Avantium is a pioneer in the emerging industry of renewable and sustainable chemistry. We are an innovation-driven company dedicated to developing and commercializing breakthrough technologies that will transform the chemical and plastics industry. Our focus is on revolutionizing polyesters, and other chemicals, enabling the production of fully circular plastics that can be indefinitely recycled. We believe this is the area with the most potential to drive the industry towards becoming fossil-free. Our plant-based materials can be used in packaging, textiles, film and more – everyday items fit for today’s world. Aside from being fully scalable, our products are economically competitive, fully recyclable and superior in performance.

The Renewable Polymers business aims to commercialize our proprietary plants-to-plastics YXY^® Technology, which is used to produce furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) - the main building block of the high-performance, plant-based plastic polyethylene furanoate (PEF). We have fully proven the technology in our pilot plant in Geleen and we are now starting the construction of the world’s first commercial FDCA plant in Delfzijl, which will be operational in 2024.

What do you bring?
The ideal candidate has a proven track record of managing quality, health, safety and environment in a plant and is able to train, influence and motivate team members to follow and improve the associated policies. Dutch is required for this role as that is the working languages in our plants.
The QHSE manager should have experience in leading continuous improvement initiatives. Knowledge of managing budgets and deadlines combined with strong organizational skills is an advantage in being successful in this role. You will manage a small team of HSE professionals.

Your responsibilities are:
For this exciting part of our journey to achieve a fossil-free world, we are looking for an experienced QHSE manager with a pragmatic attitude to operate in an exciting, fast-paced technical environment.
The QHSE manager will be responsible for quality, health, safety and environment from the start of the build of the plant. This includes managing the development and implementation of integrated management systems to ensure safety & quality excellence. Areas of focus will be occupational health and safety, environmental protection, behavioral-based safety, safety training and awareness, safety auditing, safety management, risk assessments and hazard analyses.
The position offers the unique opportunity to make an important contribution and to work with multidisciplinary teams.

Your field of expertise is:

• Setting the overall QHSE vision and strategy for the plant
• Implement a QHSE management system and incident case management requirements

• Manage all compliance activities to assure compliance with local and national regulations and stay updated with regulatory changes
• Develop and maintain plans, policies, procedures, including emergency response procedures; prepare and BRZO, WABO inspections
• Ensure the QS14001/45001/9001 certification of the plant and maintain this

Your knowledge & skills are:
You hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher preferably related to quality and/or environmental, health and safety management.

• NEBOSH certificate e.g. Dutch HVK safety certification
• Minimum of 5 years of experience as QHSE manager in a chemical plant or manufacturing environment
• In-depth knowledge of health & safety standards with regard to chemical plants
• The ability to make significant independent judgements and excellent communication skills.

What we offer?
A challenging job in a growing organization. At Avantium you can make a difference by proving together that 'the sky is the limit'. As a smaller organization, we encourage our employees to contribute creatively and innovatively to achieving our objectives.

Interested?

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