork, trust and continuous learning. We are always pursuing excellence to exceed our ambitions goals, rewarding both the goal outcome and how we achieve it.

Purpose

This position provides strategic leadership for occupational health, safety, and environmental (OHSE) performance across an assigned commodity across the Liberty footprint (East, Central, West, or other designated region).

The Director is accountable for advancing a strong safety culture, strengthening employee engagement, and improving OHSE performance across all operations and locations within the region. Working closely with regional leadership and a team of EHS professionals, the role drives alignment between operational priorities, risk management, and continuous improvement.

Key responsibilities include implementation of Liberty’s OHSE management system; oversight of occupational hazard identification, risk assessment, and control; and stewardship of the regulatory compliance framework, including applicable occupational regulations, environmental requirements, and industry standards relevant to the region’s operating businesses.

The Director leads, develops, and mentors a team of EHS professionals. Team size and organizational structure will be aligned with the scope, complexity, and risk profile of the region’s operations.

The role provides enterprise-level leadership to strengthen safety performance, reduce incidents, and advance next-generation approaches that improve both OHSE outcomes and operating efficiency. The Director brings broad experience leading both behavior-based and process-based safety programs and uses data-driven insights to achieve continuous improvement in key performance indicators such as LTIR, RIR, motor vehicle incidents, near misses, and safety observations.

The Director also champions innovation in modern OHSE practices, including the application of advanced digital tools, data analytics, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and emerging technologies such as augmented reality to improve operational effectiveness and safety performance across Liberty.

Accountabilities

• Lead implementation of Liberty's 5yr Strategic EHS Plan within the assigned Region to develop an interdependent culture reflective of a commitment to an illness and injury-free workplace.
• Foster collaboration within the assigned Region for the development and implementation of all Liberty EHS policies and procedures and integration of local procedures and work practices, job-specific, modality-specific, etc. with all affected functions including but not limited to: Operations, Engineering, Customer Care, etc.
• Prioritize tactical and oversee strategic direction on all Environmental, Health and Safety policies and programs which bear critical importance to overall corporate objectives, operations, and profitability of the various divisions within the assigned Region.
• Implement and support incident investigation protocols to prevent recurrence of incidents and to ensure information on incidents is shared appropriately within the assigned Region and across all Regions as applicable.
• Support the updating of Liberty EHS standards, policies and procedures as needed.
• Arrange technical support and training as needed to ensure daily optimal function of EHS Systems (Gensuite, MSDSOnline, ISNetworld, etc.)
• Handle planned and unplanned regulatory events such as but not limited to: requests for information, inspections, complaints, and any correspondence from governing bodies (ie. OSHA, Departments of Labor, Public Utility Commissions, Department of Transportation, etc.) and industry organizations to which Liberty is a member company (ie. AGA, EEI, ACPA, etc.)
• Participate in decision-making with regional leadership to ensure compliance with occupational regulations, corporate standards, and industry best practices where applicable.
• Support Corporate and Regional EHS teams as a liaison for projects, updates and modifications to EHS Systems as needed.
• Support due diligence efforts to evaluate prospective new assets for enterprise risk and compliance with EHS-related regulations.
• Lead coordination, teamwork and integration between internal and external stakeholders for a seamless asset transition with EHS operations within the assigned Region.
• Coordinate EHS metrics for Regional operating divisions to ensure accurate and timely EHS Reporting across the assigned Region using Gensuite.
• Manage efforts to track, trend and develop action plans for leading and lagging environment, health and safety key performance indicators for the assigned Region.
• Oversee preparation of EHS performance metrics and injury/illness record-keeping for each location within the assigned Region (ie. OSHA logs as applicable).
• Continuously engage and influence leaders across the assigned Region to operationalize safety and fulfill the expectations of leading a safe workforce, maintaining compliance with applicable occupational health, safety and environmental regulations, and addressing concerns of hazards and risks inherent to their individual scope of responsibility.
• Prepare the annual operating budget for EHS for the assigned Region
• Actively participate and support Emergency and Storm Response Efforts for Mutual Aid, Unplanned Events, Avalanche/Wildfire Events, Crisis Management, etc.
• Oversee the triage and management of employee injury and illness incidents and claims in collaboration with employees, people leaders, HR, and worker's compensation partners.

Education and Experience

• University degree in a technical field or equivalent education/industry experience
• 10+ years field experience at an Electric Utility/Contractor would be an asset
• Minimum of 10 – 15 years senior management experience in the Environmental Health and Safety field in North America.
• Relevant experience in environmental compliance, preferably in the power generation and regulated utility space in Canada and US.
• Proven track record in creating significant positive culture shift in regards to safety in a business with multiple locations across the US and Canada.
• Solid understanding of Occupational Health and Safety laws and regulations as applicable to the utility industry in North America.
• Experience in remote management and supervision - demonstrated leadership qualities.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Superior team building and coaching abilities, both as a leader and a team member.
• Extensive travel required due to assets in Canada and the US.
• Preference will be given to candidates with knowledge of US EH & S regulatory regimes.

Compensation Data

Full base salary range $160,000.00- $230,000.00 per year *Liberty considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role and responsibilities, a candidate's work experience, education, training and skills, and geographic location.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. is a growing renewable energy and utility company with over $15 billion of assets across North America and internationally.

For more than 30 years, Algonquin has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to delivering clean energy and water solutions. Our rapid growth has led both our regulated utility services and renewable energy business groups into different geographies and commodities, but our purpose remains unchanged – Sustaining Energy and Water for Life.

Through our operating business (Liberty), we provide regulated electricity, water, and natural gas utility services to over 1 million customer connections, primarily in North America. And, our growing portfolio of clean, renewable wind, solar, hydro and thermal power generation facilities represent over 3 GW of renewable generation capacity in operation and under construction.

With our robust, diversified, and growing presence in communities across North America and internationally, we are continually demonstrating our “Think Global, Act Local” business model.

What we offer

Company funded Pension program

401k with Company match

Full insurance benefits (health/dental/vision/life)

Collaborative environment with a genuine flexible working policy

Share purchase/match plan

Defined Contribution savings plan

Top Talent Program

Volunteer paid days off

Employee Assistance Program

Achievement fund

We are focused on building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you are excited about this role and are not certain you meet the all the qualification requirements, we encourage you to apply to further investigate the opportunity.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value each person’s unique background, diversity, experiences, perspectives and talents. Full participation of all employees in a safe, healthy and respectful environment is key to individual and company success. We are committed to fully utilizing the abilities of all of our employees and expect each of our employees to honor this commitment in their daily responsibilities.