Also called:
Chief Security and Safety Officer (CSO); Corporate Health, Safety, and Occupational Toxicology Director; Safety and Health Consultant; Safety, Health, and Environment Vice President
Even with workplace regulations to protect workers, many jobs carry an element of risk. Industrial Safety and Health Engineers are responsible for using engineering tools and technology to make places that are dangerous to work at… as safe as possible. These engineers promote worksite and product safety to avoid hazards from a variety of sources— chemical, physical, biological, and even psychological. They are always on the lookout for new ways to predict and prevent hazardous conditions and, when they do occur, control them with safety measures. Industrial safety and health engineers work with other public health and safety workers to coordinate efforts, often teaming up to investigate industrial accidents and injuries, find their cause, and prevent future problems. While they spend time in the office to plan new and improved safety programs, these engineers also travel to worksites to evaluate machinery and environments and to train workers in safety and emergency procedures. Many of these positions require a four-year college degree in engineering, along with work- related experience. For these engineers, maintaining safer, healthier workplaces keeps American industry… industrious.
What they do:
Plan, implement, and coordinate safety programs, requiring application of engineering principles and technology, to prevent or correct unsafe environmental working conditions.
On the job, you would:
Maintain and apply knowledge of current policies, regulations, and industrial processes.
Recommend process and product safety features that will reduce employees' exposure to chemical, physical, and biological work hazards.
Inspect facilities, machinery, and safety equipment to identify and correct potential hazards, and to ensure safety regulation compliance.
Engineering and Technology
product and service development
design
Arts and Humanities
English language
Safety and Government
public safety and security
law and government
Math and Science
chemistry
Basic Skills
reading work related information
talking to others
Problem Solving
noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it
People and Technology Systems
figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it
measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it
Verbal
listen and understand what people say
read and understand what is written
Ideas and Logic
notice when problems happen
make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information
Math
choose the right type of math to solve a problem
add, subtract, multiply, or divide
Visual Understanding
see hidden patterns
People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out.
They do well at jobs that need:
Integrity
Attention to Detail
Analytical Thinking
Dependability
Cooperation
Initiative
You might use software like this on the job:
Analytical or scientific software
Root cause analysis software
The MathWorks MATLAB
Compliance software
Fire safety inspection and testing software
Material safety data sheet MSDS software
Data base user interface and query software
Anthropometric databases
Microsoft Access
bachelor's degree or certificate after college usually needed
In the military:
see titles from the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, or Navy.
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