Executive Advisor Commercial and Risk

At GHD Advisory we are invested in creating sustainable commercial outcomes with clients driving change in water, energy and urbanization. 

Join a team committed to solving complex challenges across the value chain, from capital deployment to asset management, enabling resilience, growth and sustainability.

Together, we’ll help create a future for generations to come.

GHD is seeking an accomplished Executive Advisor Commercial & Risk (Part-time as needed), to help lead and grow our Business Advisory capability in the Americas.
You will serve as a trusted advisor to clients operating in complex, high-hazard environments, including oil and gas exploration and production, refining, petrochemical, chemical, transportation, and nuclear industries. You will combine deep technical expertise, commercial insight, and practical industry experience to help clients identify major hazards, strengthen safety and risk management systems, maintain regulatory compliance, and reduce risks to people, assets, operations, the environment, reputation, and make informed commercial and operational decisions.

This is a senior client-facing, market-development, and technical-leadership role. You will build trusted relationships with senior clients, originate and shape consulting opportunities, provide technical and commercial oversight for complex engagements, mobilize multidisciplinary expertise, and mentor members of GHD’s Business Advisory team across the Americas.

Client and commercial leadership:
• Serve as a trusted advisor to clients, to executive, operational, technical, and HSE leaders on process safety, technical risk, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience.
• Build and maintain senior client relationships across high-hazard industries.
• Identify emerging client needs and translate them into practical risk, assurance, and process-safety solutions.
• Contribute to business development, account growth, proposals, scope development, commercial positioning, and client presentations.
• Lead or support strategic pursuits and multidisciplinary assignments, drawing on expertise from across GHD.
• Provide senior technical and commercial oversight for complex, high-value, or high-risk engagements.
• Develop solutions that integrate effectively with clients’ existing systems, operating practices, and organizational cultures.
Safety management systems and regulatory assurance
• Conduct gap analyses, compliance audits, independent reviews, and maturity assessments of client safety management systems, process safety management programs, risk management systems, and HSE frameworks.
• Evaluate programs against applicable US regulatory requirements, recognized industry practices, international standards, and client-specific criteria.
• Advise clients on regulatory and management-system requirements, including those associated with OSHA, EPA, DOT, US Coast Guard, ISO, and other relevant federal, state, or industry regimes.
• Assess and support programs related to process safety management, risk management planning, mechanical integrity, safety-critical elements, emergency preparedness, and management of change.
• Develop practical corrective-action plans and improvement roadmaps that consider risk reduction, implementation requirements, organizational readiness, and commercial priorities.
• Support clients in preparing for regulatory, corporate, and third-party audits.
• Help clients embed sustainable improvements into existing systems rather than creating processes that are difficult to adopt or maintain.

Technical risk and process safety
• Lead qualitative, semi-quantitative, and quantitative risk assessments for complex facilities, operations, projects, and organizational changes.
• Design and facilitate multidisciplinary hazard and risk workshops, including:
o HAZOP and HAZID
o What-if and checklist reviews
o Process Hazard Analysis and revalidation
o Layer of Protection Analysis
o Bowtie analysis
o Fault-tree and event-tree analysis
o Quantitative Risk Assessment
o Facility-siting studies
o Fire, explosion, dispersion, and radiant-heat assessments
• Lead or oversee evaluations of offshore and onshore facilities, production assets, processing plants, refineries, storage and loading facilities, pipelines, utilities, and transportation systems.
• Evaluate safeguards, critical controls, safety-critical elements, and layers of protection, identifying practical opportunities to reduce major-event risk.
• Support safety-case and HSE-case development, process-safety studies, regulatory submissions, and risk-based decision-making.
• Provide quality assurance and peer review for complex risk studies and technical deliverables.
• Translate complex findings into clear recommendations for technical, operational, regulatory, and executive audiences.
Incident investigation and emergency preparedness
• Lead or provide senior oversight for investigations into incidents and near misses that caused, or had the potential to cause, major or catastrophic events.
• Apply structured investigation and root-cause analysis methods to identify technical, organizational, procedural, and human contributing factors.
• Help clients develop practical corrective and preventive actions and monitor their effective implementation.
• Review and develop emergency response and crisis-management programs, plans, training, and exercises.
• Provide senior advice following significant events, helping clients understand immediate risks, systemic gaps, and longer-term improvement priorities.

Management of change and operational improvement:
• Advise clients on technical, operational, and organizational management of change.
• Assess whether proposed changes have been appropriately defined, risk assessed, authorized, communicated, implemented, and reviewed.
• Support management of change and pre-startup safety review processes for new or modified assets, equipment, operating procedures, and organizations.
• Facilitate hazard assessments associated with significant changes and help clients strengthen related standards, workflows, and tools.
• Support safety culture and leadership improvements that encourage sustainable change from within the organization.
Training and knowledge development
• Design, develop, and deliver technical training for operational, engineering, HSE, management, and executive audiences.
• Deliver training in areas such as:
o Process safety management
o Process Hazard Analysis
o HAZOP, What-if, checklist, LOPA, and Bowtie techniques
o Hazard recognition
o Management of change
o Incident investigation and root-cause determination
o Mechanical integrity and safety-critical elements
o Emergency response
o HSE leadership and safety culture
• Tailor training to client requirements, operational risks, regulatory expectations, and participant experience.
• Represent GHD through conference presentations, technical forums, industry associations, and thought-leadership activities.
Americas team and practice leadership
• Act as a senior subject matter lead and mentor to members of the Business Advisory team.
• Provide technical direction, coaching, and quality oversight across complex assignments.
• Coordinate contributions from internal and external subject matter experts, ensuring that their input is integrated into a cohesive client solution.
• Review reports, recommendations, presentations, and other client-facing outputs for technical accuracy, clarity, consistency, and practical value.
• Support the development of emerging technical leaders, facilitators, auditors, consultants, and project managers.
• Take a leading role in GHD’s Global Risk Management Community of Practice.
• Share lessons learned, strengthen tools and methodologies, and encourage collaboration across regions and disciplines.
• Contribute to the development of consistent technical standards, service offerings, and quality practices.

What you will bring:
• Extensive senior-level experience in process safety, technical risk, operational risk, HSE management, assurance, emergency response, or a closely related field.
• Significant experience in high-hazard industries, preferably including several of the following:
o Oil and gas exploration and production
o Offshore and onshore production
o Refining
o Petrochemical and chemical processing
o Transportation and storage
o Nuclear
• Demonstrated experience developing, implementing, auditing, or improving process safety, SMS, EHS, HSE, or risk management programs.
• Advanced knowledge of qualitative and quantitative hazard and risk-assessment methods.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex risk workshops and engaging multidisciplinary groups with differing technical and operational perspectives.
• Experience conducting facility-siting studies and evaluating fire, explosion, toxic-release, dispersion, and other major-hazard scenarios.
• Experience with incident investigation, root-cause analysis, management of change, pre-startup safety reviews, mechanical integrity, and safety-critical elements.
• Working knowledge of applicable US regulatory regimes, industry standards, and recognized practices for high-hazard operations.
• Strong ability to convert technical findings into practical, proportionate, and commercially informed actions.
• Experience advising senior leaders and communicating complex risk information to both technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to build client relationships, shape opportunities, lead proposals, and grow consulting work.
• Experience overseeing multidisciplinary technical input and approving high-quality client deliverables.
• A strong record of developing and delivering technical training.
• Demonstrated commitment to mentoring colleagues and building team capability.
• A bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, safety, risk management, or a related discipline.

Preferred qualifications:
• Professional Engineer registration or another relevant professional credential.
• Recognized certification or formal training as a PHA, HAZOP, LOPA, or Bowtie facilitator.
• Functional-safety, lead-auditor, process-safety, or safety-professional certification.
• Experience with OSHA Process Safety Management and EPA Risk Management Program requirements.
• Familiarity with ISO 14001, ISO 45001 or OHSAS 18001, API practices, and relevant industry-specific standards.
• Experience speaking at industry conferences, delivering external training, or contributing to professional forums.

Success will be demonstrated through:
• Trusted relationships with senior clients and industry stakeholders.
• High-quality, technically defensible, and commercially practical client outcomes.
• Effective leadership and governance of complex, high-value, or higher-risk engagements.
• Clear translation of technical and operational risk into commercial decisions, investment priorities, and implementable actions.
• Successful identification and conversion of new client opportunities.
• Consistent technical quality across multidisciplinary deliverables.
• Strong collaboration with market, account, business group, regional, and technical leaders across GHD.
• Greater visibility and influence for GHD within relevant professional and industry communities.
• Active contribution to GHD’s Global Risk Management Community of Practice.

• The budgeted rate for the role is $83.03 to $138.39 per hour.

   

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