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

Aspen Medical; Sydney; On-site; AUD 260,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Aspen Medical in Sydney invites expressions of interest for an Executive General Manager – People & Culture. As a member of the Defence & National Security Executive Leadership Team, you will shape workforce and culture strategy to support complex nationwide healthcare services and client expectations.

You will lead workforce planning, governance, ER/IR, capability development, and data analytics, while ensuring financial alignment and high-performance delivery across multi-site operations.

Qualifications

• Significant senior executive or enterprise leadership experience across People & Culture in a complex, service-based organisation.
• Proven ability to develop and implement contemporary people, workforce, and culture strategies that drive performance.

Responsibilities

• Partner with executive peers to foster collaboration and achievement of shared goals.
• Lead development and execution of Defence & National Security P&C strategy aligned with priorities and service delivery.
• Advise senior leadership on workforce strategy, design, leadership, culture, risk and performance.

Skills

Executive leadership

People & Culture

HR strategy

Workforce planning

Employee relations

Industrial relations

Data analytics

Governance

Regulatory compliance

Leadership presence

Education

Postgraduate HR qualification

Tools

HRIS

MS Office

Job description

Executive Leadership Opportunity

Aspen Medical is seeking expressions of interest from accomplished People & Culture executives for an Executive General Manager – People & Culture opportunity.

Job Description

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

• 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.

Applications will close September 30th 2026.

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.