Senior Specialist Safety & Environment

Reporting to the Associate Director, Safety & Environment, the Senior Specialist provides technical and program leadership for High Risk Work and Machinery Safety across West Point, North Wales, and Springhouse Innovation Park, supporting Vaccines Manufacturing, Research & Development, and site support functions. The role serves as a trusted subject matter expert and partners with operations, engineering, maintenance and other various organizations to prevent serious injuries and operational events. This individual translates regulatory, consensus-standard, and company requirements into practical risk-based solutions; strengthens critical controls in design and field execution; and uses program data, event learning, and field insights to drive sustainable improvement aligned with site priorities and business needs.

• →Lead the West Point HRW Steering Committee and HRW Councils, aligning all site organizations to one site program, following GSE procedures and training.
• →Serve as the site subject matter expert and procedure owner for high-risk work, including hazardous energy control, line breaking, confined space entry, work at height, hot work, and other critical-risk activities.
• →Develop and deliver technical training and qualification support for employees, contractors, and program owners responsible for high-risk work and machinery safety.
• →Manage HRW contractor, partnering to deploy the HRW Auditing Tool and drive timely, effective improvement to permit compliance.
• →Partner with Facilities, Engineering, Operations, and project teams on P&ID reviews, commissioning, and equipment handover.
• →Provide technical leadership for machinery safety, including machine risk assessments, safeguarding controls, and verification of risk-reduction measures across the equipment lifecycle.
• →Conduct and facilitate field risk assessments, machinery safety reviews, pre-startup reviews, and critical-control verifications; document gaps, establish risk-based priorities, and drive actions to timely closure.
• →Lead or support investigations of high-potential events, near misses, and machinery-related incidents; identify systemic causes, evaluate control failures, and ensure corrective and preventive actions are effective and sustained.
• →Support regulatory inspections, internal audits, management reviews, and enterprise or divisional initiatives related to high-risk work and machinery safety.

• Bachelor’s degree in Occupational Safety, Engineering, or a related technical field.

• At least 5 years of safety program or technical safety experience in a manufacturing, laboratory, engineering, or similarly complex environment.
• Strong knowledge of high-risk work controls, including hazardous energy control and activities such as line breaking, confined space entry, work at height, excavation, lifting and rigging, or hot work.
• Working knowledge of machinery risk assessment, safeguarding, safety-related controls, interlocks, emergency stops, and control verification.
• Ability to apply OSHA, consensus, and company standards to field work, work planning, equipment design, and capital projects.
• Strong investigation, risk assessment, problem-solving, project management, and corrective-action skills.
• Ability to influence cross-functional teams and communicate technical requirements clearly, using Microsoft Office and relevant digital systems.

• Experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical, or other highly regulated manufacturing or research environments.
• Experience applying recognized machinery safety standards and methodologies, such as ANSI, NFPA , ISO, or equivalent risk-based frameworks.
• Professional certification or relevant credential such as CSP, CHST, CMSE, CFSE, or an equivalent qualification.

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Where required by law, the compensation range for this role is provided below.

The salary range for the primary location of this role is:

This range reflects the Company's reasonable expectation of the base salary applicable to this role at the time of posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs. The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.