Director, Health & Safety

Come join the Goddard Systems, LLC (GSL) corporate team and help shape a nationally recognized leader in early childhood education!

GSL supports approximately 700+ Goddard School locations across the U.S., helping franchisees deliver high-quality, play-based learning to more than 100,000 children and families. Our corporate team drives the strategy, systems, and support that enable schools across the network to thrive.

Position Summary

The Head of Health & Safety provides enterprise leadership for protecting children, faculty, families, and school communities across Goddard's franchise system. This leader sets the direction for health and safety, strengthens standards and operating disciplines, identifies emerging risk, and ensures serious incidents and recurring issues lead to timely action and system-wide learning.

This leader translates risk and regulatory requirements into practical operating expectations, leads a high-performing team, influences independent franchise owners and school leaders, and uses data to improve safety and compliance across the system. By helping every school maintain a safe, healthy, and nurturing environment, the role supports Goddard's mission to create joyful, supportive environments where children flourish and advances our value of Focused on Family.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Leadership and Team

• Set the enterprise direction for health and safety, establish standards and operating practices aligned with licensing, brand, and School Excellence requirements, and use data to identify emerging and recurring risks.
• Lead the Regional Health & Safety Managers and Franchise Relations Manager, establishing priorities and accountability across the two regions, 11 Health & Safety Specialists, and Franchise Relations Specialists.

School Audits and Corrective Action

• Lead the health and safety audit program, ensuring consistent execution across the system in every school and timely communication, corrective action, escalation and closure.
• Expand the audit program to include new cleanliness and education-focused audits, partnering with Education to translate standards into consistently applied audit criteria.
• Lead the onboarding of the technology partner and implementation of the operations management system to support audit execution, communicate results, track corrective actions and provide visibility into completion and trends.

Incident Response and Franchise Relations

• Oversee Franchise Relations intake and triage for incidents, accidents, crises, complaints, concerns, and recognition.
• Establish protocols and guide serious incident, safeguarding, and crisis response from escalation and leadership notification through communication, follow-up, and root-cause review.

Regulatory and System Support

• Monitor licensing, regulatory, and enforcement developments, serve as liaison to the Chief Medical Advisor, and coordinate public-health guidance and responses to product, equipment, and toy recalls.
• Provide health and safety guidance for due diligence, new school openings, operating transitions, and school security; partner across GSL to implement priorities, training, and tools; and manage the function's budget and external resources.

Core Skills (Must-Have)

• Enterprise health and safety leadership in a regulated, multi-site, or franchise environment.
• Change leadership and disciplined implementation of new technology, processes, and operating practices.
• Sound judgment during serious incidents, safeguarding matters, crises, and other sensitive events.
• Risk analysis and the ability to translate assessment and incident data into practical prevention priorities.
• People leadership across field-based and centralized teams, with clear accountability and consistent execution.
• Influence without direct authority and the ability to work effectively with franchisees, executives, and cross-functional partners.

Supporting Skills (Nice-to-Have)

• Experience in early childhood education, schools, childcare, or another environment serving children or vulnerable populations.
• Working knowledge of licensing, public health, product safety, crisis communications, or school security.
• Experience with audit, case management, corrective-action, or operations management technology.
• Experience supporting franchisees or independently operated locations within a common brand system.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• At least 10 years of relevant experience in health and safety, risk, compliance, quality, operations, or a related field, including substantial leadership responsibility.
• Experience establishing standards and governance across a multi-site or similarly complex operating system.
• Experience leading assessment, corrective-action, serious-incident, and root-cause work.
• Experience implementing a technology-enabled audit, case management, or corrective-action system.
• Strong written, verbal, and executive communication skills.
• Ability to travel regularly and support urgent incidents outside normal business hours when needed.

Success in the Role

• The new health and safety operations management system is implemented and adopted.
• Health & Safety Specialists use it to complete assessments, communicate outcomes, manage corrective actions, track open items, and report closure and trends.
• The new cleanliness and education-focused assessment is launched and used consistently, with practical feedback and follow-up for franchisees and school leaders.
• Franchise Relations has consistent intake, triage, escalation, communication, and closure practices for incidents, accidents, crises, complaints, concerns, and recognition.
• The Regional Managers, 11 Health & Safety Specialists, and Franchise Relations team operate as an integrated and accountable function, and leadership uses the team's data to address recurring risks.
• The leader in the role has become a trusted enterprise resource on health, safety, and regulatory compliance

Physical Requirements

• Ability to travel regularly, including by car and air, for site visits, market tours, and business meetings
• Ability to walk prospective and active construction sites, including uneven or unfinished terrain, for extended periods
• Ability to sit for extended periods while working at a computer or traveling
• Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed and are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, duties, or physical requirements associated with the position.

There will be periodic requirements to travel for in-person events, at the discretion of your manager or the requirement of the company.