Associate Director, Environmental Health & Safety
Job description
About Terrestrial Bio, Inc. Terrestrial is transforming the delivery of next-generation therapies, starting with GLP-1. Terrestrial's proprietary Tacterra™ microarray patch (MAP) and applicator platform consists of a patch resembling an adhesive bandage, which is applied with a preloaded applicator and removed after a few minutes.
Once applied, each patch delivers bioactive tips into the skin, which dissolve quickly into the body, rapidly releasing their therapeutic payload. Designed for self-administration, the temperature-stable Tacterra™ platform enables precise, controlled delivery of a wide range of therapeutics without medical sharps or refrigeration.
Terrestrial has generated strong clinical and in-vivo proof of concept across multiple molecules. For more information, visit www.terrestrialbio.com http://www.terrestrialbio.com. Most advanced therapeutics still require cold-chain logistics and clinical administration using needles. We are developing a needle-free Microneedle-Array Patch (MAP) delivery platform that enables up to two weeks of sustained delivery with only five minutes of wear-time.
Delivering on that means running BSL-2 laboratories while standing up GMP manufacturing, on a compressed timeline and across a facility move. EHS foundations already exist here: annual training, biosafety and chemical hygiene practices, waste and vendor relationships, working documentation. We need someone to take them over and make them systematic, scalable, and audit-ready, treating safety as an operational advantage rather than a compliance checkbox.
The Role: Impact & Responsibilities You will own EHS across both sites, split roughly evenly between laboratory and biosafety programs and manufacturing safety infrastructure. You will inherit functioning programs; your mandate is to professionalize and extend them:
- Manufacturing Safety: Build the programs a scaling operation requires, including machine guarding, lockout/tagout, ergonomics, and cleanroom operations.
- Waste & Environmental Compliance: Own hazardous waste generator status, RCRA and MassDEP compliance, vendor management, and environmental reporting at both sites.
- Risk, Incident & Emergency Response: Formalize risk assessment, job hazard analysis, incident investigation, root cause analysis, and near-miss reporting under a just-culture framework; own fire, spill, and evacuation planning.
- Training & Safety Culture: Take over and improve existing training and documentation practices, building a safety culture that scales with lab and manufacturing growth.
- Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner with Manufacturing, Quality, and Scientific Operations so EHS is built into how work gets done rather than layered on afterward.
- Metrics & Inspection Readiness: Develop safety metrics that give leadership visibility into organizational risk, and prepare the company for OSHA, EPA, local, and GMP-adjacent inspections. What you bring
- Education: BS in EHS, Industrial Hygiene, Environmental Science, Engineering, or Biological Sciences. Advanced degree a plus.
- Experience: 8+ years of progressive EHS experience in biotech, pharmaceutical, or comparable regulated manufacturing is required.
- Regulatory Core: Working command of OSHA regulations, hazardous waste management, risk assessment, and environmental compliance is required.
- Program Ownership: We highly value candidates who have held biosafety and chemical hygiene ownership as an appointed BSO, CHO, or equivalent.
- Scaling Experience: We highly value candidates who have taken an organization from research-scale to manufacturing-scale EHS and can judge what to keep in an inherited program and what to rebuild.
- Certifications: CSP, CIH, CBSP or RBP, CHMM, or 40-hour HAZWOPER are a plus.
- Communication & Judgment: Strong writing and training delivery, comfort moving between program strategy and hands-on execution, and the ability to work across two Greater Boston sites. Why Join Us Now?
- Real Ownership: You inherit a working foundation rather than a blank page or an entrenched bureaucracy, with room to make the mature program yours.
- Breadth of Scope: Few EHS roles span BSL-2 research and GMP manufacturing scale-up. This does.
- Facility Timing: You will design EHS for a brand-new, bespoke Allston facility rather than retrofit it.
Compensation
& Logistics
- Salary: $140,000 – $170,000.
- Reporting Structure: Reports to Director, Facilities. Individual contributor today, growing into a team as manufacturing scales, with budget input for programs, training, and vendors.
- Location: Onsite. Woburn, MA through Summer 2026, relocating to Allston in Q4, with presence at both sites during the transition.
- Physical Requirements: Respirator fit testing and medical clearance, occasional lifting up to 50 lbs, access to mechanical and rooftop equipment, and after-hours emergency response availability.