How To Become An EHS Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is an ehs specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Martha Carlson Mazur PhD

Suppose in an organization a worker gets injured, or any hazard or a natural calamity occurred; who will take the responsibility to investigate it? It's an EHS specialist. As an EHS (Environmental Health and Safety Specialist), your role and responsibilities are to identify safety measures, report the findings to the supervisors, develop a problem-solving plan and make an environmentally friendly company.

Further duties include conducting research to identify and eliminate environmental hazards, maintaining EHS initiatives' documentation, and conducting EHS programs and drill operations.

As an EHS specialist, you must have ample knowledge about human health, environmental science, and industrial aspects. Prior to that, a bachelor's or a master's degree in environmental science or any related subject along with a minimum experience of six to seven years in this field is mandatory.

Your annual average salary will range between $34,000 to $87000 per year so buckle up!

What general advice would you give to an EHS Specialist?

Martha Carlson Mazur PhD

Associate Professor, Bellarmine University

Be a contributing member of the communities you occupy. Forming authentic relationships builds the network that will lead to opportunities for advancement.

ScoreEHS SpecialistUS Average

Salary

4.5

Avg. Salary $58,112

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.9

Growth Rate 6%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.23%

Asian 5.81%

Black or African American 9.65%

Hispanic or Latino 15.01%

Unknown 6.07%

White 62.24%

Gender

female 27.38%

male 72.62%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress Level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.5

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

3.6

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an ehs specialist

Explore ehs specialist education requirements

Most common ehs specialist degrees

Bachelor's

65.0 %

Associate

15.7 %

Master's

14.5 %

Start to develop specific ehs specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
OSHA	9.24%
Environmental Health	7.47%
Risk Assessments	5.46%
Corrective Action	4.86%
Ehs Management	4.32%

Complete relevant ehs specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New ehs specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an ehs specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real ehs specialist resumes.

Research ehs specialist duties and responsibilities

Assist with training, inspections, recordkeeping and reporting require for managing all wastes generate.
Manage cross-functional teams/committees in development and implementation of robust proactive ergonomics program.
Experience in environmental remediation, delineation and preparing reports for TXRRC, EPA.
Monitor employees and equipment to ensure active compliance in following all ISO standards and procedures.

Prepare your ehs specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your ehs specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an ehs specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable EHS Specialist Resume templates

Build a professional EHS Specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your EHS Specialist resume.

Apply for ehs specialist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an ehs specialist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do ehs specialists rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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1 Star

EHS Specialist reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2020

Pros

Working with leadership and taking part in creating a safer work environment through physical changes in the plant as well as a heavy focus on behavioral based safety. I enjoy training others and being tasked with difficult questions that require research and a follow up. I'm slowly becoming an expert in specific policies and standards set by our company, government agencies, and other industry standards.

Cons

I've got limited official background in OSH and find it difficult to navigate the corporate environment to find answers at times. Knowing who to include in what meetings and information sharing sessions has been somewhat of a challenge as well.

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2020