Woolworths

• Bring your expertise to support one of the largest self-insurer in the country

• Permanent role - Balance your work week with flexible work arrangements, 3 days in the Office with work-from-home opportunities (2 days)

• Sydney (Norwest), Melbourne, Brisbane 

Welcome to the People Team

Better experiences for our Team Members are the key to unlocking a better future for our customers and communities. Our People Team is responsible for powering the trajectory of our business and the wellbeing of our people – through the design and delivery of a seamless and enriching Team Member experience. One that strengthens the foundations of our organisation by empowering passionate Team Members to become purpose-led Woolworths Group advocates and attracting a new generation of talent to the group.

What you’ll do

We have an exceptional opportunity for an experienced leader and deep subject-matter expert in Workers Compensation. Reporting directly to the Group Head of InjuryCare & Workers Compensation, the Head of Workers Compensation Governance focuses on the critical pillars of our portfolio: regulatory relationships, license management, Third-Party Administrator (TPA) performance, financial oversight; and driving outcomes to deliver exceptional experiences for our injured team members.

As Australia’s largest private-sector employer, Woolworths Group stewards one of the most significant and complex workers' compensation self-insurance portfolios in the region, supporting more than 200,000 team members. This unparalleled breadth offers a rare opportunity to lead at a truly national scale with impact. We are committed to Human-Centric Care—ensuring we look beyond mere compliance to deliver purpose-led outcomes that place our team members at the heart of their recovery journey.

In this role, you will partner closely with other subject-matter experts in Safety & Wellbeing (including injurycare), Litigation and Treasury, with key responsibilities including (but not limited to) 

• Licensing & National Compliance: Maintaining and optimizing self-insurance licenses across all Australian jurisdictions, ensuring rigorous adherence to Group-wide compliance frameworks and statutory standards. Lead the proactive identification and mitigation of emerging risks, including ensuring the Group remains ahead of legislative shifts.

• TPA Strategic Leadership: Provide operational partnership with our Third-Party Administrator, through a shared-value lens, managing the full contract lifecycle and driving a culture of continuous improvement to exceed service delivery benchmarks.  

• Regulator & Stakeholder Advocacy: Serve as the primary executive contact for state and territory regulators, fostering influential relationships.Lead the workers compensation aspects for due diligence for acquisitions or divestments impacting the Group’s insurance footprint.

• Audit & Assurance Excellence: Lead the Group’s self-insurance workers compensation audit program, ensuring our business and TPA is "audit-ready" at all times and that corrective action plans are executed with precision.

• Financial & Actuarial Stewardship: Partner with Treasury to manage the Group’s actuarial liability provision and monitor P&L performance against financial forecasts, providing data-driven recommendations to mitigate financial volatility.

• Legal & Litigation Advisory: Act as the subject-matter expert for Group Counsel – Disputes, providing strategic guidance on complex common law claims and ensuring a unified approach to high-risk litigation.

What you’ll bring

We are looking for a Human-Centric Leader—someone who is a natural collaborator and capable of navigating the "big picture" of a Top 10 ASX entity. 

• Executive Presence: Extensive experience leading Workers' Compensation or Injury Management functions within a complex, national environment (ASX 100, Tier 1 insurer or equivalent) with proven ability to influence and build high trust at the Director and Head of level. 

• Self-Insurance Mastery: Deep subject-matter expertise in self-insurance licensing and legislative frameworks across all Australian jurisdictions; with a growth mindset to move beyond "business as usual" to "leading and driving better outcomes”

• Financial & Data driven Acumen: A proven track record of supporting large-scale actuarial liability provisions and monitoring portfolio performance against P&L forecasts; including being able to interrogate and elicit trends to drive better performance.

• Audit & Risk Governance: Experience leading rigorous self-insurance audit programs and leveraging data-driven insights to identify and mitigate strategic risks.

• Tertiary Qualifications: Bachelors degree preferred, underpinned by a comprehensive mastery of workers' compensation legislation.

What you’ll experience

Our Team Members are at the heart of everything we do, and we’re always looking for ways to support your career journey and reward great work:

• A global business with endless career possibilities around every corner and across every discipline – with valuable exposure to a vast and exciting business network.

• A range of programs to help you prioritise and manage your wellbeing, including 24/7 access to the Sonder app.

• A progressive and competitive leave policy that gives you more space for what matters to you.  

• Team discounts across our range of Woolworths Group brands you know and love and a robust rewards program that celebrates and incentivises purpose-driven work.

• Opportunity to Salary Sacrifice, enabling team members to purchase selected eligible items or services from pre-tax salary.  Can be used for novated leases, superannuation contributions, Qantas Club membership, computing devices etc.

Everyone belongs at Woolworths Group

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are key to realising our purpose of better together for a better tomorrow. We recognise the value our team’s diversity brings to our business, customers, and communities and that teams with diverse experiences and backgrounds enrich our group and are better able to innovate and solve problems. As one of the largest employers in Australia and New Zealand, we aim to create a truly inclusive workplace where everyone feels that they belong, can be their best selves, and reach their full potential.

We encourage all candidates to apply; please let us know in your application if we can support you with any adjustments in the hiring process.