Woolworths

Woolworths Group:

We are Woolworths Group. 200,000+ bright minds, passionate hearts and unique perspectives connected by a shared Purpose – ‘to create better experiences together for a better tomorrow.’ It’s that Purpose that fuels our ambition to explore new ideas, make brave commitments and innovate better ways to meet the food and everyday needs of more than 24 million customers every week.

If you’re excited to transform today’s blue sky thinking into a better tomorrow for future generations, you’ll find yourself supported and enriched in a dynamic, inclusive and empowering workplace that reflects the diverse communities we serve. With a culture of genuine care, a flexible approach to work and opportunities across the group to grow your career and make a meaningful impact, the possibilities for what we can achieve together are endless

The Opportunity

As State Director Victoria & Tasmania, you will hold one of the most significant operational leadership roles in the Australian retail landscape.

This is an enterprise-scale leadership role with end-to-end accountability for one of our largest and most complex state networks. You are the primary architect and executor of the Woolworths Food strategy at a state level, translating national intent into disciplined, local delivery across hundreds of stores and more than 35,000 team members.

Reporting to the Director of Stores and as a member of the Supermarkets Stores Executive Team, you will balance relentless operational excellence today with simplification, transformation and future-readiness for tomorrow, ensuring our Fresh Food People promise is delivered safely, consistently and profitably every day.

Key accountabilities include:

• Lead at Scale - Lead and develop a geographically dispersed frontline workforce of 35,000+ team members, building a high-performance, inclusive “Team 1st” culture grounded in care, accountability and leadership depth.

• Operational Excellence & Safety - Drive relentless execution of retail fundamentals, embedding a Safety First culture and strong operating rhythms that deliver fresh quality, availability, compliance and a consistently safe environment.

• Commercial & P&L Accountability - Hold full accountability for the State Business Scorecard, delivering disciplined top-line growth, margin improvement, cost control, stock loss management and strong capital returns.

• Strategy, Transformation & Simplification - Translate national strategy into clear state priorities, leading large-scale transformation that simplifies operations and embeds digital, data and AI-enabled ways of working.

• Voice of Stores & Community Leadership - Act as the senior advocate for stores and the public face of Woolworths at a state level, strengthening partnerships with government, regulators, industry bodies and local communities.

• Talent & Future Leadership - Build deep leadership capability and a strong succession pipeline, developing future leaders who think beyond traditional operational pathways and operate with a Group-wide mindset.

About You

You are an accomplished, resilient executive who thrives in complexity and leads with both commercial sharpness and genuine care.

You will bring:

• Senior operational leadership experience in a large-scale retail or consumer-facing business, ideally with exposure to grocery, fresh or high-volume store networks.

• Proven P&L ownership, with deep understanding of the end-to-end retail value chain and disciplined performance delivery.

• Strong matrix leadership capability, influencing outcomes through collaboration across complex, enterprise environments.

• Operational credibility, with the ability to balance strategy with the realities of daily execution, safety, compliance and retail cadence.

• Transformation leadership, successfully embedding change, simplification and digital capability at scale.

• Data & digital acumen, using insights, analytics and technology to improve customer, team and commercial outcomes.

• External leadership presence, with experience engaging government, regulators or industry stakeholders at a senior level.

• A leadership style grounded in care, accountability and clarity, particularly under sustained pressure.

Why this role matters:

This is a rare opportunity to lead at extraordinary scale, shaping how millions of Australians experience shopping every week while developing one of the largest frontline workforces in the country. If you are a commercially astute, operationally credible leader who can deliver today while building a simpler, stronger and more future-ready retail network, we’d love to hear from you.