Executive General Manager - People & Culture - Defence & National Security

Aspen Medical; Canberra; On-site; AUD 260,000 - 380,000; Full time

Job summary

Aspen Medical is seeking an Executive General Manager – People & Culture to shape workforce, culture and strategy for complex healthcare services. As a member of the Defence & National Security Executive Leadership Team, you will drive workforce governance, ER/IR, and readiness while aligning with operational delivery and client expectations.

You will partner with senior peers, lead workforce planning, provide strategic advice, manage P&L for P&C, and champion data-driven

Qualifications

• Senior executive or enterprise leadership experience in People & Culture within a complex service-based organisation.
• Proven success delivering contemporary people, workforce and culture strategies driving performance and growth.
• Experience across workforce planning, governance, risk, policy and mature employee experience.

Responsibilities

• Partner with executive peers across Defence & National Security to achieve shared goals.
• Lead development and execution of P&C strategy aligned with priorities and service delivery.
• Advise the executive team on workforce strategy, design, leadership, culture and performance.
• Lead strategic workforce planning including capability, roles, mobility and surge requirements.
• Be accountable for P&L performance across the P&C function and align with financial outcomes.
• Provide executive leadership in a large-scale people-led service environment with onboarding and readiness.
• Establish robust workforce governance, assurance and risk frameworks with executive visibility.
• Lead employee relations and workplace policy compliant with Australian frameworks.
• Champion workforce data, analytics and digital systems to enable scalable P&C functions.
• Serve as trusted adviser to Chief Defence and National Security on complex workforce matters.

Skills

Senior executive leadership

People & Culture

Strategic workforce planning

Workforce governance

Employee experience

Industrial relations

Education

Postgraduate qualifications in HR or related field

Job description

Job Description

Aspen Medical is seeking expressions of interest from accomplished People & Culture executives for an Executive General Manager – People & Culture opportunity. As a member of the Defence & National Security Executive Leadership Team, this role will shape and deliver the people, workforce and culture strategy required to support complex, large-scale healthcare services. With responsibility spanning workforce strategy, organisational capability, culture, ER / IR, workforce governance and risk, this is an opportunity to build a contemporary People & Culture capability closely aligned with operational delivery, commercial performance and client expectations.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with executive peers across the Defence & National Security portfolio to achieve shared goals and foster a culture of collaboration and collective success
• Lead the development and execution of the Defence & National Security People & Culture strategy, aligned with organisational priorities, contractual obligations and service delivery requirements.
• Act as a strategic adviser to the Defence & National Security executive leadership team on workforce strategy, organisational design, leadership, culture, risk and performance.
• Lead strategic workforce planning across the portfolio, including workforce capability, critical roles, supply, mobility, retention, readiness and surge requirements.
• Be accountable for P&L performance across the P&C function, ensuring financial outcomes are actively managed alongside service delivery requirements.
• Provide executive leadership in a large-scale people led service environment, including consultation, communications, onboarding, redeployment and workforce readiness.
• Establish robust workforce governance, assurance and risk frameworks, providing executive-level visibility of workforce capacity, compliance, performance and readiness.
• Lead contemporary employee relations, industrial relations, workforce policy and employment practices that are legally compliant, commercially sound and operationally practical.
• Champion workforce data, analytics, people systems and continuous improvement to strengthen decision-making and enable a scalable, digitally enabled People & Culture function.
• Serve as a trusted adviser to the Chief Defence and National Security on complex workforce matters.

Skills, Experience And Qualifications

We are seeking an experienced People & Culture executive who brings:

• Significant senior executive or enterprise leadership experience across People & Culture, Human Resources or workforce strategy within a complex, service-based organisation.
• Demonstrated success developing and implementing contemporary people, workforce, and culture strategies supporting organisational performance, transformation and growth.
• Strong expertise across strategic workforce planning, workforce mobilisation, workforce governance, workforce risk, capability development and employee experience.
• Proven experience operating as a trusted adviser to senior executives, with the judgement, influence and commercial awareness to navigate complex and ambiguous environments.
• Strong experience across employee and industrial relations, employment compliance, workforce policy and Australian workplace relations frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale workforces ideally across geographically dispersed or multi-site operations.
• The ability to use workforce data and analytics to inform executive decisions, anticipate workforce risks and drive measurable improvements in organisational performance.
• Experience within healthcare, Defence, national security, government services or another highly regulated, mission-critical service environment will be highly regarded, along with relevant postgraduate qualifications and/or professional HR certification.

Aspen Medical values diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all backgrounds, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, LGBTQIA+ communities, and those from diverse cultural backgrounds. We also welcome applications from ADF veterans with relevant experience.

Applications will close September 30th 2026.

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