Vice President of Environmental Health & Safety

Vice President of EHS

Reports to: President

At Meruelo Enterprises, we're building communities, careers, and a better tomorrow.

Founded in 1986 and proudly minority-owned, we've grown into one of California's leading construction and engineering firms, serving major utility, transportation, and telecom clients across the West Coast. With a talented team of over 2,500 professionals and a family of top-tier subsidiaries, we deliver innovative, high-impact solutions in gas, electric, water, and more.

From the ground up, we're committed to safety, quality, and integrity. If you're looking to be part of a fast-growing, mission-driven company making a real difference, welcome to Meruelo Enterprises.

About the Role:

The Vice President of Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) provides enterprise wide leadership, governance, and strategic direction for all EHS programs across Meruelo Enterprises and its operating companies.

This executive role is accountable for establishing enterprise safety strategy, ensuring regulatory compliance, managing high severity risk, and driving a strong safety culture across a decentralized, multi company organization. The VP of EHS directly oversees the Safety Director and provides executive sponsorship, guidance, and accountability for enterprise safety execution.

Key Responsibilities:

• Establish and maintain the enterprise EHS vision, strategy, and performance expectations across all operating companies.
• Define enterprise safety objectives, KPIs, leading and lagging indicators, and annual improvement targets.
• Approve and govern enterprise safety policies, standards, and frameworks to ensure consistency and regulatory compliance.
• Ensure alignment between corporate EHS strategy and operating company execution.
• Provide executive leadership, coaching, and performance management for the Safety Director and enterprise EHS function.
• Ensure appropriate resourcing, capability development, and prioritization across the safety organization.
• Hold operating company leadership accountable for adoption and execution of enterprise EHS standards within a matrixed reporting structure.
• Provide strategic direction and oversight for:
• Enterprise safety programs and regulatory compliance
• Safety technology platforms (e.g., Samsara, EcoOnline / eCompliance)
• Field safety execution, audits, and inspections
• Operator Qualification (OQ) programs
• Incident management, investigations, and corrective action programs
• Review enterprise safety performance reports and ensure corrective actions are effectively implemented.
• Maintain executive accountability for high-severity incidents, including fatalities, serious injuries, significant property damage, and regulatory matters.
• Partner with Corporate Risk Management, Legal, Insurance, and Operations on major incident response, claim strategy, and regulatory exposure.
• Approve incident classification thresholds, escalation protocols, and communication strategies.
• Ensure lessons learned from serious incidents are incorporated enterprise-wide.
• Serve as the senior EHS authority for external regulators (Cal/OSHA, OSHA, DOT, EPA) and major utility and public agency clients when required.
• Support regulatory inspections, investigations, negotiations, and enforcement actions.
• Ensure consistent and defensible regulatory posture across all operating companies.
• Provide executive sponsorship for the Company Safety Council chaired by the Safety Director.
• Ensure council priorities align with enterprise risk profile and strategic objectives.
• Remove organizational barriers and drive cross-company alignment when issues escalate.
• Report enterprise EHS performance, trends, and material risks to the President and Board of Directors.
• Escalate critical safety and regulatory issues in a timely and transparent manner.
• Support enterprise ESG, client reporting, and audit requirements as applicable.
• Approve enterprise EHS budgets, staffing plans, and major safety investments.
• Champion continuous improvement, technology adoption, and innovation across EHS programs.
• Support succession planning, leadership development, and capability building within the EHS organization.
• Perform other duties as assigned by executive leadership to support enterprise risk management and operational excellence.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Safety, Health, Engineering, or related field required; advanced degree preferred.
• CSP, CIH, CHST, CUSP, or equivalent professional certifications strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive EHS leadership experience in construction, utility, or industrial environments.
• Extensive heavy civil construction experience required, including large-scale infrastructure or utility construction.
• Electrical distribution and/or transmission experience strongly preferred.
• Proven experience leading EHS programs in decentralized or multi-company organizations.
• Experience managing senior safety leaders and influencing operations without direct authority.
• Strong working knowledge of Cal/OSHA, OSHA, DOT, EPA, NEPA, and utility client safety requirements.
• Executive-level leadership and communication skills.
• Strong risk assessment, incident management, and regulatory negotiation capabilities.
• Ability to influence outcomes across complex organizational structures.
• High level of integrity, judgment, and confidentiality.
• Valid California Class C Driver's License or ability to obtain one.
• May be required to operate a company-provided, logoed vehicle in the course of assigned duties.

Work Environment

Enterprise and field-based role with regular visits to operating companies and job sites.

Travel required across Southern California and other operational regions as needed.

At Meruelo, we believe that diverse teams drive innovation and better business outcomes. We are dedicated to fostering a culture where everyone feels respected, valued, and empowered to bring their whole selves to work. We actively encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.