Lead Environmental Compliance Manager

Responsibilities

• Provide owner-side environmental compliance leadership across the project, ensuring alignment with applicable local, state, and federal requirements and client expectations.
• Establish and maintain a clear, project-specific environmental compliance framework that defines requirements, roles, and interfaces to guide CM and contractor execution.
• Maintain strong field presence to validate that environmental controls, practices, and behaviors align with approved plans and permit obligations.
• Perform quality checks of contractor and CM environmental inspections and documentation, confirming inspections are occurring at the appropriate cadence and are effective.
• Coach CM and contractor teams on environmental findings, gaps, and emerging risks, driving timely and sustainable corrective actions without direct authority.
• Identify, assess, and prioritize environmental risks through regulatory aspect and gap reviews, recommending risk-based mitigation strategies.
• Support development, review, and continuous improvement of project environmental plans and procedures to ensure they are executable and field-ready.
• Partner with client environmental SMEs and permitting resources to ensure construction activities remain aligned with permit conditions and reporting expectations.
• Develop, track, and communicate environmental performance metrics, trends, and key risks to project and executive leadership.
• Participate in environmental incident and spill investigations, ensuring appropriate containment, root cause identification, and preventive actions.
• Coordinate with waste vendors and site teams to support compliant waste handling, profiling, storage, and disposal practices.
• Support chemical inventory management and applicable regulatory reporting by ensuring data accuracy and clear ownership for updates.
• Serve as a primary point of contact for environmental questions requiring practical judgment related to changing scope, sequencing, or site conditions.
• Support environmental readiness for startup and commissioning by verifying environmental requirements are integrated into transition plans.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Environmental Science, or equivalent experience preferred.
• Minimum of 8 years of environmental experience, including significant experience supporting large construction or capital projects.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as an owner-side environmental leader, balancing field verification with programmatic oversight.
• Strong working knowledge of construction-phase environmental compliance domains such as stormwater, spill prevention, waste management, air and dust controls.
• Extensive hyperscale data center construction experience preferred; substantial experience with large-scale industrial construction is also acceptable.
• Strong working knowledge of U.S. environmental requirements and experience applying permit conditions across multiple state and local jurisdictions.
• Proven ability to translate environmental requirements into practical execution through others.
• Experience influencing CM and contractor performance and driving accountability without direct line authority.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to deliver concise, executive-level updates using metrics and risk-based insights.
• Experience conducting environmental audits or assessments and verifying effective corrective action closure.
• High standards for documentation quality, data integrity, and compliance reporting.
• Familiarity with environmental management system concepts and continuous improvement practices preferred.
• Ability to travel extensively based on project location demands.