3,200 people on site. Two construction programs. One safety standard.

Project Ares is a 1GW hyperscale renewable data and energy hub in the Northern Territory, scaling to a potential 5GW+, positioned as Australia's answer to the AI infrastructure gap sweeping the Asia Pacific.

HSE spans the lot: two concurrent construction programs, a peak workforce of roughly 3,200 and a purpose-built village for 4,500, on a remote greenfield site 700km from Darwin. Pre-FEED is complete and FEED is underway, backed by a delivery team with 200+ years of combined mega project experience across BHP, Woodside, Chevron, Fortescue and Rio Tinto.

We're not looking for someone to audit a system somebody else wrote. We're looking for someone who will write it.

That said, you won't be doing this alone. You'll work directly alongside the Delivery Manager, the Engineering Lead, the Head of People, Culture and Industrial Relations and the rest of the project leadership team, all of whom have already taken the wider project through FEL 2.

Who we want

We want HSE leaders who have run safety on remote construction megaprojects and know the difference between a system that passes an audit and one that holds up at 2am on a night shift. People who will set a single standard across every contractor on site rather than manage several. This is a construction and commissioning mandate, not a corporate WHS role. If your instinct is to ask “who owns this risk, and do they know they own it?”, keep reading.

Our project runs on four principles: Accountable, Resilient, Enduring, Swift , not as a slogan, but as the operating standard for this role: owning critical risk personally rather than pushing it into a matrix,



holding contractors to one standard when schedule pressure builds, and building a safety culture that survives the handover into operations.

What you'll own

- Greenfield HSE management system. Build the project HSE management system from a blank page, covering FEED, construction, commissioning and the transition into operations
- Contractor HSE assurance. Set and enforce a single HSE standard across all EPC contractors and subcontractors, including flow-down obligations, verification and performance oversight
- Critical risk program. Own critical risk across bulk earthworks, rail interface [including ONRSR requirements], site aviation, HV energisation, BESS, gas generation commissioning and large-scale work at height
- Emergency & medical response. Establish emergency, crisis and medical response for an isolated site, including the in office medical centre, RFDS-compatible aeromedical interface, and the welfare and psychosocial framework for a 4,500 person village
- Environmental & heritage compliance. Own delivery against NT EPA and Commonwealth EPBC conditions, threatened species commitments, groundwater management and Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority clearances

What you bring

- Tertiary qualifications in work health and safety,



environmental management or a related engineering or science discipline
- 15+ years HSE leadership on remote construction megaprojects, ideally including power generation, LNG or resources
- A track record of building HSE management systems, not administering one you inherited
- Demonstrated ability to hold multiple EPC contractors to a single standard, including the hard conversations once schedule pressure builds
- Working knowledge of NT work health and safety legislation and the environmental approval conditions attached to major Northern Territory projects
- Remote site emergency and aeromedical response experience, in locations without immediate access to tertiary medical care
- Comfortable carrying HSE through commissioning and handover, not construction alone
- Based in or willing to relocate to Perth

Why this one's different

- A blank canvas with real authority. The systems, standards and team you build are yours to define, not inherited from a predecessor
- Direct line of sight to the Project Director, with the standing to stop work and be backed for it
- Ownership of HSE across two concurrent construction programs and an entire residential village, not one package inside someone else's program
- Backed by a delivery team with a genuine 200+ year mega project track record, on a project where the village has been designed around safety, mental health and wellbeing from the outset

This is a confidential search. Client identity will be shared directly with shortlisted candidates. Apply Now or for a confidential discussion please contact Michelle Bateman, 0400 416 405 Harry & Maxwell Executive Search.

📌 Head of Health, Safety and Environment (Perth)
🏢 Harry Maxwell
📍 Perth