Senior Safety Specialist

Cochlear; Sydney; On-site; AUD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Cochlear is seeking a Senior Safety Specialist to provide expert guidance and leadership to embed a proactive safety culture across manufacturing operations in Sydney. You will coach leadership teams, mitigate hazards, lead investigations, and continuously improve the WHS Management System (WHSMS).

Reporting to the Safety Manager, Manufacturing Australia, this permanent full-time role is based at Cochlear's Macquarie University headquarters and offers opportunities to shape safety practices that

Qualifications

• Tertiary qualifications in Work Health & Safety, or similar.
• 3-5 years' experience in a WHS role.
• Experience in a manufacturing environment is ideal.
• Experience in WHS management systems and auditing is ideal.

Responsibilities

• Strategic leadership and coaching of senior leaders to embed proactive risk culture.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate physical and psychosocial hazards; implement risk controls.
• Ensure WHS compliance with legislation, regulations and policies.
• Lead incident and near-miss investigations and report findings.
• Drive WHSMS deployment, audit, and safety reporting software (Risk Cloud).
• Support injured workers through early intervention and safe rehabilitation plans.
• Facilitate consultations with employees, HSRs, safety committees and leadership.
• Analyse safety metrics and incident trends to inform leadership.
• Deliver improvement initiatives within project timelines and procedures.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Coaching

Data analysis

Stakeholder management

Risk assessment

Education

Work Health & Safety degree

Tools

Risk Cloud

Job description

Cochlear's mission is to help people hear and be heard. As the global leader in implantable hearing solutions, Cochlear is dedicated to helping people with moderate to profound hearing loss experience a world full of sound. We aim to transform the way people understand and treat hearing loss and innovate to connect people with future technologies. Our employees tell us that the number one reason they enjoy working for Cochlear is the opportunity to make a difference to people's lives. Learn and grow with us as we tackle the most complex challenges in helping more people to experience a lifetime of hearing.

The Opportunity

Cochlear is looking for a Senior Safety Specialist to provide expert, practical advice and leadership to embed a proactive safety culture, manage workplace risks, ensure compliance with relevant WHS legislation, and assist in strengthening the safety capability of operational teams.

The primary focus of the role is on coaching leadership teams to drive safety accountability, mitigating physical and psychosocial hazards, leading incident investigations, and continuous improvement of the WHS Management System (WHSMS).

Additionally, in this role the incumbent will assist with the proactive management of the working environment and processes to ensure that all risks are identified and managed in accordance with the relevant Cochlear processes to provide a safe and healthy work environment.

Reporting to the Safety Manager, Manufacturing Australia, this is a permanent, full-time role, based at our global headquarters in Macquarie University.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership & Coaching: Partner with senior leaders, managers and supervisors to build leadership capability, drive safety accountability, and embed a proactive risk-management culture.
• Risk & Hazard Management: Identify, assess, and mitigate physical and psychosocial workplace hazards, implementing effective risk controls tailored to operational needs.
• WHS Compliance & Governance: Monitor and ensure absolute compliance with WHS legislation, regulations, and corporate safety policies.
• Incident Investigation & Reporting: Lead incident and near miss investigations, determine root causes, present findings to leadership teams, and track corrective action closure.
• Work Health & Safety Management System (WHSMS): Drive the continuous improvement, deployment, and audit of the WHSMS and safety reporting software (Risk Cloud).
• Injury Management & Rehabilitation: Collaborate closely with the Injury Management Team to support injured workers through early intervention and safe rehabilitation plans.
• Stakeholder Consultation: Facilitate effective consultation processes with employees, Health & Safety Representatives (HSRs), safety committees, leadership and external regulatory bodies.
• Data-driven Insight: Analyse safety metrics, lead indicators, and incident trends to provide actionable reports and strategic recommendations to leadership.
• Solution & Improvement Focus: Deliver solutions in line with project objectives, target and timeline within the area of expertise. And, identify and recommend significant improvement to operational procedures and processes.

About You

As we grow our operations, we are looking for people who share our passion for delivering quality hearing solutions to our customers. To add value to Cochlear in this role, you'll be able to demonstrate the following essential skills and experience:

• Tertiary qualifications in Work Health & Safety, or similar
• 3-5 years' experience in a WHS role
• Experience in a manufacturing environment is ideal
• Experience in WHS management systems and auditing is ideal

How we recognise your contribution

At Cochlear we value and welcome the unique contributions, perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds of our employees and aim to build a culture that celebrates and leverages these differences, creating a sense of belonging and enabling our people to realise their full potential. Through our internal programs and employee benefits, we aim to create an environment where our people will feel value and supported. Whether your focus is on continuous learning, professional development or simply finding an environment which enables you to thrive whilst balancing family or personal life commitments, then we have several programs in place to support you.

For more information about Life at Cochlear, visit www.cochlearcareers.com