People and Culture Manager - AU

NOTE: Applications for this role must be submitted via Seek.com.au

This role is for the individual who understands the power of culture in delivering business success and will thrive on the opportunity to build a team of work-class engineers, operations, business development and marketing personnel, develop high performance and establish the company as a preferred employer for top quality talent. This position centres around growing this AusSpace 2024 Startup of the Year into a globally competitive innovator of cutting-edge technologies and proprietary autonomous robotic systems for the space, resources and defence industries. With our team poised to grow from 15 up to 80 employees over the next 3 to 5 years, this role will require a motivated and driven professional to plan and execute the growth strategy, while designing and implementing progressive human resources initiatives to underpin the company’s continued success.

 

This position starts with understanding Lunar Outpost Oceania’s immediate and long-term vision and partnering with the leadership team to develop a strategy that drives us to our stated goals and objectives. It extends into leading all phases of the employment life cycle from recruitment to separation, bringing out the best in each employee and ensuring every member of the team becomes a vocal champion for the company and its mission. This will include planning and executing effective initiatives to build a winning culture and recruiting and retaining the best talent to enable us to effectively deliver our programs, including the Australian Space Agency’s 'Roo-ver' mission. Reporting to the Operations Director, you will also be responsible for mentoring and coaching the leadership team, managers and team leads across the business to support them to be exceptional leaders.

 

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop a people and culture strategy and suite of supporting policies in collaboration with the leadership team and parent company HR team to ensure strategic alignment with corporate priorities, policies and procedures.
• Champion an inclusive high-performance culture and implement employee engagement strategies, programs, initiatives, activities and tools to bring this culture to life, monitoring tactical effectiveness and generating reports for key stakeholders.
• Engage with managers to proactively support them with implementation of HR initiatives, future workforce planning and employee relations processes, including performance management, managing and resolving grievances, disciplinary action and legally compliant termination of employment processes.
• Empower managers and team leads with appropriate tools and knowledge to effectively manage and develop their people.
• Build the annual HR budget and manage expenditure.
• Oversee the performance review process, monitoring competency progression, and considering career development, recognition opportunities and retention incentives.
• Collaborate with managers to identify training and professional development needs, source providers and schedule employee attendance.
• Lead all recruitment activities, including writing position descriptions and job advertisements, shortlisting, coordinating interviews, undertaking reference checks, communicating with applicants, preparing employment contracts.
• Design and manage the onboarding (and offboarding) process, including any compliance and qualification requirements, ensure all systems and teams are updated as required and monitor performance of new employees during the probationary period, taking on feedback to improve the new starter experience.
• Act as the primary point of contact for all employee relations and industrial relations related matters, manage and resolve complex employee relations issues and monitor compliance with industrial instruments.
• Assist the payroll function through notification of new starters, remuneration changes, terminations and leave approvals.

• Lead continuous improvement ensuring HR initiatives and programs, policies, procedures and processes are clearly aligned with business priorities and underpin high performance and a positive organisational culture.
• Manage the day-to-day HR operations, manage and mentor the small HR support team, provide general wellbeing support to employees and engage and oversee third-party vendors.

 

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in human resources, organisation management or a related field.
• 5+ years in a hands-on HR management, HR generalist, management or similar position within a multi-disciplinary organisation.
• Detailed knowledge of, and ability to develop and apply in a business environment, modern HR strategies, policies, processes, practices and systems that meet legislative and regulatory requirements.
• Proven experience in workforce planning, process improvement, strategy and policy creation and implementation, and ability to present opportunities to gain approval and support from decision makers.
• Ability to interpret industrial instruments, strong knowledge of employment legislation and ability to research where necessary to enable accurate advice and assistance.
• Exceptional communication and relationship management skills, with a highly calibrated sense of judgment and ability to empathise and handle sensitive situations with discretion.
• Confident and resilient with proven capability to offer credible, timely advice and manage performance and employee relations issues effectively.
• Engaging personality, ensuring positive relationships are established and maintained at all levels of the organisation as well as with prospective employees.
• Excellent organisation and time management skills, an innate sense of urgency and extraordinary multitasking skills.

 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Previous success building programs to attract re-entry to the workforce, engage employees from culturally diverse backgrounds and support neuro-diverse cohorts.
• Previous experience in industries employing a compliment of white- and blue-collar workforce including warehousing, manufacturing or engineering industries or similar.
• Knowledge of the talent base for innovation or technology development.
• Experience working in a startup environment.

Lunar Outpost Oceania is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate against protected characteristics (gender, age, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, disability, veteran status). We want all employees (including executives and HR) to treat others with respect and professionalism.