Associate Director, SH&E Continuous Improvement

Linde Gas & Equipment Inc.

Associate Director, SH&E Continuous Improvement

Location: The Woodlands, TX

Linde Gas & Equipment Inc. (LG&E) is seeking an Associate Director, Safety, Health, & Environmental Services (SH&E) Continuous Improvement to join our team located in The Woodlands, TX.

The Associate Director, Facility Safety & Operational Discipline (FSOD) and SH&E Continuous Improvement is a senior leader within the Safety, Health & Environmental (SH&E) function, responsible for driving enterprise-wide operational discipline and sustainable safety performance across all facilities. This role serves as the national owner of the FSOD program and leads strategic initiatives to modernize, standardize, and improve foundational SH&E systems that impact field operations, compliance, and risk reduction.

With direct influence over cross-functional teams and operational leaders business-wide, the Associate Director aligns SH&E strategies with business objectives, builds frontline capability, and ensures that safety and operational discipline are embedded into daily routines. This position is a key driver in transforming safety culture, enhancing organizational reliability, and enabling continuous improvement across Linde's industrial operations.

What we offer you!

• Competitive compensation
• Comprehensive benefit plan (medical, dental, vision and more)
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Paid time off (vacation, holidays, PTO)
• Employee discount programs
• Career growth opportunities

Responsibilities

• Enterprise Leadership of FSOD:
  Own the design, deployment, and continuous improvement of the national FSOD program. Define strategic direction, success metrics, and program standards to ensure consistent application across all facilities and regions.
• Operational Discipline & Culture Change:
  Partner with regional SH&E, operations, and plant management teams to embed operational discipline as a business expectation. Drive cultural transformation by integrating FSOD principles into site-level leadership routines and business performance reviews.
• Performance Monitoring & Risk Reduction:
  Develop and lead FSOD dashboards and reporting systems. Analyze trends and systemic risks using data from observations, assessments, and incidents. Facilitate structured root cause analysis and follow-through on business-wide corrective actions.
• Continuous Improvement Program Leadership:
  Lead the SH&E continuous improvement portfolio using Lean, Six Sigma, and structured problem-solving tools. Facilitate kaizen events, develop maturity roadmaps, and implement sustainable changes to safety systems and workflows.
• System Modernization & Standardization:
  Lead efforts to digitize and modernize key SH&E management systems, including FSOD reporting, facility safety assessments, and corrective action tracking. Standardize safety audit protocols and develop enterprise training solutions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  Influence and support senior operations, engineering, and quality leaders to align safety initiatives with business priorities. Identify and scale best practices across plants and functions.
• Capability Development:
  Coach SH&E and operations leaders on leading with operational discipline. Build capability in observation quality, hazard identification, risk control, and frontline safety leadership.
• Executive Support & Reporting:
  Serve as a strategic advisor to the SH&E Director and leadership team. Provide data-driven insights and recommendations that shape policy, resourcing, and national initiatives.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Occupational Safety, Engineering, Operations Management, or related field (Master's preferred).
• 10+ years of progressive experience in SH&E, Operations, or Continuous Improvement in a multi-site industrial or manufacturing environment.
• Proven success in leading national programs or enterprise safety initiatives with measurable impact.
• Certified or advanced knowledge in Lean, Six Sigma, or other structured CI methodologies (Green or Black Belt preferred).
• Demonstrated ability to influence across functions and levels, including executive leadership.
• Strong analytical, program management, and digital systems experience.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation communication skills.
• Willingness to travel up to 50%.

Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2024 sales of $33 billion. We live our mission of making our world more productive every day by providing high-quality solutions, technologies and services which are making our customers more successful and helping to sustain and protect our planet. The company serves a variety of end markets including chemicals & refining, food & beverage, electronics, healthcare, manufacturing, and primary metals. Linde's industrial gases are used in countless applications, from life-saving oxygen for hospitals to high-purity & specialty gases for electronics manufacturing, hydrogen for clean fuels and much more. Linde also delivers state-of-the-art gas processing solutions to support customer expansion, efficiency improvements and emissions reductions. For more information about the company, please visit our website at www.lindeus.com.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other reason prohibited by applicable law.

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