Associate Director, EMEA, Environmental, Health & Safety

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

The role is responsible for implementing and overseeing UHG EMEA H&S strategies across UHG EMEA sites, through continuous risk management, prevention, and promotion of H&S practices, reporting to the  Environmental, Occupational Health & Safety (EOHS) International Operations leader.

This role also plays a pivotal role in strengthening EOHS capability across EMEA Operations, partnering with Enterprise EOHS teams and ensuring the consistent execution of the EOHS Management System, elevating operational insights, emerging risks and feedback to drive program development, including collaboration with EMEA operational stakeholders, to drive engagement of EOHS reporting systems and safety culture initiatives, through communication development, awareness campaigns and ongoing activities.

The role requires a solid understanding of EMEA health and safety regulations, compliance requirements, and best industry practices, whilst driving a proactive culture of safety excellence throughout EMEA, considering business operations and adapting to changing circumstances.

The individual must be capable of leveraging data analytics, developing and maintaining dashboards and reporting tools to provide meaningful insight to operational EOHS risk and performance.

Experience in leading, developing and motivating a H&S team, implementing and monitoring robust safety programs, and continual collaboration with stakeholders to ensure compliance with H&S policies and programs is essential.

Travel:

At least 25% travel is required. The individual must have a valid driver's license and access to a personal vehicle.

Working Arrangements:

The position is based on site, within the Dublin office. This is a full-time position with standard working hours of Monday to Friday. Individuals will be required to be onsite at minimum four days per week, with up to one day working remotely. Occasional after-work hours may be required to support emergency response and operational needs.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Define and execute EMEA H&S objectives and programs in line with country, organizational, and regulatory requirements
• Lead and develop the EMEA H&S team (Letterkenny based), ensuring professional growth and goal achievement
• Lead the execution of the enterprise EOHS management system and centralized enterprise EOHS  reporting tools within EMEA, ensuring engagement from all stakeholders and providing consultative support to business stakeholders
• Implement and update health and safety policies, procedures, and programs for EMEA sites, whilst ensuring alignment with local legislation and also with Enterprise Global EOHS standards
• Identify gaps ,  opportunities and solutions to improve EOHS processes, systems and tools
• Conduct and maintain risk assessments across EMEA sites, mitigating hazards and ensuring compliance
• Continuous review and development of protocols for emergency response, incident and near-miss reporting, investigation, and corrective actions
• Track , analyze and trend safety and environmental data, to identify systemic risks, recurring issues and to report regular performance metrics , benchmarking against standards
• Partner with enterprise and training teams to develop and refine EOHS training programs/modules, micro-learning content, onboarding materials and job aids, delivering training and coaching where operationally required to ensure compliance
• Manage resources and budgets to support compliance requirements
• Foster a proactive safety culture and promote hazard recognition and preventative initiatives
• Maintain relationships with regulatory agencies and industry bodies to ensure compliance and influence improvements
• Collaborate with internal business stakeholders to foster a shared commitment and continuous improvements to safety excellence
• Provide safety and environmental subject-matter technical expertise and mentorship to internal stakeholders and H&S teams

You will be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role, as well as providing development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Environmental, Occupational Health and Safety, a related field, or equivalent experience
• Proven extensive experience managing H&S programs, including H&S management system development, emergency response planning, accident management & investigation, and risk assessment
• Demonstrated experience managing and developing a H&S team
• Demonstrated solid knowledge of EMEA H&S (Primarily Ireland & UK) legislation, regulations, standards, and best practices
• Demonstrated excellent communication, leadership, negotiation, influence and interpersonal skills
• Demonstrated knowledge of data-driven, metric decision making
• Valid driver's license with access to a personal vehicle and ability to travel approximately 25% of the time to EMEA (Ireland and UK) site locations
• Proven ability to be on-site four out of five days per week

Preferred Qualifications:

• Professional certifications in health and safety (e.g., IOSH, NEBOSH)
• Proven experience supporting multi-site operations

Please note you must currently be eligible to work and remain indefinitely without any restrictions in the country to which you are making an application. Proof will be required to support your application.  

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone-of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income-deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes - an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.


Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: Optum is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age, race, and membership of the Traveller community, or any other characteristic protected by law. Optum is a drug-free workplace. © 2026 Optum Services (Ireland) Limited. All rights reserved.

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