Executive Contract | Full-Time Fixed Term 4 years
Salary: $201,171 (including vehicle allowance) plus Superannuation
Position Brief - Manager Safety and Wellbeing Operations
Lead the way in safety and wellbeing
Join the City of Gold Coast in this exceptional leadership opportunity to shape the future of work health, safety and wellbeing across one of Australia’s largest and most dynamic local governments.
As the Manager, Safety & Wellbeing Operations, you will provide strategic leadership, expert advice and direction across the organisation, supporting our departments to create safer, healthier and more sustainable ways of working.
Reporting to the General Manager Safety and Wellbeing, you will lead a business unit of approximately 30 safety and wellbeing professionals responsible for delivering high-quality services across the organisation. You will play a pivotal role in embedding contemporary safety practices, strengthening organisational capability and enabling meaningful, sustainable improvements in the safety of work.
This is an opportunity to make a genuine organisational impact — influencing how leaders think about safety and their ownership of it, how work is designed and delivered, and how we learn and improve when things go right and when they don’t.
What you’ll do
As a key member of the Safety and Wellbeing leadership team, duties will include but will not be limited to:
Champion a contemporary approach to safety and wellbeing, leading the continued evolution of a service delivery model informed by Human and Organisational Performance (HOP), Safety Differently and modern safety science, with a strong focus on learning and improving how work is performed.
Lead a high-performing Safety and Wellbeing business unit of approximately 30 staff, building capability, fostering a customer-focused culture that embeds operational ownership of risk, and empowering the team to provide trusted, expert advice across the organisation.
Set the standard for contemporary safety leadership, demonstrating visible and authentic leadership that builds a culture of learning, trust, respect and accountability, while modelling the City’s High Performance Principles.
Lead the operational delivery of strategic safety and wellbeing initiatives, programs and projects to embed them into everyday practices across the organisation, resulting in continual improvements to the safety of work.
Build strong strategic partnerships and influence at all levels, engaging senior leaders, business areas and external stakeholders to drive participation, challenge conventional thinking and achieve positive safety and wellbeing outcomes.
Provide expert advice, strategic judgement and leadership on complex safety and wellbeing matters, including critical safety risks, emerging issues and significant incidents, ensuring risks are understood, managed and communicated effectively.
Drive continuous improvement and organisational capability, identifying opportunities to influence how work is designed and delivered, strengthen safety systems and ensure the organisation remains at the forefront of contemporary safety and wellbeing practice.
About you
You are an accomplished safety and wellbeing leader who combines deep technical expertise with the ability to influence at a strategic and organisational level.
You will bring:
A Bachelor Degree in Work Health and Safety or a related discipline, or equivalent knowledge and experience.
Demonstrated experience applying Safety Differently, Safety-II, Human and Organisational Performance (HOP) or other contemporary safety science approaches in a complex organisation.
Proven leadership capability and experience leading and developing a diverse safety function within government or a large, complex and multi-faceted organisation. Including supporting staff to shift beyond traditional safety approaches.
Exceptional influencing skills to shift leader safety behaviours at all levels of an organisation.
A demonstrated ability to build trusted strategic relationships and influence stakeholders at all levels, to create genuine operational ownership of risk and mitigation.
The ability to translate contemporary safety science into practical, meaningful and sustainable organisational change.
Exceptional judgement, communication and influencing skills, with the confidence to challenge conventional thinking and engage constructively with senior leaders.
A genuine commitment to creating workplaces where people can do their best work safely, learn from everyday work and continuously improve.
Be part of shaping the Gold Coast’s future
The Gold Coast is inspired by lifestyle and driven by opportunity. We are the second largest Council in Australia.
We care about being the most flexible government organisation in Australia. We have a range of benefits to help you create the right balance:
Coaching and advice to develop your leadership competencies
Access to 350+ fitness facilities through Fitness Passport
Study allowance provisions
4 free confidential counselling sessions a year for you and your immediate family
Salary sacrifice provisions including vehicles on novated lease and superannuation
We pride ourselves on our shared mission of being a high-performing, customer-focused organisation which delivers value-for-money services to the community.
How to apply
To submit your application, please click and complete the application form. You will be required to upload your resume and a cover letter (no more than two pages) outlining how your skills, experience and personal attributes will enable you to be successful in this role. Please note that you may also be asked to provide relevant qualifications, where applicable
Primary Contact Ben Darcy –
[email protected]
Secondary Contact Michelle Field –
[email protected]
Closing Date Monday 7th September 2026, at 11:59pm AEDT
Our selection process may include a one-way video interview via Criteria, a face-to-face or virtual interview via Microsoft Teams, reference checks via Xref and additional checks including police checks, employment history checks, qualification checks, pre-employment medical reviews and drug and alcohol testing.
We’re committed to creating a diverse workplace and inclusive culture. We take pride in people who align with our high-performance principles. We believe that the diverse makeup of our workforce reflects the community we serve. We consider all qualified candidates for employment, irrespective of race, age, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics by law.
