Overview
Do you want to join a team that's changing the world? Do you have a strong background as a Sr. Director of EHS? Then we're looking for you! Check out the job description and apply now! Put your skills to meaningful use, gain unique experience, and work with world-class team members with diverse backgrounds and expertise who share the same vision. Join the PECNA team today!
Responsibilities
Sr. Director of EHS
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Meet the Recruiter: Jenny Willhoit
Job Summary
The Senior Director, Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) provides enterprise leadership, governance, and oversight for PECNA's environmental, occupational health, people safety, and production/machine safety programs. This leader sets the North American EHS strategy, ensures regulatory and corporate compliance, strengthens enterprise risk management, and builds a proactive safety culture across PECNA's growing manufacturing operations. The role leads a centralized EHS leadership team, partners closely with site and functional leaders, and serves as the primary EHS liaison with Japan-based stakeholders to align priorities, standards, reporting, and continuous improvement.
This position oversees our Sparks, NV, and De Soto, KS, sites and may be based at either location.
Essential Duties
- Set and execute PECNA's enterprise EHS strategy, vision, governance framework, and annual operating priorities across all North American operations.
- Serve as the principal advisor to executive and site leadership on EHS risk, regulatory obligations, emerging issues, and organizational performance; ensure EHS considerations are integrated into business, operational, capital, and expansion decisions.
- Lead and develop the centralized EHS organization spanning Environmental Compliance & Sustainability, People Safety, and Production/Machine Safety; clarify accountability, build capability, and evolve the organization as business needs and risk profiles change.
- Establish consistent PECNA standards, policies, management systems, and operating rhythms that translate enterprise expectations into effective site-level execution.
- Ensure compliance with applicable environmental, occupational health, and safety regulations, permits, corporate requirements, and global standards; maintain effective systems for compliance monitoring and assurance.
- Provide enterprise oversight for hazard identification, risk assessment, mitigation, incident management, corrective and preventive actions, emergency management, business continuity, and crisis response.
- Lead executive review of significant safety incidents, environmental events, regulatory matters, and systemic risks; ensure root causes are addressed and lessons learned are shared across sites.
- Provide strategic oversight for EPC and construction safety, contractor safety expectations, and construction-phase risk controls for current and future capital projects across PECNA sites.
- Serve as PECNA's primary EHS liaison with Japan headquarters and other global stakeholders, ensuring alignment on priorities, reporting requirements, global standards, and escalation protocols.
- Establish enterprise EHS metrics, dashboards, leading indicators, and review mechanisms that provide clear visibility to risk, compliance, and performance trends and drive accountability for results.
- Sponsor audits, assessments, benchmarking, and continuous improvement initiatives that reduce risk, improve compliance, strengthen operational effectiveness, and enable scalable growth.
- Partner with Operations, Engineering, Human Resources, Legal, Facilities, and other functions to embed EHS into daily management systems and operational excellence practices.
- Champion a proactive, prevention-focused safety and environmental culture in which leaders and employees understand, own, and act on their EHS responsibilities.
- Build leadership capability and succession depth within EHS while promoting cross-site learning, best-practice sharing, and recognition of performance improvements.
Key Skills & Capabilities
- Enterprise EHS strategy, governance, and risk management in complex manufacturing environments
- Expert knowledge of environmental, occupational health, industrial hygiene, machine safety, and emergency response requirements and management systems
- Strong understanding of regulatory compliance, permitting, audit, investigation, corrective action, and assurance processes
- Executive-level judgment with the ability to identify, prioritize, escalate, and mitigate material operational and compliance risks
- Ability to translate global and corporate standards into practical, consistent site-level operating requirements
- Data-driven leadership; able to use metrics, leading indicators, analytics, and trend analysis to improve EHS outcomes
- Strong cross-functional influence and stakeholder management across Operations, Engineering, HR, Legal, Facilities, EPC, and global teams
- Demonstrated capability leading organizational change, centralization, and continuous improvement in a fast-paced, high-growth environment
- Executive communication skills with the ability to communicate complex risks clearly and drive accountability at all levels
- Global collaboration and cultural agility, including effective partnership with Japan-based leadership and stakeholders
- Talent development, succession planning, and leadership capability building
- High standards of integrity, ownership, operational discipline, and continuous improvement
Supervisory Responsibilities
- Leads a centralized, multi-disciplinary EHS leadership team and is accountable for organization design, talent development, succession planning, and performance across the EHS function.
Travel Requirement
- Travel between PECNA sites and other company locations as required to support operations, leadership reviews, audits, and strategic priorities
- Up to 40% travel
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Requirements
- To ensure the health and safety in the workplace and for the protection of our employees, wearing PPE is a possibility and may include equipment such as a full Tyvek suit, safety shoes, gloves, safety glasses, face mask, bump cap, and a full hazmat suit that includes a respirator.
The foregoing description is not intended and should not be construed to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills and efforts or work conditions associated with the job. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the general nature and level of the job.
Qualifications
Requirements - Required and/or Preferred
Essential Education, Certifications, And Licenses
- Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science, Occupational Health & Safety, Engineering, Industrial Hygiene, Safety Management, or a related field
- 15+ years of progressive EHS experience within complex manufacturing or industrial operations
- 10+ years of leadership experience with responsibility for multiple EHS disciplines, teams, and/or sites
- Demonstrated knowledge of environmental compliance, occupational health and safety, enterprise risk management, machine safety, industrial hygiene, and emergency response
- Demonstrated ability to lead through influence across executive, site, functional, and global stakeholder groups
Preferred Education, Certifications, And Licenses
- Master's degree in a related discipline or MBA
- 15+ years of progressive EHS leadership experience in manufacturing, industrial, automotive, battery, energy, or a related environment, including 10+ years leading multiple EHS disciplines and teams
- Demonstrated success building, centralizing, or transforming enterprise-level EHS programs across complex, multi-site operations
- Experience partnering with global organizations and international stakeholders, including Japan-based leadership
- Proven track record strengthening safety culture, regulatory compliance, operational discipline, and continuous improvement
- Experience providing strategic oversight of EPC/construction safety, contractor safety management, and safety integration for major capital projects
- Professional EHS certification such as CSP, CIH, CHMM, or equivalent preferred
Physical Demands
Physical Activities: Percentage of time (equaling 100%) during the normal workday the employee is required to:
- Sit: 10%
- Walk: 50%
- Stand: 40%
Required Lifting and Carrying: Rare (<1%), Occasional (1-33%), Frequent (34-66%), Continuous (67-100%)
For This Position, The Required Frequency Is
- Up to 10 lbs.: Continuous
- Up to 20 lbs.: Frequent
- Up to 35 lbs.: Frequent
- Team-lift only (over 35 lbs.): Occasional
Benefits & Perks - What's In It For You
Panasonic Energy prioritizes total well-being and offers comprehensive benefits options to support physical, emotional, financial, social, and environmental health:
- Health Benefits – Offering medical, dental, vision, prescription plans, plus Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Account options.
- Voluntary Benefits – Life, accident, critical illness, disability, legal, identity theft, and pet insurance.
- Panasonic Retirement Savings & Investment Plan (PRSIP) – 401(k) plan with company matching contributions and immediate vesting.
- Paid Time-Off Benefits – Vacation, holidays, personal days, sick leave, volunteer, and parental & caregiver leave.
- Educational Assistance – Tuition reimbursement for job-related courses after six months of service.
- Health Management and Wellbeing Programs –Lifestyle Spending Account, EAP, virtual health management, chronic condition, neurodiversity, tobacco cessation, substance abuse support, and life stage and fertility resources. Available to eligible employees starting the first day of the month following your start date. Eligibility for each benefit may vary based on employment status, location, and length of service.
- Employee Recognition Program - High5 employee recognition and awards platform, quarterly and annual employee recognition
- Annual Bonus Program - Opportunity for an annual performance-based bonus.
- On-site Food Options: Several on-site cafes, plentiful snack and beverage kitchens, revolving on-site vendor visits and employee events
- Free Shuttle: Rides to and from work!
Where You'll Be
For our onsite roles, Panasonic Energy is committed to fostering an ideal working environment that goes beyond the conventional. We understand the significance of moments that matter in your onsite experience, and we prioritize creating a workspace that not only promotes productivity but also ensures a fulfilling and positive work atmosphere. Join us at Panasonic Energy, where your onsite presence is valued, and we strive to make each moment count in your professional journey.
Who We Are
Meet Panasonic Energy! At Panasonic Energy, you'll do work that matters as we are dedicated to transforming the world through the acceleration of sustainable energy. By producing safe, high-quality lithium-ion batteries, you become part of a team that plays a crucial role in creating technologies that move us.
Our journey began in 2017, and now, as the world's largest lithium-ion battery factory, we are expanding operations to De Soto, Kansas, providing you with the opportunity to experience career growth in more ways than one.
As an innovative thinker, you'll thrive here, as we continually push the boundaries of lithium-ion battery technology and production capabilities to enhance efficiency and performance in EVs.
Being part of Panasonic Energy means positively contributing to society, aligning with our commitment to building a better world through sustainable energy solutions.
We care about what you care about, fostering an environment where your contributions make a meaningful impact on the future of energy and transportation. Join us and be part of a team that values your work, encourages innovation, and actively contributes to a positive societal impact.
In addition to an environment that is as innovative as our products, we offer competitive salaries and benefits.
We Take Opportunity Seriously
At Panasonic Energy, we are committed to a workplace that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. Fairness and Honesty have been part of our core values for more than 100 years and we are proud of our diverse culture as an equal opportunity employer.
We understand that your career search may look different than others and embrace the professional, personal, educational, and volunteer opportunities through which people gain experience. If you are actively looking or starting to explore new opportunities, submit your application!
Supplemental Information
Pre-employment drug testing is required.
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law. All qualified individuals are required to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation.
Due to the high volume of responses, we will only be able to respond to candidates of interest. All candidates must have valid authorization to work in the U.S. without restriction.
Thank you for your interest in Panasonic Energy Corporation of North America.
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