WHS Business Partner

About the Role 

Opera Australia is one of the most distinctive workplaces in the country. Our people design, build and perform work of extraordinary scale and ambition, and safety is central to making that possible. This is a rare opportunity to bring your WHS expertise to an organisation where the work genuinely matters and no two weeks look the same. 

Reporting to the Head of Safety and Wellbeing, the WHS Business Partner is the hands-on WHS presence across our diverse teams. You’ll help deliver OA SAFE, our work health and safety program, by advising leaders, supporting risk, incident and injury management processes, and building safety capability across the business. You’ll also contribute to practical WHS improvement projects that strengthen the way safety is understood, managed and embedded across OA. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Make risk advice practical. Provide expert guidance on physical and psychosocial risk that works in live production conditions and coach leaders to own it themselves.
• Turn incidents into learning. Investigate using structured methodology (ICAM or equivalent), establish root cause, and drive corrective actions that fix the system rather than the symptom. 
• Assure high-risk work. Verify that high-risk activities are being planned, controlled, carried out in line with agreed controls and support teams to close gaps before they become incidents. 
• Be visible and available. Support our consultation arrangements, spend real time where the work happens, and make sure concerns raised by workers are heard, resolved and escalated when patterns emerge. 
• Support people back to work. Work alongside our injury management and RTW provider to support early intervention and recovery-at-work, and contribute to workers compensation matters as part of a broader team effort. 
• Build capability. Design and deliver training, inductions and real-time coaching that shifts how people think about safety, not just what they know about it. 
• Improve the system. Lead and contribute to WHS projects, strengthen OA SAFE frameworks and policies, and translate safety data into insight leadership can act on. 

About You 

You're an experienced WHS professional who enjoys partnering with people to improve safety outcomes. You combine strong technical knowledge with a practical, collaborative approach and are confident influencing stakeholders across a diverse organisation. 

You bring sound judgement and genuine initiative. You work well within direction, manage competing project and BAU priorities without dropping either, and know when to make the call yourself and when to escalate. 

You'll bring: 

• Tertiary qualifications in Work Health and Safety or a related discipline. 
• 5+ years in a technical WHS advisory or consulting role, partnering with operational leaders in a complex, dynamic environment.
• Strong knowledge of Australian WHS legislation, Codes of Practice, Australian Standards and risk management principles. 
• Sound judgement and initiative with the ability to prioritise across competing operational and project demands. 
• Experience conducting incident investigations, audits and risk assessments. 
• Excellent communication, relationship building and stakeholder engagement skills. 
• Working knowledge of psychosocial risk management and workplace wellbeing. 
• Strong analytical, organisational and problem solving abilities with confidence using WHS data and reporting tools. 
• High quality writing skills with the ability to develop WHS policies, procedures and analysis that are clear, defensible and aligned with legislative requirements. 
• Experience developing and delivering WHS training content or coaching. 
• Experience in live production, events, construction or another dynamic, high-risk operating environment, highly regarded.  

About Opera Australia 

Opera Australia (OA) is Australia's national opera company and one of the country's leading performing arts organisations. With more than 500 performances each year, we bring world-class opera, musicals and concerts to audiences across Australia while nurturing Australian talent on and off the stage. 

What We Offer 

Guided by our values of Curious, Creative, Collaborative, Brave and Inclusive, we offer: 

• Hybrid and flexible working arrangements. 
• Generous leave provisions, including wellbeing, cultural and parental leave. 
• Employee Assistance Program. 
• Salary packaging through SmartSalary. 
• Discounted private health insurance. 
• Swag Rewards employee discounts. 
• Complimentary tickets to selected Opera Australia performances.  

If this sounds like the opportunity you've been looking for, we'd love to hear from you.  

Click Apply to submit your CV and cover letter. 

Applications close: 28 August 2026 

For any enquiries about this role, please contact ••••@opera.org.au. 

Opera Australia recognises and acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the unceded lands and waters across Australia on which we live, perform and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We recognise, celebrate and respect all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first storytellers who carry the cultural wisdom, traditions and Dreaming of this ancient land. 

Opera Australia is committed to enabling and preserving a culture of inclusion and connectedness. Our team comes from all walks of life. We acknowledge that individual differences, life experiences, self-expression and talent strengthen our culture and reputation. In recruiting for our team, we welcome the unique contributions you can bring in terms of education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression.