Specialist, EHS Staff

Specialist, EHS Staff

Location: North Chicago, IL, USA
Work Arrangement: onsite

Job Type: Full-time
Compensation: USD $65,500–$125,500 annually

Company Description

AbbVie’s mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people’s lives across several key therapeutic areas, including immunology, oncology, and neuroscience, as well as products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information, please visit www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube.

Job Description

Under the direction of the EHS Manager, the Specialist, EHS Staff provides guidance and support to employees, contractors, Engineering, Maintenance, Manufacturing, R&D, and other site functions on environmental, health, and safety matters. This role uses communication, training, consultation, and technical expertise to implement EHS programs, strengthen the site safety culture, and ensure compliance with applicable regulations, corporate standards, and AbbVie’s EHS Management System.

The Specialist will support both day-to-day operations and long-term EHS initiatives across a broad risk profile, including manufacturing operations, engineering and maintenance activities, facility expansions, new product introductions, and site improvement projects. This position offers significant opportunities to build experience across a wide range of EHS disciplines while working closely with site leadership, Global EHS, and other global support teams.

Responsibilities

1. Risk Assessment and Hazard Identification
   Conduct and support risk assessments, identify workplace hazards, and recommend effective controls using hierarchy-of-controls principles. Serve as a subject matter resource for EHS risk-management activities and develop and drive task-based risk assessment plans by area.
2. Manufacturing and High-Risk Work Safety Support
   Provide day-to-day EHS support to Engineering, Maintenance, Manufacturing, and Operations teams. Develop technical expertise and serve as a subject matter resource for high-risk work programs, including:
   • Lockout/Tagout/Tryout (LOTO)
   • Confined space safety
   • Working at height and fall protection
   • Hot work
   • Line breaking
   • Machine safety and guarding
   • Electrical safety
   • Overhead hoists and lifting operations
   • Work permits and other critical-risk activities
   • Help strengthen and sustain current site programs and technical standards in these areas.
3. EHS Program Development and Implementation
   Assist in the development, implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of EHS programs, policies, procedures, standards, hazard assessments, and training materials for manufacturing and R&D operations. Programs may include:
   • Hazard identification and risk assessment
   • High-hazard work controls
   • Ergonomic job safety analysis
   • Contractor and construction EHS management
   • Industrial hygiene
   • Chemical safety and hazard communication
   • Emergency preparedness and response
   • Powered industrial truck safety
   • Environmental compliance and operational controls
4. Incident Investigation and Corrective Actions
   Participate in injury, illness, near-miss, and high-potential incident investigations. Coach employees and leaders in the use of investigation and problem-solving tools to identify immediate, contributing, and root causes. Encourage open-minded thinking and constructive challenge to ensure investigations consider all relevant aspects of causation. Track corrective actions through completion and verify their effectiveness.
5. Training, Qualification, and Employee Engagement
   Develop and deliver EHS training and awareness programs for employees, contractors, and leaders. Support onboarding, qualification, and competency requirements. Promote a positive safety culture through employee observations, hazard reporting, safety conversations, engagement activities, and participation initiatives. Support implementation of the Site Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) program and LEAD by DuPont.
6. Audits, Inspections, and Continuous Improvement
   Conduct EHS inspections, assessments, and audits across manufacturing and support operations. Identify compliance gaps and opportunities for improvement, drive timely corrective actions, and use audit findings, observations, leading indicators, lagging indicators, and other performance metrics to improve site EHS performance.
7. Management of Change and Project Support
   Assist the EHS Team in reviewing new equipment, processes, chemicals, facility modifications, and construction or expansion projects for EHS impacts. Serve as an EHS representative for site Management of Change (MOC) and Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR) activities. Recommend appropriate safeguards and verify that EHS requirements are addressed before implementation or startup.
8. EHS Compliance and Regulatory Support
   Support regulatory inspections, internal and external audits, permits, required records, reporting, and interactions with regulatory agencies, Global EHS, and other external organizations. Interpret and communicate applicable EHS regulations, company standards, and management-system requirements to affected stakeholders.
9. Leadership and Cross-Functional Influence
   Work independently on compliance, risk-management, and improvement projects. Support departments with investigations, audits, risk assessments, and EHS initiatives. Influence supervisors, managers, Operations leaders, Engineering, Maintenance, and contractors to improve EHS performance and reinforce accountability.
10. Performance Reporting and EHS Management System Support
    Analyze and report leading and lagging safety performance indicators. Maintain accurate EHS documentation and records, communicate trends and priorities to stakeholders, and support conformance with AbbVie’s EHS Management System and applicable occupational health and safety management-system requirements.

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