Principal Safety Program Manager

About us

National Grid is hiring a Principal Safety Program Manager for our Safety Program Development & Implementation department. This will be a Hybrid role based out of any of our Upstate New York offices.

Every day we deliver safe and secure energy to homes, communities, and businesses. We are there when people need us the most. We connect people to the energy they need for the lives they live.

The pace of change in society and our industry is accelerating, and our expertise and track record puts us in an unparalleled position to shape the sustainable future of our industry. To be successful we must anticipate the needs of our customers, reducing the cost of energy delivery today and pioneering the flexible energy systems of tomorrow. This requires us to deliver on our promises and always look for new opportunities to grow, both ourselves and our business.

Job Purpose

The Principal Safety Program Manager is responsible for leading the development, execution, and continuous improvement of safety programs and initiatives that protect employees, contractors, and operations. This role will drive a strong, generative safety culture through effective communication, governance participation, incident analysis, risk management, and contractor engagement. By leveraging data, benchmarking, and human‑factors principles, the Program Manager will ensure hazards are proactively identified and controlled, lessons learned are effectively shared, and safety practices are consistently embedded across the organization to improve performance and prevent incidents. This role requires a proactive approach to safety culture, effective communication, and collaboration with various stakeholders to ensure compliance with safety standards and regulations. Continuous evaluation and improvement, including periodic reviews of processes, policies and procedures are crucial to adapting to changing conditions and ensure long-term success. 

Key Accountabilities

• Facilitate effective communications and updates to field employees through weekly safety briefs and other communication channels.
• Ensure timely dissemination of Rapid Incident Notifications (RINs) and lessons learned from incidents.
• Support the organizational Safety Governance structure through Safety Performance Committee participation and reinforcing all local SAT, SAC and SSC committees. 
• Promote a culture of safety and accountability, encouraging open discussions about safety issues and fostering a Just Culture. Leverage Safety Culture Survey results in ensuring effective action plans are in place to support our Generative culture aspirations.
• Assist with the development of the Annual Safety Playbook to guide safety initiatives and work practices.
• Ensure timely and detailed IAs are completed for internal and external (contractor) incidents in accordance with IA Matrix. Establish effective channels for timely sharing of IA results, action items, and lessons learned.
• Ensure best practices and lessons learned are effectively cascaded throughout the organization in a timely manner.
• Ensure alignment with Global Safety and SHE to implement IMS/Cority enhancements.
• Implement effective programs to address human factors, complacency, and normalization of deviance against safety & work practices.
• Lead initiatives to improve safety performance through internal and external benchmarking, analytics and process efficiencies.
• Ensure effective safety plans are implemented across the business.
• Improve field capabilities related to hazard recognition and risk assessments through education & reinforcement of the High Energy program. Leverage digital Job Brief data to target areas of opportunity to improve Job Brief quality and content.
• Support safety training and program rollouts as necessary.
• Monitoring of KPIs and targets to ensure business objectives are achieved.
• Support all safety initiatives through various forums including Safety Summits, Safety Focus Days, Half Day off Truck, Contractor Safety Conference or other safety focused initiatives.
• Partner cross-functionally with key stakeholders, Safety, Work Methods, Engineering and Learning and Development.

Qualifications

Required:

Supervisory/Interpersonal- Experience Required

• Ability to create a high energy team climate whereby team members are free to discuss relevant issues and with a strong emphasis on continuous improvement, questioning the value of every activity and creating better solutions.
• Ability to effectively influence operational and non-operational stakeholders and represent the Electric Operating group in a knowledgeable, professional manner
• Demonstrates openness to change and working collaboratively across teams.
• Strong presentation, communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively influence decision making.

• Bachelor’s degree in occupational safety, environmental science, or a related operations field with 3-5 years of relevant experience in Safety Management and Electric Utility.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills to effectively engage with diverse teams.
• Accomplished in developing and maintaining credible and productive working relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Knowledge of safety regulations and standards applicable to the utility industry.
• Ability to analyze data and trends to drive continuous improvement in safety performance.

Preferred:

• Safety Certification, Certified Safety Professional (CSP) preferred or willingness to achieve certification.