Reading, Pennsylvania
Posted: 05-Jun-26
Location: Reading, Pennsylvania
Type: Full Time
Required Education:
Internal Number: 2605602
Position Summary:
The Vice President of Safety provides enterprise-wide leadership for safety, regulatory compliance, and risk management across all of our transportation and warehouse operations. This role sets the safety strategy, builds a safety-first proactive culture, and ensures compliance with applicable federal, state, and local requirements (including DOT/FMCSA and OSHA). The role partners closely with Operations, HR, Legal, Risk, and Insurance to reduce incidents, protect people and assets, and strengthen operational performance through proactive technology-enabled programs and data-driven decision-making.
Qualified candidates for this role will have at least twelve years of progressive leadership in transportation, logistics, or supply chain and at least 5 years leading enterprise-wide safety programs and teams at an officer level. A strong understanding of DOT, FMCSA, and OSHA are required. Optimal candidates will have prior demonstrated success using leading indicators to improve safety outcomes. Strong communication skills, executive presence, and the ability to connect and build rapport across all levels are essential.
This position oversees a field safety team of six direct reports and a total decentralized staff of 50. This position reports to the Senior Vice President of Human Resources with strong collaboration across operational leadership and enterprise functional groups. This is an in-office position is based out of our Penske Logistics Corporate office in Reading, PA and requires the willingness to travel up to 40%. Relocation Assistance may be considered for highly qualified candidates.
Major Responsibilities:
• Set and deliver the enterprise safety vision, strategy, and multi-year roadmap across transportation and warehouse operations.
• Build and sustain a safety-first culture and shared accountability from frontline associates through senior leadership.
• Lead DOT/FMCSA compliance programs (e.g., driver qualification, HOS/ELD, vehicle inspection/maintenance records, drug & alcohol testing and Clearinghouse requirements) and maintain audit readiness.
• Oversee OSHA programs across facilities (e.g., PPE, PIT/forklift safety, ergonomics/safe lifting, recordkeeping) and drive proactive hazard identification and risk reduction.
• Direct incident prevention, incident investigation, root cause analysis, corrective actions, and crisis response for serious events.
• Own the safety performance management system: define leading and lagging indicators (e.g., OSHA incidents, DOT recordables, preventable incidents, near-misses, observations, incident and injury frequency and cost), establish targets, and run a governance cadence (dashboards, weekly/monthly reviews) that translates insights into action.
• Partner with Operations, HR, Legal, Risk Management, and Insurance on claims, litigation support, and enterprise risk mitigation.
• Advance safety technology and analytics to identify risk earlier and prevent incidents—e.g., telematics/ELD data, video safety, warehouse EHS systems, and incident/claims platforms—partnering with IT and Operations to select tools, drive adoption, and standardize data definitions.
• Use analytics to segment risk (by site, route, driver/associate tenure, equipment type, time of day, etc.), prioritize interventions, and measure effectiveness (before/after studies) for coaching, training, and engineered controls.
• Lead, develop, and scale a high-performing decentralized field safety organization (~50 total; 6 direct reports), including hiring, coaching, succession planning, and executive reporting.
Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree required (Safety, Industrial Engineering, Transportation, Environmental Health & Safety, or related field preferred). Master’s degree preferred.
• 12–15+ years of progressive leadership in transportation/logistics/supply chain (or closely related industry).
• 5+ years leading enterprise, multi-site safety programs and teams at the officer level.
• Strong working expertise with DOT/FMCSA and OSHA requirements applicable to CMV operations and warehouse/distribution environments.
• Demonstrated ability to improve safety outcomes using leading indicators, dashboards/scorecards, and disciplined corrective action; experience translating data into operational routines and behavior change.
• Executive communication skills, including the ability to brief senior leaders and influence across functions.
• Experience with leading safety technology (telematics/video safety) and using analytics to drive targeted interventions.
• Ability and willingness to travel approximately 30–40%.
• Willingness to travel as necessary, work the hours necessary to accomplish the job duties, work at the specific location required, complete Penske employment application, submit to a background investigation (to include past employment, education, and criminal history) and drug screening.
Physical Requirements:
-The physical and mental demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an associate to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
-The associate will be required to: read; communicate verbally and/or in written form; remember and analyze certain information; and remember and understand certain instructions or guidelines.
-While performing the duties of this job, the associate may be required to stand, walk, and sit. The associate is frequently required to use hands to touch, handle, and feel, and to reach with hands and arms. The associate must be able to occasionally lift and/or move up to 25lbs/12kg.
-Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.
Penske is an Equal Opportunity Employer.