Area Safety Director Job Overview

Based in Sun Valley, CA | Regional Travel Required

At WM, safety is more than a priority — it’s a core value. We’re seeking an experienced and proactive Area Safety Director to lead and execute safety strategy across our Southern California Market Area — from Fresno County to San Diego County.

Your Impact:

As a trusted advisor and leader, you’ll develop and implement WM Safety Services programs, guide frontline operations, and ensure regulatory compliance across the region. You’ll regularly travel to WM sites, driving safety culture, accountability, and results.

What You Bring:

✔️ 10+ years of experience in Safety & Operations Management

✔️ 3+ years managing a team of 2+ safety professionals

✔️ Deep knowledge of California-specific safety standards (Cal/OSHA, DOT)

✔️ Proven ability to influence at all levels — from frontline to executive

✔️ Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills

✔️ A proactive mindset and passion for building a safety-first culture

Location: Based in Sun Valley, CA — supporting teams across Southern California.

Travel: Required to WM sites throughout the region.

Preferred Candidates: Located within the Greater Los Angeles Area

II. Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Essential Function

Corporate/Market Area Safety Strategy: Works closely with Corporate and Market Area Senior Leadership Teams to understand, support, and align safety strategy, goals, and objectives at both the Corporate and Market Area levels.
Drive Cam System Management: Oversees, manages, and consults with Market Area and Site leaders on Drive Cam System Management. This includes, analysis, reporting, coaching, interventions and may include ride along with site managers and or front-line drivers.
Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) Prevention Program Management: Identify, reduce, and ultimately eliminate tasks that present a high risk for serious injury and or fatality. Apply SIF logic to identify job tasks, activities, and situations that present a high SIF risk. Conduct Protection Validation Studies on each SIF situation to identify and close protection gaps.
Safety Communications: Works closely with EH&S team to ensure appropriate dissemination and implementation of EH&S policies, corporate safety communications, and initiatives. Assesses risks and monitors Market Area safety trends to create and deploy appropriate safety awareness messaging.
Incident Management: Determines severity and initiates formal investigation as necessary. Ensures all relevant incident data is captured in the WM EH&S portal. Creates and disseminates both qualitative and quantitative reports on Site and or Market Area incidents analyses. Works closely with Third Party Risk Administrator to ensure all required information is documented and transferred appropriately. Determines level of Root Cause Analysis to be performed. Works with People Team as required.
District Specific Safety Plan: Analyzes incident trends and works close with both Market Area and Site Leadership to ensure DSSP is in place and operational.
Hazardous Energy Control Program: Has oversight of the WM Hazardous Energy Control Program and is able to direct, train and coach others on the relevant topics to ensure HECP protocols are being followed.
Regulation (DOT, OSHA, etc.) Management: Has knowledge of Federal, State/Provincial DOT/OSHA regulations as they pertain to WM operational requirements. Works closely with internal and external Subject Matter Experts to ensure WM is in adherence to all required standards and regulations.
WM / Customer Facilities Compliance Management: Management capabilities to oversee site/safety management systems (e.g., fire protection/detection/alarms (burglar, CNG, etc.)). Can conduct reviews of new equipment installs. Ensures inclement weather / natural disaster preparedness plans are in place. Conducts Safety Audits / Inspections and assists with commercial insurance management issues.
Safety Recognition Program Management: Establish performance criteria/thresholds and feedback mechanism for effectiveness evaluation.
Employee Health Management: Works closely with Corporate Subject Matter Experts to ensure all sites are following the Medical Monitoring Program and are in adherence to the WM Industrial Hygiene Program Management.
Personal Protective Equipment Management: Is considered the SME on WM PPE policies and procurement for their Market Area. Works closely with corporate supply chain to ensure Market Area is supplied appropriately.
People Development (Safety specific): Must be able to constructively develop and coach others on overall risk management and safety topics. Provide developmental opportunities based upon incident investigations, DriveCam events, Employee Observations, SIF Observations, etc. to improve and advance their safety, skills, knowledge and performance.
Employee Observations: Can coach and train market area safety specialists, market area leaders (DMs, RMS, etc.) on safety trends from EH&S Portal, DriveCam, and SIF data to be use in conducting effective employee observations and coaching conversations.

III. Supervisory Responsibilities

The highest level of supervisory skills required in this job is the management of managerial employees. This includes:

Oversight of three employees on the Safety team.

IV. Qualification

A. Education and Experience

Education: Bachelor's Degree (accredited) or in lieu of degree, High School Diploma or GED (accredited) and four years of relevant work experience

Experience: 10+ years in Safety or Operations Management. 3 years managing a team of two of more individuals.

B. Other Knowledge, Skills or Abilities Required

Results Orientation: Translating strategic priorities into operational reality; aligning communication, accountabilities, resource capabilities, internal processes, and ongoing measurement systems to ensure that strategic priorities yield measurable and sustainable results.
Strategic Orientation: Establishing and committing to a long-term business direction based on an analysis of systemic information and consideration of resources, market drivers, organizational values, and emerging economic, technological, and regulatory conditions
Collaboration & Influencing: Creating and executing influence strategies that gain commitment to one’s ideas and persuade key stakeholders to take action that will advance shared interests and business goals.
Team Leadership: Driving high standards; tenaciously working to meet or exceed challenging goals; defining success by goal achievement and continuous improvement.
Building Organizational Capability: Establishing systems and processes to attract, develop, engage, and retain talented individuals; creating a work environment where people can realize their full potential, thus allowing the organization to meet current and future business challenges.
Change Leadership: Ensuring that the (internal or external) customer’s perspective is a driving force behind strategic priorities, business decisions, organizational processes, and individual activities; crafting and implementing service practices that meet customers’ and own organization’s needs; promoting and operationalizing customer service as a value.
Market & Customer Insights: Identifying the market area’s safety challenges and needs, and their probable causes; providing and provoking convincing insights that compel decision makers to discover or reconsider unrecognized problems and opportunities and the value of addressing them with new solutions to achieve higher safety performance.
Strong knowledge in Safety Rules & Regulations including DOT and OSHA, strong communication and leadership skills, and public speaking experience required.
Demonstrated Performance - Leadership potential including ability to influence up, down, and across the organization • Proven track record of consistently delivering safety results • Strong written and verbal communication skills • Proactive initiative to drive safety initiatives in the Area • Demonstrated ability of hiring and developing talented individuals both within Safety and/or throughout the Area

C. Certificates, Licenses, Registrations or Other Requirements

Certified Safety Professional (CSP) Preferred

Certified Industrial Hygienist Preferred

Professional Engineer (PE) License Preferred

Qualified Environmental Professional (QEP) Preferred

Registered Environmental Manager (REM) Preferred

Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM) Preferred

V. Work Environment
Listed below are key points regarding environmental demands and work environment of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job.

Required to use motor coordination with finger dexterity (such as keyboarding, machine operation, etc.) most of the work day;

Required to exert physical effort in handling objects less than 30 pounds rarely;

Required to be exposed to physical occupational risks (such as cuts, burns, exposure to toxic chemicals, etc.) occasionally;

Required to be exposed to physical environment which involves dirt, odors, noise, weather extremes or similar elements occasionally;

Normal setting for this job is in the field.

The expected base pay range for this hybrid position is $152,835 - $190,000. This range represents a good faith estimate for this position. The specific salary offered to a successful candidate may be influenced by a variety of factors including the candidate’s relevant experience, education, training, certifications, qualifications, and work location. In addition, this position is eligible for incentive pay.

This role is designated as Hybrid which will follow the WM Office Policy requiring in office work and an option to work remotely one day per week.

Benefits
At Waste Management, each eligible employee receives a competitive total compensation package including Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance and Short Term Disability. As well as a Stock Purchase Plan, Company match on 401K, and more! Our employees also receive Paid Vacation, Holidays, and Personal Days. Please note that benefits may vary by site.

If this sounds like the opportunity that you have been looking for, please click "Apply".

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Area Safety Director