OVERVIEW

Work type: Full time
Salary: Salary not specified
Grade: VPS STS
Occupation: Human Resources
Location: CBD
Reference: VG/TBC2025
At the Department of Justice and Community Safety, we’re looking for people who want to make a difference. People who take pride in their work. People who get things done. People who are committed to making Victoria a safer place.
We embrace diversity and strive to have a workforce that reflects the community we serve. We’re all about recruiting the best people, regardless of gender, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation or cultural background. If you think you can do the job and would be a good fit for our department, we’d love to hear from you.
The department is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children and recognises that children’s rights need to be respected, their views welcomed and valued, and their concerns taken seriously and acted upon.
If you require adjustments to the recruitment and selection process, or require an alternative format to any of the application material, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the contact person listed on this ad.
For more information on working with us and our recruitment process, please visit justice.vic.gov.au/careers

We’re proud of the important work we do across Victoria. Want to be part of it?

• Provide expert leadership and authoritative operational safety advice and guidance.
• Fixed, Full-Time Opportunity for two years.
• STS Grade 7: $188,297 - $256,088 plus superannuation.

The Department of Justice and Community Safety is seeking a Principal Lead, Safety to provide a critical role within Safety, Wellbeing and Compliance.

QUALIFICATIONS/REQUIREMENTS

• A suitably qualified person, with a degree in occupational/workplace health and safety is highly desirable.
• A full and current driver’s license is required due to the need to work across different locations.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Principal Lead Safety will report to the Director of Safety, Wellbeing and Compliance and is accountable for the leading the Safety function across the department. By providing high level strategic advice, you will guide the development and execution of the safety strategy, ensuring alignment with departmental goals while embedding safety as a core value. This role is strategic as well as tactical. A key focus of this role is proactively coaching and mentoring leaders and employees to uplift knowledge, ownership and engagement in safety, ensuring that workplace risks, both physical and psychosocial are effectively identified and controlled.
This role requires a strategic leader with deep proven expertise in health and safety regulations within a complex, high risk environment. This role will drive significant cultural change fostering a mindset of proactive safety awareness, including psychological safety and continuous improvement to support a safety conscious agenda throughout the department.

Some of your duties will include:

• Lead high level discussions with internal and external stakeholders to improve safety performance outcomes through proactive risk management, targeted safety initiatives, and the promotion of a strong safety culture which will ultimately contribute to a reduction in workplace incidents and a measurable decrease in workers compensation claims and premium.
• Provide authoritative advice to ensure that Safety operations and programs are guided and informed by best practice standards.
• Pro-actively work collaboratively with the broader Safety, Wellbeing and Compliance team members to operationalise the departments Health, Safety and Wellbeing Strategy.

To learn more about this role before applying, please read the attached position description.

To be successful in this role, you will have:

• Comprehensive expert knowledge, understanding and experience in the application of OHS legislation, codes of practice and regulations and the Dangerous Goods and Hazardous Substances legislation and regulations.
• Extensive industry experience in occupational health and safety management systems.
• Demonstrated experience in the identification OHS risks and developing, implementing and evaluating preventative strategies.
• Demonstrated experience in consulting with managers and staff to provide key outcomes in health and safety, change management and related workplace improvementinitiatives.
• Demonstrated experience in contributing to cultural change in health, safety, and wellbeing.
• Highly developed communication skills with the ability to influence and lead.
• Significant people management experience in strategic safety leadership roles.
• Demonstrated success operationalising safety strategies in large, complex, high risk businesses.
• Composure, resilience, sound judgement and the ability to navigate organisational complexity