Principal Environmental Engineer - Regional

POSITION SUMMARY 

The Principal Environmental Engineer – Regional serves as Kelvion’s senior environmental technical authority for the Americas region. This role establishes regional environmental strategies and governance, interprets complex regulatory requirements, directs high-impact compliance and sustainability initiatives, and advises business and operational leaders on environmental risk. The position provides technical leadership across manufacturing plants, service sites, and offsite service work while driving consistent standards, measurable performance improvement, and reduction of Kelvion’s environmental footprint. 

RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES  

• Serve as the senior environmental technical authority for the Americas, maintaining direct knowledge of operational processes, compliance conditions, environmental risks, and improvement priorities across manufacturing and service locations.
• Establish and govern the regional environmental compliance framework for applicable federal, state, provincial, and local requirements, including air, wastewater, stormwater, hazardous materials, and waste.
• Provide authoritative interpretation of complex regulations and translate requirements into practical standards, controls, and accountability for operating locations.
• Direct regional permitting strategy, compliance reporting, internal assurance reviews, and responses to regulatory inspections, notices, and emerging requirements.
• Advise regional and site leadership on environmental risk, capital planning, acquisitions, operational changes, and business decisions with material environmental implications.
• Lead cross-functional assessments of manufacturing processes and set multi-year priorities to reduce emissions, water use, chemical consumption, waste, and environmental liability.
• Sponsor or lead complex, high-impact pollution prevention, remediation, and process-improvement initiatives across multiple sites.
• Define regional technical standards for waste characterization, storage, labeling, transportation, disposal, vendor qualification, and reporting.
• Provide final environmental review for significant new chemicals, materials, equipment, and process changes.
• Drive scalable recycling, circularity, and waste-reduction programs and ensure effective adoption across the region.
• Oversee advanced evaluation and calculation of air emissions from welding, thermal processes, coating operations, and other sources, ensuring technically sound methodologies and defensible records.
• Provide technical direction for wastewater treatment, discharge compliance, water conservation, and reuse initiatives.
• Shape and lead regional energy-efficiency, decarbonization, and environmental sustainability roadmaps aligned with corporate goals.
• Own the architecture and continuous improvement of regional environmental procedures, work instructions, management-system elements, and compliance records.
• Develop environmental capability across the organization through executive briefings, technical coaching, training, and mentoring of HSE and operational professionals.
• Lead or provide senior technical oversight for investigations of significant spills, releases, nonconformances, and systemic compliance failures, including root-cause analysis and corrective action.
• Define regional environmental performance indicators, validate data quality, identify trends, and present risk and performance insights to senior leadership.
• Govern ESG, sustainability, and customer environmental data submissions for the Americas and support enterprise reporting requirements.
• Represent the Americas region in global environmental forums and influence enterprise standards, tools, and strategic priorities.
• Lead major HSE management-system initiatives and serve as a trusted advisor to the Americas HSE team and business leaders.
• Perform other duties consistent with the scope and level of the role. 

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES 

• Expert knowledge of environmental regulatory programs, permitting, management systems, and compliance assurance in complex industrial operations.
• Demonstrated ability to interpret ambiguous or evolving requirements, assess enterprise risk, and establish defensible technical positions.
• Proven strategic leadership across multiple sites, with the ability to influence senior leaders and drive results without direct authority.
• Advanced capability in environmental data analysis, emissions calculations, risk prioritization, executive reporting, and business-case development.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes; experience in heat exchanger, pressure vessel, HVAC, metal fabrication, or comparable heavy industry preferred.
• Demonstrated success leading complex environmental projects, regulatory engagements, sustainability initiatives, and organizational change.
• Exceptional written, verbal, facilitation, and presentation skills, including communication with executives, regulators, customers, and technical audiences.
• Ability to mentor technical professionals, build communities of practice, and establish consistent standards across geographically dispersed operations. 

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE (required levels)  

• Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Environmental Science, or a related technical field; master’s degree preferred.
• 10-15+ years of progressively responsible environmental compliance and engineering experience, including significant multi-site or regional responsibility in a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience serving as a senior technical authority, leading complex regulatory matters, and advising senior business or operational leaders.
• CHMM (Certified Hazardous Materials Manager), Professional Engineer (PE), or comparable advanced environmental credential preferred.
• Advanced experience implementing and improving ISO 14001 or comparable environmental management systems across multiple locations preferred. 

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS  

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; reach with hands, arms, and shoulders.  The employee is occasionally required to walk; sit; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; and talk and hear.  The employee occasionally will be required hand lift and/or move objects up to 25 pounds.  

WORK ENVIRONMENT   

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 30% travel required.