Executive Manager - Operational Excellence

Stellar Recruitment; City of Brisbane; On-site; AUD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Enaex Australia is seeking an Executive Manager – Operational Excellence to unify HSE, Asset Management, Engineering, Training, Bulk Products and Regulatory Compliance. The role focuses on the safe operation of emulsion manufacturing plants classified as Major Hazard Facilities and requires strong regulator engagement and strategic leadership across multiple disciplines.

You will lead senior leaders, drive risk and compliance frameworks, and ensure asset readiness to meet current and future

Qualifications

• This role requires leadership in highly regulated, high-risk industrial environments.
• Experience with Major Hazard Facilities or equivalent assets is preferred.
• Ability to engage regulators through audits, licensing, and approvals.

Responsibilities

• Provide executive leadership across relevant departments.
• Lead safety, risk and compliance frameworks across the organisation.
• Oversee Major Hazard Facility obligations and regulatory engagement.
• Ensure asset integrity and availability of critical assets and infrastructure.
• Drive asset management/maintenance strategies to improve uptime.
• Lead asset upgrades, engineering improvements and change management.
• Oversee QA and continuous improvement of bulk explosives and emulsions.
• Translate customer and commercial challenges into safe, compliant solutions.
• Collaborate with COO to ensure asset readiness for operations.

Skills

Executive leadership

Regulatory engagement

Asset management

Operational risk

Stakeholder management

Safety & compliance

Cross-disciplinary leadership

Education

Business management degree

Master's degree preferred

Job description

About the company:

Enaex is a world leader in industrial-grade ammonium nitrate production and a leading provider of integrated rock fragmentation services in Latin America and beyond, operating in over 40 countries worldwide.

Enaex Australia has more than 20 years of experience delivering blasting services across open-pit and underground mining, supporting multiple commodities including iron ore, gold, and coal. With a fleet of Mobile Processing Units, five advanced emulsion-manufacturing facilities, and a workforce of approximately 350 skilled professionals, they combine local expertise with global knowledge to provide safe, efficient, and innovative blasting solutions.

The opportunity:

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, this is a broad and influential leadership position responsible for bringing together the HSE, Asset Management / Maintenance, Engineering, Training, Bulk Products & Regulatory Compliance functions to support safe, reliable and compliant operations across the business.

As Executive Manager – Operational Excellence, you will lead a multidisciplinary team of senior technical and professional leaders with responsibility across several business-critical areas.

A particular focus of the position is the stewardship and safe operation of Enaex Australia's emulsion manufacturing plants classified as Major Hazard Facilities (MHF). You will play a key role in maintaining strong relationships with regulators and ensuring the business continues to meet its regulatory, licensing and operating obligations.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Providing executive leadership across relevant department
• Leading safety, risk and compliance frameworks across the organisation
• Holding senior accountability for Major Hazard Facility obligations, regulatory engagement and operating approvals
• Ensuring the integrity, reliability and availability of critical physical assets including fleet, MPUs, manufacturing plant and associated infrastructure
• Driving asset management / maintenance strategies that improve plant uptime, operational reliability and production continuity.
• Leading and supporting asset upgrades, engineering improvements and management-of-change initiatives
• Overseeing quality assurance and continuous improvement of bulk explosive and emulsion products
• Translating customer and commercial challenges into safe, compliant and operationally viable technical solutions
• Working closely with the COO and operational leadership to ensure asset readiness supports current and future operational requirements.
• Providing the CEO and senior leadership with clear visibility of asset risk, safety performance, regulatory matters and major investment requirements
• Building credible and constructive relationships with regulators, industry bodies and other external stakeholdersLeading experienced technical and professional teams through operational change and continuous improvement.

About you:

This position will suit a highly experienced executive who combines strong operational judgement with technical credibility and the ability to lead across multiple disciplines.

You will ideally bring:

• 20+ years' relevant industry experience, including significant senior leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience working within highly regulated, high-risk industrial environments.
• Direct exposure to Major Hazard Facilities or equivalent highly regulated critical assets
• Experience engaging with regulators through audits, licensing processes, regulatory reviews and approvals.
• A strong understanding of operational risk, safety, asset management / maintenance and business continuity
• Proven experience leading multidisciplinary technical and professional teams.
• Experience delivering asset upgrades, operational change and continuous improvement initiatives.
• The ability to balance safety, regulatory, operational, technical and commercial priorities.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to influence at executive, operational and regulatory levels.
• A leadership style that develops experienced professionals, builds accountability and creates high-performing teams.
• Relevant tertiary qualifications in business management or a related discipline, with postgraduate or master’s level qualifications viewed favourably.

The position is ideally Brisbane based and will require regular travel across Australia. Consideration may also be given for Perth based candidates – although the travel component if based here may be higher.

A competitive salary package is on offer to attract the right candidate.