Health & Safety Business Partner
Health & Safety Business Partners (2 positions)
Bring your passion for people, safety, and leadership capability to one of Aotearoa’s leading aged care providers.
📍 Wellington or Christchurch | Full-time 40 hours per week | multi-site operational role
Mō tēnei tūranga mahi | About the role
At Heritage Lifecare, we believe in a better every day — for our residents, our teams, and our communities.
As one of New Zealand’s largest aged care providers, we care for more than 2,200 residents across our nationwide network, supported by 2,700 dedicated people who bring compassion and excellence to everything they do.
We’re looking for highly credible and relationship-driven Health & Safety Business Partners who are passionate about building capability, strengthening safety leadership, and embedding practical health and safety practices across our operational sites.
This role is less about “doing H&S” and more about enabling others to do H&S well. You’ll work closely with operational leaders to coach, influence, and support them to take ownership of health and safety while operationalising key strategic priorities across your region.
Reporting to the Head of Health & Safety, you’ll partner with Care Home Managers, Village Managers, Maintenance Coordinators, Health & Safety Representatives, and regional leaders to embed effective frameworks, systems, and behaviours that reduce risk and improve safety outcomes.
What you’ll do
- Act as a trusted advisor to operational leaders, enabling informed and effective health and safety decision-making across the organisation.
- Coach, mentor, and support leaders and frontline teams to strengthen capability, accountability, and confidence in health and safety practices.
- Translate strategic health and safety priorities into practical, site-level action plans that drive consistent implementation and measurable outcomes.
- Support and embed key organisational frameworks, including the Critical Risk Framework, Contractor Management Framework, Injury Management Framework, Safety Management System (SMS), and Participation & Engagement Framework.
- Partner closely with operational teams to ensure consistent delivery and continuous improvement of health and safety initiatives across all sites within the region.
- Lead and support risk identification activities, workplace inspections, audits, and assurance processes to strengthen compliance and operational safety performance.
- Provide guidance and support to leaders in incident investigations, corrective actions, injury management, and return-to-work processes.
- Foster a proactive safety culture that prioritises participation, prevention, learning, and continuous improvement.
- Analyse health and safety data, trends, and insights to identify emerging risks, inform decision-making, and drive targeted improvement initiatives.
- Contribute to organisational health and safety reporting, strategic initiatives, and continuous improvement programmes.
- Role-model Heritage Lifecare values by promoting wellbeing, accountability, collaboration, and a culture where safety and care come first.
He pūkenga tou | What you’ll bring
• 3+ years’ experience in Health & Safety advisory or business partnering roles.
• Experience working in operational, multi-site environments.
• Proven ability to influence leaders and drive behavioural and cultural change.
• Strong coaching, mentoring, and relationship-building skills.
• Experience implementing H&S systems, frameworks, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement capability.
• The ability to navigate complexity, ambiguity, and competing priorities with resilience and professionalism.
• Tertiary qualification in Occupational Health & Safety or a related field.
• Professional membership with NZISM or HASANZ (desirable).
Ngā mea e tukuna ana e tātau | What we offer
• A collaborative, values-driven environment where your work truly matters.
• The opportunity to influence leadership capability and strengthen safety culture across a national organisation.
• Professional development and growth opportunities.
• A workplace that celebrates connection, care, and community.
Nau mai haere mai ki Heritage Lifecare | Welcome
At Heritage Lifecare, we honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and embrace the principles of whanaungatanga, whakapapa, and manaakitanga in the way we connect and care. Together, we create workplaces where people feel respected, valued, and supported to do their best work.
Tono mai | How to apply
If you’re passionate about empowering leaders, building strong safety cultures, and making a meaningful impact across a large and diverse organisation, we’d love to hear from you.
Apply now via the link below — we’re reviewing applications as they come in and will move quickly to interview.
Applicants must have the legal right to work in New Zealand.
Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui – stay strong, be brave, be steadfast.
