Full job description

People & Culture Specialist

Hospitality Strategy Collective is looking for an experienced People & Culture professional to join our specialist collective.

About Hospitality Strategy Collective

Hospitality Strategy Collective (HSC) was not created to become another hospitality consultancy. It was created to become a trusted partner for owners who have put their time, their reputation and often their life savings into building something they genuinely care about.

We work alongside owners at different points in the life of a venue, from building and opening new concepts to improving performance, strengthening teams and putting in place the systems and governance that support long-term success.

HSC brings together experienced specialists across operations, food, beverage, wine, people, finance, brand, marketing, design and guest experience. Behind that breadth sits a team of specialists, not generalists. Each person brings genuine depth in their field, allowing clients to access the right expertise for the particular needs of their business.

We work across Australia Pacific and South East Asia, supporting hospitality businesses through both individual specialist engagements and broader multidisciplinary projects.

The Role

We’re looking for a practical People & Culture professional with strong HR generalist experience who understands the realities of employing and managing people in hospitality.

You’ll lead the operational and compliance side of HSC’s People & Culture discipline, helping clients build clear, practical and genuinely usable people systems.

Engagements may range from reviewing existing employment documentation and compliance practices through to developing complete recruitment, onboarding, performance management and HR frameworks for new, growing or established hospitality businesses.

The role works alongside HSC’s Learning & Organisational Development Consultant, who brings complementary expertise across workforce planning, leadership development, organisational development and culture. Where projects require both disciplines, the two specialists will work together as part of the broader HSC team.

The Work May Include

• Recruitment frameworks and process design
• Position description development
• Selection criteria and interview frameworks
• Candidate assessment and evaluation templates
• Reference-check frameworks and documentation
• Employment offer documentation and processes
• Recruitment policies, procedures and governance
• Onboarding and induction frameworks
• Role-specific onboarding and first-90-day plans
• Probation management frameworks
• Employment documentation and compliance induction
• Performance review systems and KPI frameworks
• Development planning frameworks
• Performance Improvement Plan frameworks and documentation
• Employee retention and recognition frameworks
• Employment contracts, HR policies and procedures
• Modern Award interpretation and workplace legislation guidance
• Fair Work and employment compliance
• Personnel file and record-keeping compliance
• Right-to-work verification frameworks
• WHS responsibilities from a people perspective
• Employment compliance reviews and audits

This is an advisory role. You’ll help clients design and improve the frameworks, documentation and systems they use to manage their people. The role does not provide outsourced recruitment, candidate sourcing or day-to-day HR services.

About You

We’re particularly interested in someone with strong HR generalist experience and practical depth across employment documentation, recruitment frameworks, onboarding, performance administration and compliance.

You should have current working knowledge of Modern Awards, Fair Work and Australian workplace legislation as it applies in practice, together with the ability to develop clear and usable HR documentation including contracts, policies, procedures, position descriptions and performance documentation.

Strong process discipline matters. The quality of this role is demonstrated through consistent advice, sound documentation and frameworks that owners and their teams can actually use.

Experience within hospitality would be highly regarded, although experience within another shift-based, high-turnover operating environment may also translate well.

You’ll need to be comfortable working across different businesses, owners and operating models rather than within a single organisation, and collaborating with other HSC specialists where a client engagement crosses multiple disciplines.

How the Engagement Works

This is not a full-time salaried position.

You’ll join HSC as an independent subcontractor and be engaged on individual client projects as requirements arise. Each engagement will be separately scoped, with the work, deliverables and remuneration agreed for that project.

Projects may involve both remote and on-site client work depending on the engagement and client location.

HSC is currently building its specialist collective ahead of commencing trade in November 2026. Appointment to the Collective therefore does not represent guaranteed or immediate project work. We want to be clear about that from the outset so anyone considering the opportunity can assess it alongside their existing employment, consulting work and other commitments.

Why HSC

You’ll work alongside experienced specialists across food, beverage, wine, brand, design, operations, finance and other disciplines rather than operating within a people silo.

The work will take you across different hospitality businesses and different stages in their development. One engagement might involve developing the employment, recruitment and onboarding framework for a new venue; another might involve reviewing and strengthening the performance, documentation or compliance systems of an established operation.

For HSC, good People & Culture work should leave a client with practical systems they can continue to use: clear recruitment frameworks, onboarding that genuinely prepares people for their roles, sound employment practices and HR documentation they can rely on.

If this sounds like you, we’d welcome an application with your CV, a brief introduction and an outline of your relevant experience and areas of expertise.

Pay: $60.00 – $90.00 per hour

Expected hours: 8.0 – 10.0 per week

Education:

• Bachelor Degree (Required)

Work Authorisation:

• Australia (Required)

Location:

• Sydney NSW 2000 (Required)
• Work Location: Hybrid remote in Sydney NSW 2000 dream of a world where poverty has ended and all people enjoy the fullness of life God intends.

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