Role: Safety. Health & Wellbeing Lead
Location: Port Melbourne, VIC
Employment Type: Full time permanent
The Safety, Health and Wellbeing Lead provides operational leadership, technical oversight and performance direction for the Safety Partners.
The role plays a critical leadership function in stakeholder engagement, working collaboratively across operational and support functions to align safety expectations with operational and legislative realities. Through structured consultation and recurring engagement with leaders and frontline teams, the Lead ensures that workplace insights inform continuous improvement and harmonisation of safety practices. This collaborative approach strengthens shared accountability, enhances control effectiveness and ensures implementation remains practical, consistent and grounded in the realities of early learning operations.
Applying strategic thinking within defined system parameters, the Lead identifies implementation drift, recurring themes and emerging risk patterns, working with operational leaders to resolve barriers, harmonise practice and strengthen risk control effectiveness
Your Impact:
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Lead and manage the Safety Partners, setting clear priorities, performance expectations and structured work allocation aligned to organisational risk priorities.
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Translate enterprise safety strategy into coordinated operational delivery across centres, ensuring alignment between safety objectives and operational realities.
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Build strong cross-functional relationships with organisational leaders, and other support functions to understand the business and promote consistent system application.
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Oversee significant investigations to ensure the analysis is robust and corrective actions are operationalised, and are sustainable.
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Ensure consistent and accurate interpretation of WHS legislation, codes of practice and organisational standards – maintaining and assessing changes against existing organisational practice.
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Drive corrective action through the Safety Partner team where implementation gaps are identified.
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Set and monitor performance metrics for Safety Partners linked to implementation effectiveness.
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Conduct deep dives, create case studies, and deliver safety learning forums to strengthen operational awareness, develop frontline capacity and promote consistency.
What Goodstart can offer you:
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Work for a company that has an aspiration to be globally recognised for early years practice and learning outcomes
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Gain significant investment in your growth and development with support, tools, training and experiences that will truly enhance the progress and outcomes for children in their earliest years.
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Be a part of a team and work environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging, inclusion and purpose
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Access to discounted childcare (up to 15%)
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Flexible work arrangements giving you choice about when and how work will be done in order to better manage your work and non-work needs
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Discounted health care and access to employee wellbeing program with BUPA
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Exclusive discounts on travel, gym memberships, Apple and Dell products, and more.
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Security and stability - as Australia’s largest provider of early learning and care and a not-for-profit social enterprise, we exist purely to improve the lives of Australia’s children and their families
You’ll bring to the table:
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Tertiary degree qualified in an Occupational Safety and Health related discipline, or equivalent.
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Minimum ten years’ experience in Safety and Health, preferably with demonstrated success in system improvement and Rehab and Return to Work and claims management.
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Basic project management skills preferable
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Exceptional time management and prioritisation skill. Highly organised.
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Excellent relationship development skills, with the ability to balance work and interaction with internal stakeholders, key suppliers and industry contacts.
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Discretion and confidentiality required.
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Genuine care and leadership for safety
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Capacity to flourish in a high-performance and high-pressure environment
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An innovative mindset and a willingness to challenge the norm
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A genuine belief that team success and value are realised when everyone plays a part
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Current Working with Children Check for the State or Territory residing in
How to apply
Click ‘Apply Now’ and submit your application.
We review applications as they are submitted. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible for your best chance to progress to the next stage of the process.
We review applications as they are submitted. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible for your best chance to progress to the next stage of the process.
Have a question? Contact our Talent Acquisition Team via email recruitment@goodstart.org.au
At Goodstart we are deeply committed to Reconciliation and encourage Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people to apply. For further information and support email deadlycareers@goodstart.org.au
If you are a placement agency or external recruiter, please refrain from submitting resumes to Goodstart unless you have a signed staffing agency agreement with us. Goodstart will not be responsible for or pay any placement fees for candidates submitted by agencies that are not approved suppliers. Any resumes received from agencies or external recruiters without an agreement will be reviewed by Goodstart and may be shared with our internal recruiting team for their reference.
Supporting our people and protecting our children
We’re an equal opportunity employer that is proud of our inclusive and diverse work environment. We know that Goodstarters from diverse cultures, backgrounds and experiences strengthen our teams and help us grow. We’re also deeply committed to Reconciliation and creating an environment where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People feel a strong sense of belonging and connection.
Safety is our priority and we will take any action necessary to ensure that all children can feel safe and be safe, and are safeguarded from abuse, neglect and harm. As a Child Safe Organisation, all of our candidates must have or obtain a valid working with children check.
Posting Notes: PORT MELBOURNE, MELBOURNE || VIC || Australia (AU) || | || No Early Childhood Qualification || Full-Time
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