Health, Safety and Environment Manager

• Full Time
• Application Closes 22 Aug 2026
• Taranaki - New Plymouth
• Occupational Health and Safety Specialist

 The opportunity

Port Taranaki is seeking an experienced Health, Safety and Environment Manager to join our Asset Management and Assurance team.

About the role

This senior leadership role is responsible for Port Taranaki’s HSE systems, assurance programmes, risk frameworks and operational safety capability. You will provide practical, effective and trusted HSE leadership that supports legislative compliance, operational and critical risk management, environmental responsibility and continuous improvement business wide.

• Lead the HSE team to deliver fit-for-purpose systems, assurance and support.
• Strengthen visible safety leadership, worker participation, practical risk management and environmental responsibility.

Reporting to the General Manager, Asset Management and Assurance, you will manage two direct reports and work closely with leaders, workers, contractors and port users to strengthen HSE performance, support due diligence and ensure systems, standards, and assurance remain practical, effective and aligned with business needs.

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead and continuously improve HSE systems, standards, assurance programmes and frameworks across the organisation.
• Oversee incident management, investigations, audits, inspections, corrective actions, operational and critical risk processes to support strong HSE performance.
• Coach and influence leaders and teams to embed visible safety leadership, accountability and practical risk management in day-to-day operations.
• Lead HSE reporting, providing clear insights on performance, trends, risks and improvement priorities for leadership and governance forums.
• Support emergency preparedness, resilience planning and continuous improvement activities in partnership with relevant business leads.

About you

You are an experienced HSE professional with the confidence, credibility and judgement to lead systems, assurance and operational safety improvement in a complex, high-risk environment.

You bring strong leadership, stakeholder engagement and reporting capability, with the ability to influence at all levels of the organisation. You are practical, improvement-focused and comfortable balancing legislative obligations, business needs, operational realities and the wellbeing of our people.

To be successful in this role you will ideally have:

• Senior experience in health, safety, risk, assurance or operational HSE roles, including leadership or senior advisory experience.
• Strong working knowledge of the Health and Safety at Work Act, associated regulations, PCBU duties, contractor obligations and recognised HSE good practice.
• Demonstrated experience leading HSE systems, assurance programmes, incident management, critical risk, operational assurance and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Proven ability to lead, coach and influence leaders, frontline teams, contractors and operational stakeholders to improve HSE outcomes.
• A relevant tertiary qualification in Health and Safety, Risk Management, Business or a related discipline, with experience in port, marine, logistics, energy, construction, heavy industry or other complex operational environments considered advantageous.

Our values

At Port Taranaki our values guide us on how we act with one another and how we make decisions within our business. Demonstration of these values will be key to your success:

• Our people come first: we take care of each other and our communities.
• Integrity guides us: we trust each other and act with respect and honesty, even when it is challenging.
• We embrace the future: we strive for improvement through innovation and learning.
• We collaborate to succeed: we work as a team, helping each other succeed.

What we offer

Port Taranaki is an important economic and supply chain asset for Taranaki and beyond – connecting our key regional industries with the world. We are prepared for change and embracing new ways of working, ensuring we continue to deliver for our customers and the region, in being the Pride of Taranaki.

We offer an environment where continuous learning and professional development are encouraged, as well as the ability to work autonomously - expertise and guidance at hand when you need it. We consider your wellbeing to be a priority, and we support you with great flexibility initiatives as well as having a respectful approach to diversity, inclusion, and equity in the workplace.

If this sounds like an opportunity you would enjoy, and you're motivated to contribute to the overall success of Port Taranaki Limited, please apply now with your CV and Cover Letter.

We will begin reviewing applications as they arrive, including conducting interviews. We will close this role when a successful candidate has been appointed.

All candidates must already hold the required residency status to work in New Zealand and be able to satisfy a Ministry of Justice criminal background check. Candidates must also hold a full NZ driver licence.