Safety Engineer

From a small family business to a multi-billion-dollar global company, Sonoco has been changing the face of products and packaging since 1899 — all while keeping the heart of “People Build Businesses” alive.

Our talented people are at the core of our growth, constantly reinventing the Sonoco wheel with brilliant solutions every year. Today we are a world leader in global packaging solutions with diversified operations in over 34 countries. We're extremely proud of our portfolio of brands, our achievements in sustainability and industrialization and the groundbreaking work accomplished by our people. 

The safety and health of employees takes precedence over all duties of this job.  This position is responsible to the Plant Manager for the entire safety program for the Richmond Paper Mill.  Specific duties include, but are not limited to, the following:

What you will be doing:

LEADERSHIP:

• Committed to achieving and maintaining an incident free workplace.

• Member of the management team.

• Pillar Leader for the Safety Pillars

• Developing employee safety awareness and leadership skills to drive safety activities to the floor level

• Guide pillar activities with an eye towards growing the safety culture throughout the facility

• Supervise hourly employee personnel assigned permanently or temporarily to the Safety Department

• Lead and implement all Safety Programs and facilitate related activities.

• Understand and communicate all applicable safety and environmental developments and initiatives.

• Work with Paper Mill’s supervision to ensure the safety of all individuals in the facility.

• Assist mill supervision with all requirements and responsibilities of the Core Safety Program.

Training / Compliance:

• Work with the plant leadership team to ensure all safety training requirements are completed, updated, and documented.

• Ensure compliance with all Plant, Division and Corporate safety requirements.

• Ensure all new employees receive and review required safety training and documentation prior to starting work.

• Assist supervision with all safety-related issues.

• Maintain the Richmond Mill training library

Safety Program Innovations

• Ability to develop innovations to improve overall safety in the mill

Maintenance and Engineering:

• Administer- assist with the contractor safety program (ISN) with the maintenance department and ensures proper procedures are followed.

Meetings:

• Distribute safety materials including weekly statistics, safety meeting minutes, steering committee minutes, safety inspections, audit results and all other safety information.

• Facilitate Safety Sub-teams to make sure they are moving forward with their objectives. 

• Coordinate safety meeting schedules, agendas, materials and activities for safety meetings.

• Attend division/corporate safety meetings/conferences (in person or teleconference as required).

(Note:  Overnight travel will occasionally be required).

Documentation:

• Maintain and post all emergency evacuation routes.

• Ensure all required manuals such as MSDS, HECP, JSA, SSP’s, Confined Space Entry, new employee training and safety rules manuals are complete, up to date and available to all employees.

• Develop, monitor and track progress of all aspects of the Safety Action Plan.

• Gather and analyze all pertinent safety data in order to improve safety performance.

• Review all Division/Corporate Safety Incidents, TIRs, Near Misses, First Aids, etc. with the mill and develop preventative actions when necessary.

• Ensure required warning signs, directional signs, informative signs, etc. are displayed in the mill areas.

• Track and analyze audits submitted and present results to management team and Safety Committee.

• Conduct safety incident investigations: determine corrective action and record all safety incidents and action items into the safety database.

• Facilitate all daily / monthly safety audits and compile all audit results and track efficiencies.

Equipment:

• Ensure all safety equipment audits are performed and all equipment is in the proper location and in good condition.

• Work with maintenance department to ensure emergency lighting, exit signs, fire extinguishers, hoses, first aid materials, slings and chains, ladders, eyewash and shower stations are inspected regularly and maintained to standards.

• Work with maintenance to maintain the Confined Space entry program, including updates to diagrams, calibration of equipment, training all personnel and associated documentation.

Governmental Agencies / Environmental:

• Ensure compliance with all Governmental Agencies including OSHA.

• Ensure compliance with all local, state, federal, division and corporate regulations and requirements.

Education:

• 2 or 4 year degree preferred, in Safety, Environmental Engineering or similar

Performs similar, related duties as assigned.

The above description only includes the principal functions and duties that are considered material to the proper identification and classification of the job and is not a limitation of / or restriction of duties or work requirements that may be inherent in the job.  The information listed is not to be interpreted to include all the details required in the performance of this position.

Compensation:

The annual base salary range for this role is from $79,800.00 - $95,760.00

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we strictly prohibit and do not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants or any other covered persons because of race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status, gender identity or expression, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any legally protected characteristic.