Manager WHS

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) is seeking an experienced Manager Workplace Health and Safety to provide strategic leadership and drive the continuous improvement of our workplace health, safety and wellbeing capability and organisational culture. Leading a team of six direct reports, this role can be based in Brisbane, Parramatta or Port Melbourne and is responsible for developing and delivering initiatives that strengthen safety performance, wellbeing outcomes and organisational capability across NHVR.

Working closely with the Executive Leadership Team and leaders across the organisation, you will embed contemporary safety practices, build leadership accountability and enhance WHS risk management capability. You will play a key role in ensuring safety considerations are integrated into operational and strategic decision-making, while driving a positive safety culture through effective governance, stakeholder engagement, injury management and continuous improvement initiatives.

About the Role

• Lead the development and continuous improvement of NHVR’s WHS strategy, framework and governance systems to support organisational performance and a strong safety culture.
• Partner with the Executive Leadership Team and senior leaders to embed safety leadership practices and accountability across the organisation.
• Provide strategic advice to Executive and the Board on emerging WHS risks, organisational performance and opportunities for improvement.
• Drive initiatives that strengthen NHVR’s safety culture, including leadership engagement, workforce participation, learning programs and embedding lessons learnt from incidents.
• Build organisational capability in risk identification, critical control management and proactive safety practices.
• Lead the identification and management of critical organisational WHS risks and ensure effective control frameworks are implemented and monitored.
• Coach and support leaders to integrate WHS considerations into operational and strategic decision making.
• Maintain effective systems for incident reporting, investigation, learning and organisational improvement.
• Ensure WHS management systems align with contemporary practice, legislation and national regulatory obligations.
• Oversee integrated approaches to physical safety, psychological health and employee wellbeing.
• Lead effective injury management and return-to-work programs that support recovery, early intervention and sustainable return to work outcomes.
• Ensure effective management of workers compensation, claims and associated insurance arrangements.
• Provide high-quality WHS performance reporting, insights and analysis to inform decision making by the Executive Leadership Team and Board.
• Monitor organisational safety performance and identify trends, systemic risks and improvement opportunities.
• Lead assurance activities including internal reviews, audits and system evaluations.
• Lead and develop a high-performing WHS team, fostering professional capability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Manage WHS resources and budget to ensure effective delivery of strategic priorities.
• Adhere to all NHVR policies and procedures to ensure compliance with NHVR internal processes.

About you

• Demonstrated ability to lead organisational safety strategy and influence leaders to embed safety into operational and strategic decision making.
• Strong understanding of contemporary safety approaches including safety culture, human and organisational factors and learning systems.
• Extensive experience in risk management and critical safety risk frameworks.
• Ability to analyse complex systems and identify underlying organisational contributors to safety outcomes.
• Proven ability to influence leaders and drive cultural change in safety behaviours and accountability.
• Experience leading organisational initiatives that improve safety engagement and workforce participation.
• Demonstrated ability to use safety data, metrics and insights to drive organisational learning and performance improvement.
• Strong capability in translating complex safety information into clear insights for senior leaders and the Board.
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to build trusted relationships across a diverse national organisation.
• Demonstrated capability to engage, coach and influence leaders at all organisational levels.
• Proven ability to lead WHS programs and initiatives in complex, multi-site organisations.
• Experience managing incident investigation, injury management and workers compensation frameworks.

Qualifications and Experience

Essential to the Role

• 7 years plus experience in a similar role
• Tertiary qualifications in Work Health and Safety or a related discipline
• Significant experience in a senior WHS leadership role within a complex or multi-site organisation
• Demonstrated experience leading safety strategy, risk management and organisational safety improvement initiatives.

Desirable to the Role

• Experience working within a regulatory, government or transport-related environment.
• Experience leading WHS functions within nationally distributed organisations.

Why join us?

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) commenced operations in 2013 as the national entity responsible for regulating all vehicles in Australia over 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass. The NHVR minimises the compliance burden on the heavy vehicle transport industry, reduces duplication and inconsistences across state and territory borders, and ultimately for the heavy vehicle business with government in Australia.

We are headquartered in Brisbane and employ more than 1000 people across the ACT, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria.

Application Process

Please apply with your CV and cover letter addressing the essential requirements of the role.

Applications close: 5.00pm 7 July 2026 (applications may close earlier than the listed closing date if suitable candidate/s are identified prior).