Assistant Manager - Safety Programs

I. Key Purpose of the Job:
The Assistant Manager - Safety Programs, will provide direction and activation for VF's safety programs in contract manufacturing locations across Asia-Pacific (APAC). This includes assisting in the development of both company-wide and country-specific solutions for fire and electrical hazards, structural building safety, and Health Safety Management Systems (HSMS). The Assistant Manager partners with VF factories, Asia-based sourcing teams, Sustainable Operations teams, and the Factory Compliance team to drive improvements across the safety spectrum. The Assistant Manager will coordinate the day-to-day operational aspects of VF's safety programs including scheduling assessments, monitoring progress, providing technical support, helpline follow-up, remediation planning, data management and analysis, and accounting.
II. Key Areas of Responsibility:
• Be a subject matter expert (SME) for health and safety standards, policies, and practices including but not limited to electrical, structural, critical equipment, hot work, chemical safety, risk assessments, industrial hygiene assessments, and life and fire protection.
• Manage the day-to-day operational activities of VF's Critical Life Safety (CLS) programs used to address critical electrical, fire, and structural safety issues. This includes developing and delivering training to factories, providing technical capacity building, assisting in the development of Corrective Action Plans (CAPs), monitoring, and remediation support.
• Assist in the development and maintenance of project costs, budgets, and accounting records.
• Regularly review safety performance with factories, VF management, and industry partners to ensure the safety programs are mitigating risk for workers and creating value at the factories which support them.
• Conduct ongoing risk assessments to ensure the greatest risks are being prioritized. Collaborate closely with third-party safety firms to determine localized, risked based needs and bridge any gaps with results-focused solutions.
• Analyze CLS reports and arrange review sessions with factory management to confirm their comprehension of the findings. Provide technical support, timelines, and priorities based on these findings to promote a safe working environment in terms of an assigned CAP.
• Conduct on-site visits to factory locations to follow up on safety-related matters. These visits may include inspection of fire safety equipment, testing of fire hydrants, review of emergency water supplies, and other life safety equipment.
• Conduct reviews of electrical Single Line Diagrams (SLD), Lightning Protection Systems (LPS), and Detailed Engineering Assessments (DEA) to comply with program/legal requirements. Assist the factory to develop a compliant Centralized Fire Detection System (CFDS), sprinkler, and hydrant design to meet required standards/legal requirements.
• Investigate accidents and incidents to determine the root cause and assist in the development of prevention measures for further incidents.
• Provide Health and Safety training programs, best practices, and self-monitoring tools to workers and management in VF facilities, which will both educate and empower the attendees to take ownership over safety in their facility.
• Actively participate in technical working groups for industry safety programs to review operational SOPs, training standards, and technical challenges.
• Assist in the development and maintenance of a factory-lead Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and Health Safety Management Systems (HSMS) program to sustain a culture of safety at facilities.
• Utilize available data to track and report the progress of all safety factory-based programs.
III. Leadership
• Directly manages a team of safety professionals, providing technical guidance, visionary and strategic multi-year, and annual work plan development, as well as general day-to-day management support.
• Translates business and team strategies to actionable annual work plans and tasks for the safety team.
• Assigns projects and tasks to team members based on a deep understanding of their roles, skill sets, and career development aspirations.
• Engages with the team regularly to problem solve, enhance collaboration, and understand and act on challenges and opportunities that arise.
• Supports team members' career growth and success through tools and resources such as work plans (OGSTMs), Individual Development Plans (IDPs), Growth Assignments (GAs), and others.
• Ensures the team is held accountable for meeting deadlines and goals according to work plans and overarching strategies while enabling team members to grow their careers productively and proactively in alignment with their career aspirations.
IV. Stakeholder Engagement
• Proactively connects and builds productive working relationships with various stakeholders in and out of the Sustainability and Responsibility (S&R) department to understand needs, provide insights and advisory, solve problems, obtain alignment on decisions, and enhance connectivity between S&R and other departments.
• Communicates with and represents S&R to internal stakeholders, including leadership, as it relates to safety programs, conveying the work in terms of its context, value, data findings, insights, and recommendations while adapting communication style to match the audience and scenario.
• Engages externally with service providers, experts, industry peers, or other relevant agencies to drive positive change at scale via partnerships and industry projects, and to inform VF standards.
• Participates in industry events, and where necessary, clearly communicates VF's programs, activities, and results around factory safety.
A Successful Candidate Will
• Effectively break down functional work plans into detailed work activities, ensuring their manager and team are fully aware of their respective roles and responsibilities.
• Drive an environment of open-mindedness, guide, and support colleagues to adapt to a variety of changes.
• Be accountable for delivering consistently high-quality results.
• Adapt their communication style and language based on the audience and situation.
• Possess deep functional subject matter knowledge on safety.
• Deliver training in a clear, concise, and effective manner to a variety of audiences.
• Review processes, identify inefficiencies, and create practical solutions independently.
*** Travel: Up to 50% travel to factory locations around APAC. Significant factory-based work.