Christensen Farms is one of the largest, family-owned pork producers in the United States, marketing approximately 3.5 million hogs per year. Headquartered in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, the company operates throughout the Midwest with facilities in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois and South Dakota. Christensen Farms owns four feed mills, manages 145,000 sows on 44 farms, and oversees more than 350 nurseries and grow-finish sites. The company employs nearly 1,000 people and maintains 1,500 contract partnerships.

The company is vertically integrated with a strong presence across the pork value chain – from farm to fork. Christensen Farms is the largest shareholder of Triumph Foods LLC, a producer-owned primary pork processing plant in St. Joseph, Missouri. In turn, Triumph Foods members own 50 percent of Daily’s Premium Meats, a specialty pork processor of bacon and other premium pork products. Triumph Foods also holds a 50 percent partnership in Seaboard Triumph Foods, LLC of Sioux City, Iowa, a primary pork processing plant.

Position Overview & Responsibilities

The Director of Safety is responsible for the strategic planning and operational performance of the company’s safety program. Based out of our Sleepy Eye, MN headquarters, the purpose of this position is to create, implement and enforce safety and health policies while driving change and striving to build on a continuously improving Culture of Safety. The Safety Director provides crucial support to Site Managers, Project Managers, and Field Staff to reduce the risk of incidents and foster an environment of employee engagement and open lines of communication across all layers of leadership.

The Director of Safety will be expected to collaborate with internal resources in all departments and across all company-owned sites. Ability to plan strategically, analyze opportunities, and proactively create safety programs is a key expectation of this position. Additional responsibilities include the development and continuous improvement of the safety planning process, as well as the ongoing monitoring of compliance with our safety programs.

Major Areas of Accountability

• Provide strategic leadership to guide the development and execution of Christensen Farms’ safety program.
• Provide leadership and direction in all areas of risk assessment, safety and loss prevention, regulatory compliance, security and emergency response plans across all functional areas of the business
• Lead projects of significant scope to include safety culture and management of change program initiatives Champion the company safety council and mentor operational safety committees.
• Develop leading safety metrics to identify actionable safety targets and incident root cause solutions.
• Leverage lessons learned and develop continuous improvement safety programs.
• Provide safety service, technical leadership solutions, programs, best practices and technical guidance to business management and operational functions to effectively and efficiently manage compliance assurance and safety management plan(s).
• Implement training programs to support and strengthen operational processes and employees.
• Manage audit programs, and ensure programs continuously evolve and are implemented effectively.
• Function in a safety leadership role for occupational and government agency enforcement actions, regulatory proposals, permitting issues and negotiations.
• Support safety at multiple sites through corporate presence and remotely.
• Monitor all incidents and report trends and projections required to set safety goals for each department
• Develop, implement and monitor compliance with organization’s risk management policies and procedures
• Prepare safety policies and procedures, and provide support in implementing these policies and procedures
• Develop and conducts employee training in order to promote workplace safety
• Ensure that federal, state and local safety laws, regulations, codes and rules are observed, and that OSHA recordkeeping and reporting requirements are met
• Conduct investigations of workplace accidents, injuries and job site safety and makes recommendations to correct any issues
• Provide expertise and training to management on issues related to safety
• Develop training materials that reduce employees’ exposure to hazardous materials and situations
• Set and monitor specific safety objectives for special projects
• Complete and maintain all required paperwork, records and documents.
• Timely and accurate completion of duties.
• Frequent travel for work, up to 70% of the time.

Education, Training, Experience Requirements

• Minimum formal education required: Bachelor’s Degree
• Minimum number of years of prior job experience required: Moderate, 5 – 10 years
• Demonstrated record of strong leadership and willing to drive change to enhance safety and environmental behaviors across the organization.
• Minimum of five years of EH&S experience in an industrial/manufacturing environment.
• Knowledge of OSHA, EPA, state and local regulations.
• Risk management and a Workers Compensation background.
• Must be familiar with legal compliance.
• Ability to work in a team environment and drive consensus and cooperation across diverse teams and groups within the organization.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Must be able to manage multiple tasks and priorities and adapt to changing situations.
• Strong analytical ability is required to gather and summarize data for reports, find solutions to various Safety issues and prioritize work.
• Proficient in word processing, spreadsheets, Outlook, PowerPoint. Compliance software experience preferred

Report to

• VP and CFO

Management Scope and level of responsibility:

Top-level Management: Department Heads/Directors (Non-SMT)

• Ensures that their business unit is aligned with meeting organizational strategy;
• Collaborates with other top-level management in order to ensure strong connection with the needs of other business units;
• Develops action plans to accomplish key targets;
• Accountable for departmental productivity and financial results
• Makes proposals to SMT.

Supervision of Others

Direct: Safety Manager, Safety Coordinator

Indirect: Influence all site leaders on safety environment and responsibilities