Director of Environment, Health and Safety — Interim, Chemicals

The mandate

A contractor died during vessel entry after isolation and gas-test requirements were bypassed. The EHS director was suspended pending investigation, and audits have since found inconsistent permit authorisation across four manufacturing sites.

The interim must join within ten days for twelve months through statutory investigation, control rebuild and independent audit. A permanent director search begins after causal findings are accepted, with six weeks of overlap.

Handover requires every fatality action independently closed, permit compliance above ninety-eight per cent across six unannounced audits, all high-risk contractors recertified, and the successor chairing two board assurance reviews.

The director may stop work, revoke contractor access and mandate retraining or engineering safeguards below ₹75 lakh. Disciplinary findings, public statements and capital above ₹3 crore require board approval; the interim cannot direct the legal investigation or waive statutory reporting.

General sustainability reporting, product stewardship and non-safety procurement savings are outside scope. Resources must stay focused on fatal-risk controls and verifiable operating assurance.

Why this seat is open

Suspension protects the integrity of an investigation involving prior EHS oversight. The board cannot rely on site-by-site acting cover while permit failures appear systemic. A temporary director will rebuild independent assurance and hand it to permanent leadership after evidence has matured.

What you will own

• Preserve incident evidence and translate accepted causes into controls without pre-empting legal conclusions.
• Rebuild confined-space, isolation, hot-work, lifting and line-breaking permit standards and authorisation.
• Decide contractor suspension and recertification using competence, supervision and incident history.
• Run unannounced field verifications that test physical control rather than document completeness alone.
• Establish fatal-risk leading indicators tied to barrier health, overdue actions and permit quality.
• Issue a quarterly board assurance opinion naming sites and executives below tolerance.
• Transfer investigation actions, audit methods and committee authority through two successor reviews.

Candidate qualifications

• More than twenty-two years in chemical, energy or process-industry EHS leadership across multiple hazardous sites.
• Led organisational response to a fatality while preserving legal, statutory and family-sensitive boundaries.
• Expert knowledge of confined space, isolation, permits, contractor control and process-safety assurance.
• Experience designing field verification that detects ceremonial compliance and normalised deviation.
• Ability to exercise stop-work authority while maintaining independent investigation integrity.
• Board communication skill on fatal-risk exposure, uncertain evidence and accountable control ownership.

Non-negotiables

• Available in Mumbai within ten days and able to visit all four sites frequently.
• No prior involvement with the incident, suspended director or investigation advisers.
• Will preserve statutory reporting and evidence without management interference.
• Can commit for twelve months and permanent-director overlap.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your earliest start and readiness for immediate travel among hazardous sites.
2. 49 words maximum. Which fatal-risk control did field verification show was only compliant on paper?
3. 49 words maximum. How did you preserve investigation independence while implementing urgent safeguards?