Osha Industrial Hygienist I (Osha Health Compliance Officer I)

This position may be filled as Health Compliance Officer (HCO) Trainee if there are no fully qualified HCO I candidates in the applicant pool.  The hiring salary for an HCO Trainee is $56,906.  The hiring salary for a fully qualified HCO I is $62,500.

The North Carolina Department of Labor is charged by statute with promoting the health, safety and general well-being of the workers in the state.

The laws and programs the Department administers affect every worker in the state.

The Department is organized into three primary divisions which carry out the Department's principle regulatory, enforcement and promotional programs, and the administrative operations. The three primary divisions have divisions, bureaus and offices under each, which carry out the specific and specialized portions of the NCDOL mission. The Department employs approximately 385 employees.                                                     To learn more about the NC Department of Labor, please visit our website at https://www.labor.nc.gov/.

The Occupational Safety and Health Division (OSH Division or OSHNC) of the Department of Labor, under the direction of the North Carolina Deputy Commissioner of Labor, is the lead state agency with the responsibility of fostering safe and healthy workplaces for more than four million employees and migrant workers in more than two hundred seventy-five thousand workplaces in North Carolina by educating, developing, and enforcing compliance to safety, health, and agriculture laws, rules, regulations, and standards.

OSH Compliance, comprised of the East and West Bureaus, conducts inspections to identify safety and health hazards that are in violation of OSHA standards, documents those violations, and then issues the appropriate citations and penalties per established procedures. The Compliance inspectors identify corrective measures for each hazard and work closely with the employer to ensure implementation of those measures. They

 investigate safety & health complaints filed by employees as well as accidents, fatalities, and catastrophic events in the workplace, and assist with training & outreach activities statewide.

The Health Compliance Officer (HCO) conducts inspections of industrial workplaces to detect occupational health hazards which are in violation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The HCO inspects and makes written reports of employee exposures to potentially toxic substances and hazardous working conditions throughout the state.

Position recommends issuance of citations when justified by the occupational safety and health laws of the state of North Carolina.

The HCO plans the inspection schedules and performs them independently, seeking advice from supervisor when working with unusual hazards. Types of inspections conducted are: complaints, referrals, follow-ups, accidents, fatalities, and general schedule assignments. The acceptable (and fully qualified) candidate must be able to operate and calibrate sound level meters, audio dosimeters, air sampling pumps, combustible gas indicators, and other testing and sampling equipment to measure potential health hazards of specific substances or in specific industries or processes related to occupational health hazards.

Applicant must have no more than a 50-mile commute to the Raleigh OSHA Field Office or relocate within 30 days of job acceptance.  

If there are no qualified candidates remaining in the applicant pool who meet the minimum Education and Experience or Knowledge, Skills and Abilities required for the position, the agency may consider for this position a trainee who does not meet the minimum requirements. Salary for a trainee may be set at a lower level than the classification salary range and recruitment range that is listed in the posting with the salary being adjusted up accordingly when the trainee has obtained the necessary additional minimum education and experience to fully meet the minimum qualifications as outlined in the classification specification.

  The HCO must have the ability to apply inspection and compliance procedures with consistency and to write detailed reports to document inspection results, and apply principles associated with public health and safety incorporated in the federal and state occupation safety and health standards. Contacts and interviews employees and places personal monitoring equipment on such; observes employee work practices and ensures proper operation of monitoring equipment.

The HCO must have excellent verbal and written communication skills and have the ability to work with individuals at all levels of any organization and must be proficient in keyboarding using word processing programs, i.e. Microsoft Word and Excel. The HCO will be required to evaluate and make recommendations on unusual problems.

The ability to speak and understand Spanish is an asset, but not required for the position.

Valid Drivers License is required.         Some state job postings say you can qualify by an "equivalent combination of education and experience." If that language appears below, then you may qualify through EITHER years of education OR years of directly related experience, OR a combination of both. See oshr.nc.gov/experience-guide for detail.

For fully qualified HCOI:

Master's degree in industrial hygiene with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, or a closely related curriculum from an appropriately accredited institution; or Bachelor s degree in chemistry, physics, industrial hygiene, mechanical engineering, or a closely related curriculum from an appropriately accredited institution and one year of experience in industrial hygiene inspections; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

For HCO Trainee:

Bachelor's degree in chemistry, physics, industrial hygiene, mechanical engineering, or a closely related curriculum from an appropriately accredited institution or an equivalent combination of education and experience.  No industrial hygiene experience is required.

Applicants enrolled in an applicable bachelor's or master's degree program will be considered if all degree requirements will be completed by the end of the current semester.  Any offer of employment will be contingent upon the applicant providing an official transcript or other proof the degree has been conferred prior to the first day of employment. 

If you are the selected candidate for the position you will be required to submit a 10-year CERTIFIED driving record as a condition of employment.

In addition, all new hires to the agency will be subject to a pre-employment drug test.

This job posting is for one position only.  In order to be considered for other vacancies, you must apply for each one.

To apply for this position, please click APPLY link above.

SEE ATTACHED RESUME WILL RESULT IN AN INCOMPLETE APPLICATION. To receive credit, all experience must be included in the work history sections.

 Any information omitted from the application but included in the resume will not be considered for qualifying credit. Faxed applications will not be accepted.

Persons eligible for veteran preference must submit a copy of Form DD-214.

NCDOL uses the Merit-Based Recruitment and Selection Plan to fill positions subject to the State Personnel Act with the most qualified applicants. When a salary range or recruitment range is posted, the actual salary will be based on relevant competencies, knowledge, skills and abilities, internal equity and budgetary considerations pertinent to the advertised position. All post-high school degrees must be from appropriately accredited institutions.

For current State employees, please note that as of June 1, 2022, promotional priority and RIF priority will be based on the new salary/pay grade.

The State of North Carolina is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Due to the volume of applications received, we are unable to provide information regarding the status of your application over the phone. To check the status of your application, please log in to your account.

Processing applications will take an average of 6 - 8 weeks due to the high volume of applications received. It is not necessary to contact the Human Resources Office to check the status of an application. Upon the closing date, applications are "Under Review" and will be screened by Human Resources for the most qualified applicants.

For technical issues with your application, please call the NeoGov Help Line at 855-524-5627. If there are any questions about this posting other than your application status, please contact:

NC Department of Labor

Human Resources Division

Stacey Thompson

919-707-7733