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Job Title: Director of Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS)
Location: Tyler, Texas (Corporate Headquarters)
Department: Safety
Reports To: Head of HR & Safety
Direct Reports: Plant Safety Managers (Tyler, TX; Gainesville, GA; Valley, AL) and any future locations
Travel: Up to 50%, including overnight travel to manufacturing facilities
Normal Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Work Schedule Requirements: Working irregular hours, including evenings, weekends, and off-shifts when necessary, is expected. This role is also expected to be available for incident response outside of normal business hours.
Overview of Company
Soules Foods is a thriving family-owned food company that has made a positive difference for its customers and consumers for nearly 50 years. Our purpose and promise of Great Food, Made Simple® drives us. Based in Tyler, Texas, the company is a leading national producer of ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook chicken and beef products and is the number one producer of chicken and beef fajitas in the USA. We proudly serve a broad portfolio of great-tasting, high-quality products sold throughout the US via retail, food service distributors, and restaurants. Our wide array of national customers includes prominent organizations such as Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club, Sysco, and HEB. The company was established in 1975 by John Soules Sr., and the business is now in the second generation of family leadership. The organization has expanded dramatically over the past decade, and with its continued growth, it now has annual sales of approximately $1 billion. The company employs over 2,000 individuals and has three manufacturing facilities in Gainesville, Georgia; Valley, Alabama; and its headquarters in Tyler, Texas.
Job Summary
The Director of EHS owns the enterprise environmental, health, and safety strategy for John Soules Foods and is accountable for the safety performance of every facility (Tyler, TX; Gainesville, GA; Valley, AL, plus any future sites). This role sets the standard that Plant Safety Managers are expected to execute and holds both the safety organization and operating leadership accountable for meeting it.
This position is not advisory or reactive. The Director of EHS is expected to lead from the production floor as often as from the office, personally verify conditions at each plant, and challenge unsafe behaviors, shortcuts, or decisions regardless of role, tenure, or title - including at the plant leadership and senior leadership level. Where a Plant Safety Manager is unable to resolve a risk locally, this role is the escalation point and is accountable for driving it to closure.
Success is measured not only by enterprise KPIs, but also by the consistency of safety execution across all sites, the urgency and ownership demonstrated, the strength of the safety talent bench, and the degree to which EHS is embedded in operations, capital planning, training, and leadership decision-making.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications (Required)
• Bachelor's degree in Safety, Environmental Health, Safety Engineering, Industrial Hygiene, or a related field.
• Minimum of ten (10) years of progressive occupational health and safety experience in an industrial or manufacturing environment.
• Minimum of five (5) years of leadership experience managing safety professionals, including hiring, performance management, and development.
• Demonstrated experience with multi-site or enterprise-level EHS accountability.
• Working knowledge of environmental compliance requirements (EPA and state agencies), including air, wastewater, stormwater, and hazardous waste programs.
• Proven record of building safety programs and improving safety culture, not simply maintaining compliance.
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence, challenge, and hold others accountable at all levels of the organization, including peers and senior leaders.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to present to senior leadership and ownership.
• Ability to lead training and engage diverse audiences across office and production populations.
• Strong organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to anticipate risk, assess conditions, and drive corrective action to verified closure.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Teams, and related EHS systems.
Preferred Qualifications
• Prior experience in food processing, protein, or other USDA/FDA-regulated manufacturing.
• Certified Safety Professional (CSP) strongly preferred; Associate Safety Professional (ASP) with active pursuit of CSP considered.
• Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), CHMM, or equivalent environmental credential.
• OSHA Authorized Trainer (General Industry) preferred or ability to obtain.
• Experience with Process Safety Management (PSM) and EPA Risk Management Program (RMP), particularly anhydrous ammonia refrigeration.
• Experience managing workers' compensation programs across multiple states.
• Lean or Continuous Improvement certification with safety application.
• Bilingual in other languages is a plus.
Equivalent combinations of education, experience, and demonstrated leadership may be considered.
Driving Requirements: A valid driver's license with an acceptable driving record.
Key Responsibilities
NOTE: This description is not intended to be all-inclusive. An employee may perform other related duties to meet the organization's ongoing needs; these duties are considered marginal.
Essential Functions of the Role
This position requires:
• Regular, recurring presence on the production floor at every facility - not solely through reports or plant visits by others
• Decisive action in response to safety risks, including the authority to stop work
• Willingness to challenge peers, plant leadership, and senior leaders
• Ability to influence behavior across all levels and all locations of the organization
• Ownership of enterprise EHS results, including results at sites where the local safety leader is developing
Enterprise Safety Leadership & Accountability
• Set, publish, and enforce a single enterprise EHS standard so that expectations, programs, and consequences are consistent across all facilities.
• Serve as a visible, assertive safety leader across all plants, production areas, shifts, and departments.
• Drive accountability for safety expectations across employees, supervisors, managers, plant leadership, and corporate peers.
• Actively intervene and immediately escalate unsafe behaviors, near misses, and hazardous conditions observed at any location.
• Maintain continuous awareness of safety conditions and risks enterprise-wide; failure to identify or act on safety risks is considered a failure of the role.
• Ensure no shortcut, production pressure, or operational urgency compromises safety standards at any site.
• Serve as the final internal escalation point for safety risks that cannot be resolved at the plant level, and carry unresolved issues to senior leadership until closure is achieved.
Culture, Influence & Partnership
• Influence and improve enterprise safety culture through visible leadership, coaching, and challenge.
• Partner closely with Operations, Maintenance, Human Resources, Quality, Engineering, and plant and corporate leadership to ensure safety expectations are consistently enforced.
• Escalate unresolved safety risks, repeat violations, or leadership non-compliance through HR and senior leadership until resolution is achieved.
• Ensure safety expectations are reinforced through onboarding, refresher training, operational routines, and leadership behaviors at every location.
• Address cultural gaps identified through surveys, near-miss trends, observations, audits, and employee feedback, and drive site-specific action plans in response.
• Represent EHS in senior leadership forums, providing a candid assessment of enterprise risk rather than a favorable one.
Program Development, Compliance & Environmental Stewardship
• Develop, implement, and sustain enterprise safety and environmental programs in compliance with OSHA, EPA, DOT, and applicable federal, state, and local statutes and regulations.
• Establish departmental policies, practices, and procedures that have a significant impact on the organization, and standardize them across facilities.
• Establish guidelines governing the collection and maintenance of employee training records, health and safety manuals or handbooks, incident reports, and other related documentation.
• Lead occupational health, industrial hygiene, and environmental compliance programs, including air, wastewater, stormwater, hazardous waste, and applicable permitting and reporting obligations.
• Oversee Process Safety Management and EPA Risk Management Program requirements where applicable, including ammonia refrigeration systems.
• Own the enterprise contractor safety program and ensure consistent qualification, orientation, and oversight at every site.
• Audit facilities and processes to identify weaknesses or risks, and proactively develop, implement, and verify corrective actions.
• Lead or direct internal audits, regulatory inspections, and third-party assessments; ensure corrective actions are implemented, verified, and sustained rather than closed on paper.
• Serve as the primary company contact for regulatory agencies, insurers, and outside counsel on EHS matters, in coordination with the Head of HR & Safety.
• Ensure EHS requirements are built into capital projects, new equipment, facility expansions, and new site start-ups before commissioning.
Incident Management, Risk & Workers' Compensation
• Oversee incident investigations, root cause analyses, and corrective action planning enterprise-wide; personally lead investigations for serious injuries, fatalities, and high-potential events.
• Monitor and review accident investigation reports across all sites and ensure appropriate, timely follow-up.
• Monitor trends in near misses, incidents, and observations across the enterprise to reduce risk proactively and identify systemic issues that cross facilities.
• Review workers' compensation costs, monitor claims, and participate in claims reviews, mediations, and hearings as appropriate.
• Partner with HR and carriers on return-to-work, case management, and claim closure strategies.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives that reduce safety risk, environmental impact, and total cost of risk.
• Ensure emergency preparedness, crisis response, and business continuity plans are current and exercised at each facility.
Training, Talent & Team Leadership
• Lead and direct the work of the safety organization, with responsibility for personnel actions including hiring, performance management, development, and termination.
• Set clear performance expectations for Plant Safety Managers and hold them accountable to the standards described in the Plant Safety Manager job description.
• Build the safety talent bench through structured development, succession planning, and coaching; ensure each site has capable safety leadership.
• Ensure consistent, effective safety training for employees, supervisors, and managers across all facilities, including a standardized enterprise training matrix.
• Actively participate in and lead training sessions to reinforce safety expectations.
• Provide direct support and, where necessary, direct intervention at sites that are underperforming.
Strategy, Planning & Resources
• Contribute to strategic planning, direction, and goal setting for the department in collaboration with senior management.
• Establish enterprise EHS goals, leading and lagging indicators, and reporting cadence; deliver regular performance reporting to senior leadership.
• Develop and manage the EHS budget and recommend capital investment needed to eliminate or control hazards.
• Evaluate, select, and administer EHS systems, technology, and outside resources used across the enterprise.
• Monitor emerging regulations, industry practices, and customer or third-party audit requirements, and adjust enterprise programs ahead of enforcement.
Performance Measurement
Performance is evaluated on both outcomes and behaviors, including but not limited to:
• Enterprise leading and lagging safety KPIs, including performance at every site
• Audit and assessment results, including pass/fail evaluations and regulatory findings
• Consistency of program execution and standards across all facilities
• Effectiveness of escalation, follow-through, and issue resolution
• Demonstrated leadership presence, urgency, and ownership
• Safety culture indicators, survey feedback, and observed behaviors
• Workers' compensation and total cost of risk trends
• Development, performance, and retention of the safety team
Other
• Project work and other duties as assigned.
Work Environment
This job is carried out in a professional office setting and involves using standard office equipment, such as laptops, desk phones, and smartphones. Regular visits to production facilities are required. During those visits, the employee is occasionally exposed to cold and/or humid conditions. The employee occasionally works near moving mechanical parts. The employee is occasionally exposed to fumes or airborne particles, cold temperatures, and risks of electrical shock and vibration. The noise level in the work environment is moderate.
Physical Demands
Employees must be able to stand, walk, or sit; use their hands for tasks; reach with their arms; and communicate verbally. Occasional lifting or moving of objects is necessary, along with close, distance, color vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
Benefits
The applicant who fills this position will be eligible for the following:
• Incentive Pay: This position is eligible for the Company's bonus plan, with amounts varying based on program terms.
• Vacation / Sick days
• Medical, Dental, Vision Benefits
• Telemedicine
• Onsite Clinic - Tyler and Valley
• 401