Director of Safety

Job Summary

The Director of Safety leads the strategy, development, and performance of Gaylor’s safety management program and is responsible for building a scalable safety organization capable of supporting a diverse portfolio of service work, small and mid-sized projects, and complex mega projects.

The Director of Safety is an organizational builder, talent developer, culture leader, and trusted advisor who creates the systems, leadership capability, and operational partnerships necessary for safe, reliable execution at scale.

The Director of Safety leads and develops Gaylor's safety professionals and works across operations to help executives, managers, project teams, and field leaders understand and fulfill their safety responsibilities. The position reports to the Director of Risk Management and partners closely with executive leadership, Operations, and key corporate personnel.

Duties/Responsibilities

Enterprise Strategy and Leadership

• Develop and execute a multi-year enterprise safety strategy aligned with Gaylor Electric’s growth, business plan, operating model, and risk priorities.
• Design and continually improve a scalable safety organization, including leadership structure, staffing models, field deployment, succession planning, and support for projects of varying size and complexity.
• Serve as the senior safety advisor to the Director of Risk Management, executive leadership, and operational leaders.
• Translate strategy into clear priorities, operating rhythms, accountability, and measurable outcomes.
• Bring an enterprise perspective to emerging risks, customer expectations, market expansion, and major project pursuits.
  
  

People and Leadership Development

• Recruit, develop, coach, and retain high-performing safety leaders and professionals.
• Establish clear competencies, role expectations, career paths, development plans, and succession pipelines within the Safety Department.
• Build leadership capability throughout the company by helping operational leaders understand how to lead safety, create accountability, and learn from work.
• Create a culture within the Safety Department that values service, credibility, curiosity, collaboration, disciplined execution, and continuous improvement.
• Assess organizational capability and place the right leadership and resources where the company’s risk profile requires them.
  
  

Operational Partnership and Project Support

• Partner with Operations to integrate safety into estimating, preconstruction, planning, procurement, scheduling, startup, execution, commissioning, energization, and closeout.
• Establish differentiated service and staffing models for service and small work, mid-sized projects, and mega projects.
• Provide executive oversight and support for high-risk, high-profile, or strategically important projects.
• Ensure safety professionals operate as effective coaches and business partners while maintaining the independence to identify, elevate, and address material risk.
• Strengthen field leadership ownership of safe execution rather than positioning safety as the sole responsibility of the Safety Department.
  
  

Culture, Learning, and Continuous Improvement

• Advance practical learning across the enterprise.
• Champion learning teams, effective incident reviews, high-potential event learning, and corrective actions that improve systems and conditions of work.
• Promote an environment where employees raise concerns, use Stop Work Responsibility, and participate in improving how work is planned and performed.
• Ensure lessons learned are communicated, understood, and translated into sustainable changes across projects and business units.
• Strengthen employee engagement in Total Human Health and Safety at every level of the organization.
  
  

Systems, Assurance, and Performance

• Establish a coherent enterprise safety management system with clear standards, processes, governance, and accountability.
• Develop meaningful leading and lagging indicators, executive dashboards, and review processes that support timely decisions and continuous improvement.
• Oversee the quality and consistency of project safety planning, field assurance, audits, investigations, corrective actions, and follow-through.
• Evaluate and implement technology that improves risk visibility, learning, efficiency, and field execution.
• Ensure the Gaylor Certified Values Inspector program and other critical risk controls are effectively governed and consistently instituted on applicable projects.
  
  

Regulatory, Customer, and Industry Leadership

• Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local safety and occupational health requirements.
• Provide executive leadership for significant regulatory matters, serious incidents, customer concerns, and other elevated safety issues.
• Build productive relationships with customers, insurance partners, regulators, peer contractors, and industry organizations.
• Represent Gaylor Electric as a credible safety leader and contribute to external benchmarking and industry improvement.
• Support company participation in ABC STEP, AQC, and other appropriate certification and recognition programs.
  
  

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Must be able to work scheduled hours as well as overtime, as required, on short notice.
• Must be able to remain calm in times of heightened emotional situations.
• Must work well with others as a member of a team to complete tasks.
  
  

Physical Requirements

• Must be able to wear personnel protective equipment (i.e., hard hat, safety glasses, gloves, high visibility vest, safety harness, etc.) when required.
• Repetitive use of arms, hands, and fingers.
• Possess good vision/hearing (normal or corrected).
• Ability to work while sitting or standing for long periods.
• Must be able to lift up to 20 pounds at times
  
  

EDUCATION

Bachelor’s degree in safety, occupational health, engineering, construction management, business, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience. Professional credentials such as CSP, CHST, CIH, PE, OSHA 500, or other relevant industry certifications preferred.

Experience

• Significant progressive leadership experience in construction safety, including responsibility for geographically dispersed teams and complex operations.
• Demonstrated success building an organization, developing leaders, improving systems, and leading change.
• 15 years experience supporting large commercial, industrial, mission-critical, infrastructure, manufacturing, healthcare, or similarly complex construction environments.
  
  

Note: The above description provides the general details considered necessary to portray the principle functions of the position and shall not be construed as a fully detailed description of all the work required that might be inherent in the position.