Health & Safety Regional Lead-Central

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is the country's largest employer, delivering universal public healthcare to 5 million New Zealanders. We provide essential hospital, specialist, and community health services across 80+ locations - from large urban centres to rural towns and remote communities. Our goal is to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders by delivering equitable, accessible and innovative care.

As the Health & Safety Regional Lead, you will provide tactical leadership, oversight, and governance across regionally delivered infrastructure activities within the Infrastructure and Investment Group (IIG), including capital projects, facilities management, maintenance, and operational works undertaken within live healthcare environments.

Translate national H&S strategy into regional tactical implementation and day-to-day operational practice.

You will oversee health and safety practices across complex infrastructure programmes, ensuring critical risks are effectively managed and high standards are consistently applied across the region. This is a senior leadership role where you will drive the design and implementation of regional health and safety frameworks, influence executive decision-making through expert advice on critical risks, and lead and facilitate assurance activities including audits, reviews, and verification processes.

The IIG team are focused on delivering high impact infrastructure investments that support the transformation of New Zealand's health system. Through support, oversight, and assurance across projects, programmes, facilities, and maintenance activities, the team helps ensure that health facilities, sites, infrastructure, and equipment are safe, fit for purpose, and able to support a well-functioning health system for all New Zealanders.

You are an experienced health and safety leader who brings strategic, tactical, and operational insight, along with practical expertise, to complex, high-risk environments such as large-scale infrastructure, construction, facilities, and maintenance programmes. Bringing a proactive, risk-based approach, you can translate strategy into meaningful action across diverse infrastructure, project, facilities, and operational environments.

Comfortable working across full asset and project lifecycles, you bring a strong focus on critical risk management, assurance, governance, and continuous improvement. Engaging effectively with teams, contractors, consultants, and senior leaders comes naturally, and you are skilled at influencing outcomes, constructively challenging where needed, and building alignment to achieve safe and consistent delivery.

You're passionate about creating environments where people feel safe, supported, and empowered, and play an active role in fostering a positive safety culture, ultimately contributing to better health outcomes for all New Zealanders.

You will bring:

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• Relevant qualification in Health & Safety, Engineering, Risk Management or a related discipline
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• Extensive experience leading health and safety across major infrastructure programmes
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• Strong understanding of critical risk management and Safe Systems of Work
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• Experience across full project lifecycles (planning, design, delivery, commissioning)
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• Experience developing and embedding safety management systems and frameworks
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• Ability to lead teams and influence stakeholders across complex environments
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Working for Health New Zealand

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is dedicated to ensuring excellent healthcare for the people of New Zealand. We embrace a workforce that is diverse and inclusive so that we are better positioned to understand and service our community.