Senior Health and Safety Advisor

This role is pivotal in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all personnel involved in construction and estate delivery activities across a significant portfolio of land, property, and infrastructure assets. You will be instrumental in translating specialist health and safety strategies into practical site execution, supporting a risk-focused, learning culture that aligns with regulatory obligations.

• Assist the Regional Construction Health & Safety Specialist with contractor assurance activities including inspections, verifications, targeted audits, frequent site visits, consolidating findings for monthly reporting.
• Support facilities management provider contractor performance reviews by verifying inductions and site-specific controls meet contractual requirements.
• Escalate and track non-conformances while supporting corrective action planning with Delivery Managers and Contractors.
• Assist investigations at moderate to serious levels by applying agreed causal analysis methods and ensuring corrective actions are implemented and verified.
• Facilitate multi-PCBU investigations as required, ensuring accurate and timely reporting into safety event systems.
• Assist with contractor induction content quality, support delivery and records management, identify competency gaps, and coordinate targeted micro-training or toolbox refreshers.
• Provide practical advice on risk management, Safety by Design principles, and emergency readiness to delivery teams.
• Review selected contractor health and safety documentation such as plans, FMSMPs, JSAs, safety cases, as well as emergency plans before sign-off recommendations.
• Support localisation and embedding of health and safety standards into daily operations by capturing feedback for system improvement.
• Provide day-to-day guidance to contractors and staff on health and safety matters while building effective relationships with internal stakeholders.

• Sound knowledge of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 along with associated regulations/codes applicable to construction and facilities activities; familiarity with Building Act 2004 and RMA 1991 interfaces is desirable.
• Strong applied understanding of permit to work systems as well as high-risk work scenarios such as confined spaces, energised systems, working at height or excavations.
• Proven ability to assess hazards accurately, evaluate risks thoroughly and make timely decisions based on risk assessment; quality assurance mindset is essential.
• Effective communication skills enabling you to coach others constructively while influencing positive outcomes across multiple stakeholders including suppliers.
• Competence in incident investigation techniques; able to facilitate multi-PCBU inquiries while supporting embedding of learnings from incidents.
• Digital literacy including proficiency with Microsoft 365 suite as well as safety reporting/assurance tools used within large organisations.
• Experience in construction or estate health & safety advisory roles on infrastructure projects ideally including complex operational environments such as Defence settings.
• Demonstrated experience governing permit to work processes alongside coaching permit issuers/receivers; experience delivering contractor inductions is highly valued.
• Experience planning/delivering assurance activities such as inspections/audits/verifications plus leading/supporting incident investigations/corrective actions.
• Relevant qualification in Occupational Health & Safety (minimum NZQA level 4); NZ Unit Standards (or equivalent) highly desirable: 17590 (Issue worksite-specific permits), 17588 (Apply for/accept/carry out work under a permit); recognised incident investigation training/qualification desirable; current First Aid certificate; technical tickets relevant to role (e.g., Confined Space/Gas Testing/Working at Height). n

Robert Walters endeavours to review all applications in a maximum of five working days. If you have not received correspondence in this timeframe please do not hesitate to contact Courtney Taylor on +64 9 374 7360.