What are the responsibilities and job description for the Assistant Director, Radiation and Laser Safety and University Radiation Safety Officer position at Vanderbilt University?
Job Description
The Assistant Director is a key leader in the Environmental Health, Safety, and Sustainability (EHSS) organization at Vanderbilt University. They are responsible for managing the radiation and laser safety programs, acting as the university's Radiation Safety Officer, and reporting directly to the Assistant Vice Chancellor for EHSS.
The Assistant Director will provide innovative, strategic, and tactical leadership for laboratory operations, ensuring a safe work environment for all VU research community members, preventing loss of life and injury, protecting the environment, and safeguarding VU property.
- Act as the university's subject matter expert in radiation and laser safety and as the university's Radiation Safety Officer on VU's Broadscope License.
- Lead compliance-related regulatory inspections.
- Develop vision, mission, budget, policies, procedures, and key performance indicators for their area of EHSS.
- Establish relationships with VUMC OCRS to transition activities to VU management.
- Implement and adopt EHS Assist software system related to their area of EHSS.
- Ensure timely and effective address of regulatory and audit findings.
- Develop opportunities for improvement in current services, faculty support processes, training, and information systems.
- Assign effective training modules to VU faculty, staff, and students in Oracle Learn, provide in-person training sessions when requested, and track and report regulatory-required completion data.
- Support VU Facilities projects impacting laboratories.
- Set EHSS standards to meet customer and administrative expectations.
- Identify and implement best practices and corrective actions across laboratory safety to ensure high quality, improve systems and services, meet needs, and comply with complex and rapidly changing federal, state, regional, and local laws and accreditation requirements.
- Manage and develop standard operating procedures and protocols for laboratory operations to manage high-hazard operations.
- Serve as an emergency responder participating in the on-call schedule and provide leadership in incidents or exposures in their area of EHSS.
- Educate EHSS staff on appropriate technical and required training.
- Collaborate with VUMC, Vanderbilt University Public Safety, and VU Facilities to develop effective emergency response plans for VU laboratories.
The Assistant Director develops and maintains strong, collaborative, and communicative relationships with Vanderbilt's research and administrative community, identifies additional ways to be of service, and ensures customer satisfaction.
This position reports administratively and functionally to the Assistant Vice Chancellor of EHSS and supervises 3-5 professional staff, student interns, and may lead teams on specific projects.
The ideal candidate has a master's degree, certification, and 8 years of experience with at least 2 years in a supervisory role, including some portion in the university research/laboratory environment.
They must possess expert knowledge in radiation and laser safety concepts, standards of performance, best practices, granting requirements, licensing, and regulations, along with advanced skills in Microsoft and Adobe products, such as TEAMS, PowerPoint, Excel, and Word.
The successful candidate will have ability to quickly respond to emergencies, possess excellent interpersonal communication and customer service skills, and demonstrate commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
