H&S Business Partner, Te Awamutu

Fonterra Co-operative Group; Taupo; On-site; NZD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fair pay

Health programs

Flexible working options

Employee recognition

Community involvement

Job summary

Fonterra Te Mātāpuna is seeking a Health & Safety Business Partner to strengthen safety leadership across our Te Awamutu operations. You’ll coach leaders, translate safety expectations into practical action, and guide risk-based decisions using data and frontline insights.

You’ll partner with operational teams, support incident learning, and travel to multiple sites to drive continuous improvement and safer workplaces. A NZISM certification and strong analytical skills are essential.

Qualifications

• Tertiary qualification in Health & Safety or related field.
• NZISM accreditation or equivalent.
• Experience providing Health, Safety and Wellbeing advice in operational/manufacturing settings.
• Proven ability to coach leaders and influence risk decisions.
• Strong analytical skills to interpret data and trends.
• Ability to identify emerging risks and drive practical improvements.
• Excellent relationship-building and influencing skills without formal authority.
• Learning mindset and courage for robust safety conversations.

Responsibilities

• Coach leaders and translate safety expectations into practical action.
• Use data, dashboards and observations to identify emerging risks.
• Drive risk-based decisions and strengthen critical controls.
• Lead high-quality incident and learning reviews.
• Partner with operators and frontline teams across sites.

Skills

Health & safety

Risk management

Occupational health

Coaching leaders

Analytical thinking

Influence without authority

Learning mindset

Education

Tertiary qualification in Health & Safety or related field

NZISM Professional Accreditation or equivalent

Tools

Data interpretation tools

Job description

At Fonterra Te Mātāpuna, we want everyone to feel they can be themselves.

Whether you're early in your career or ready for your next step, Fonterra offers a unique opportunity to grow with a global dairy co-operative that values care, collaboration, and contribution.

Owned by New Zealand dairy farmers and supported by a dedicated team, we are all working together to create a better future. Imagine tomorrow with us, where your career can grow, and you can create positive change.

Our Te Awamutu site has a long-established history of milk powder, butter, and AMF manufacturing in the heart of Te Awamutu. Fonterra is actively involved in the local community supporting various initiatives and programs aimed at promoting sustainability, environmental stewardship, and community well-being as well as investing in technologies and practices to minimize its environmental footprint, including energy efficiency, waste reduction, and water conservation initiatives.

About the Opportunity | Mō tēnei tūranga

At Fonterra, keeping our people safe goes beyond compliance. It's about building a culture where great decisions, strong leadership and effective risk management come together to create safer outcomes every day. As our Health & Safety Business Partner, you'll work at the heart of our operations, partnering with leaders and frontline teams to strengthen safety leadership, improve decision quality and ensure critical risks are effectively managed in real-world operating environments.

Based at our Te Awamutu site, this role offers the opportunity to work closely with operational leaders and teams across the business. Some travel will be required to support multiple sites, build strong stakeholder relationships and provide visible, frontline Health & Safety leadership.

This is a highly influential role where you'll coach, challenge and support leaders to translate Health, Safety and Wellbeing expectations into practical action. You'll use insights from data, dashboards and operational observations to identify emerging risks, strengthen critical controls and enable proactive decision-making before issues escalates.

You'll also play a key role in driving organisational learning by leading high-quality incident and learning reviews, helping teams understand what is happening in practice, and turning those insights into meaningful, lasting improvements. Working alongside leaders, workers and HSW specialists, you'll create an environment where open conversations, continuous improvement and worker engagement thrive.

If you're passionate about influencing positive change, building leadership capability and making a genuine impact on the safety and wellbeing of people across our business, this is an opportunity to shape the future of safety at Fonterra.

You're a trusted advisor who combines strong technical Health & Safety expertise with the ability to influence, coach and challenge others in a constructive and practical way. You build credibility quickly, establish strong relationships across all levels of an organisation, and are confident navigating complex risk discussions in operational environments.

You'll bring:

• A relevant tertiary qualification in Health & Safety, Risk Management, Occupational Health, Engineering, Human Factors or a related discipline, or be actively working towards one.
• NZISM Professional Accreditation or an equivalent recognised Health & Safety certification.
• Experience providing Health, Safety and Wellbeing advice within operational or manufacturing environments.
• Proven success coaching leaders and influencing decision-making around critical risks and risk controls.
• Strong analytical capability with experience interpreting data, trends and operational signals to inform risk-based decisions.
• The ability to identify emerging risks, challenge thinking constructively and drive practical improvements that make a real difference.
• Excellent relationship-building skills and the confidence to influence without relying on formal authority.
• A learning mindset, sound judgement and the courage to have robust conversations when safety matters most.

You'll thrive in this role if you're known for your ability to balance commercial realities with strong safety outcomes, build trusted partnerships and help leaders make better risk-based decisions everyday. Most importantly, you'll be passionate about creating safer workplaces and enabling people and teams to perform at their best.

At Fonterra, our values of Good Together, Better Every Day, and Every Drop Counts, are for everyone – no matter your background, identify or experience. These values guide us in delivering exceptional outcomes for our farmers, customers, communities, and each other. Discover how your values align with ours by taking our Values Quiz

We care for our people globally. Our comprehensive benefits support your well-being, development, and work-life balance:

• Fair and equitable pay
• Health and well-being programs (medical, mental health support)
• Work-life balance options (flexible/hybrid working where possible)
• Employee recognition
• Support for community involvement and cultural connection

At Fonterra, we are inspired by purpose and guided by our principles and values. Together, we create goodness for generations and make a global impact at a local level. As part of our Co-operative, you are an everyday creator, imagining what Fonterra, dairy, and you can be here.

Together, we're shaping a future of inclusion | He Wāhi mō te Katoa

Inclusion is key to our Co-operative. We're building a team that reflects the diverse world we live in, believing it drives better decisions and innovation.

We welcome applications from all backgrounds (ethnicities, genders, identities, orientations, ages, abilities, neurotypes, cultures, religions).

Even if you don't meet every requirement listed, we encourage you to apply; we value your potential and growth.

If you face accessibility issues or need accommodations during the process, please contact your recruiter. We ensure fair participation, allowing you to be at your best. Tātou, tātou.

Applications close at midnight on Wednesday 7th October 2026.