A letter from the Co-Founders of Ouden Consulting

We have chosen to write this advertisement ourselves, rather than issue the standard list of responsibilities and requirements. The person we appoint will represent us and our vision in front of our customers, the most important part of our business. It seemed only right that they hear from us directly.

About Ouden Consulting

Ouden Consulting was established eighteen months ago.

Montanna’s background is in global human resources — more than 10 years across more than twenty countries, in some of the largest organisations in the world, where a single decision on people carried significant scale and consequence. Dion joined her as Co-Founder from commercial construction management, where he spent his career translating plans into delivery, and now leads our operations and strategic direction for the business.

We founded Ouden on a straightforward observation. Australian businesses were being offered HR advice that was technically correct and commercially useless. Policy suites that no one read. Frameworks designed for organisations ten times their size. Advisers who had never had to sit opposite an owner and work through a genuinely difficult decision about a long-serving employee.

We believed that could be done considerably better: global expertise, applied locally, delivered with clarity, confidence and care.

Underneath that is something we hold seriously. The businesses we partner with are not abstractions. They are workplaces where people spend the better part of their adult lives, run by owners who lie awake over decisions that affect other people’s families.

When HR is done properly in a business like that, the effect is not administrative. It changes how people are managed, how fairly they are treated, and whether they leave work each day with something left in them. That is the work.

We think it is worth doing well, and we intend to redefine the way it is done for Australian businesses.

Eighteen months on, our growth has outpaced our own projections. Which leads us to…

The opportunity

This is a client-facing partnering role. You would act as the dedicated People Partner to a portfolio of client organisations, not as a support function, but as the HR professional those businesses rely on.

The work spans the full breadth of HR practice:

- Managing your own portfolio of client accounts, including client check-ins, on-site visits, and day-to-day advisory across employee relations, performance and compliance
- Leading workplace investigations end to end — planning, interviewing, documentation and outcome management
- Developing HR policies, frameworks, employment contracts and position descriptions tailored to each client
- Conducting HR maturity assessments and building prioritised programs of work




- Designing and delivering leadership development, engagement and recognition programs
- Supporting client onboarding, scoping and proposal development
- Mentoring our HR/People Assistants.

Our work is industry agnostic. You may be advising a manufacturer one morning and a skilled services firm that afternoon. The variety is real, and it is the defining feature of the role.

Is this the right role for you?

We would rather be candid now than have either of us discover a mismatch three months in.

This role will suit you if you are a generalist and want to remain one. You will move between employee relations, policy work, capability development and business development support, often within the same day. If your interest lies in specialising deeply in a single discipline, this is not the environment for it.

It will suit you if you are comfortable working with autonomy. There is no shared services function, no centre of excellence to escalate to, and no established process to inherit. You will have direct and immediate access to Montanna, but you will be the person in the room with the client.

It will suit you if you are prepared to work on site. The role is based in Moorabbin, with regular travel to client premises. At this stage of our growth, that is how the work is properly done.

And it will suit you if you have already handled difficult matters independently. We can teach consulting practice and our methodology. We are looking for someone who has already demonstrated the judgement and composure that complex employee relations work demands.

Who we are looking for

- You are likely six to eight years into your HR career — in-house, as a generalist or business partner, or employee relations.
- You have conducted workplace investigations.
- You have drafted documentation that withstood scrutiny. You have given a leader advice they did not want to hear and been proven right.
- You have also reached the limits of what your current organisation can offer you, not the limits of your capability, but the limits of one business and one set of problems.
- You suspect you would learn more in twelve months elsewhere than in three more years where you are.

If you have been waiting for the role that finally uses everything you know, this is very likely it.

What we offer

Breadth of experience, immediately. A portfolio of client organisations rather than a single employee base.



In your first year you will encounter a wider range of HR matters than most practitioners see in five years in-house.

Access to decision-makers. You will advise and partner with CEOs, directors and business owners directly, and see your recommendations acted upon within the week. Very few HR professionals at your stage get to watch their advice take effect that quickly, or that visibly.

Direct mentorship. You will work alongside Montanna daily, with the benefit of global HR experience available to you in real time rather than through a formal development program.

Real influence. At eighteen months, much of how Ouden works is still being shaped. You would help build that rather than inherit it. In five years, when this business is considerably larger, the way it works will still carry decisions you had a hand in making.

A defined pathway. As the business grows, our intention is that the person who succeeds in this role will lead a team of HR consultants of their own. We will not commit to a title or a timeline we cannot yet guarantee.

Selection criteria

Essential

- Six to eight years' experience in an HR/ER generalist, HR business partner or HR consulting role
- Strong working knowledge of Australian employment legislation, the Fair Work Act and modern awards
- Demonstrated experience managing workplace investigations and complex employee relations matters independently
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to produce high-quality HR documentation
- Proven ability to manage client or stakeholder relationships with professionalism and accountability
- A bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Commerce, Law or a related field
- A current driver’s licence and willingness to travel to client sites around Melbourne.

Desirable

- Experience in HR consulting or professional services
- Exposure to SME, owner-led or high-growth businesses

Terms

Permanent, on site in Moorabbin with regular client visits. Reporting to the Director.

The role is offered on a full-time basis, and we will also consider applications at 0.8 FTE, four days per week. If a four-day week is what would allow you to do this work properly, please say so in your application.

A competitive base salary commensurate with experience will be discussed openly at first interview.

How to apply

Please submit your CV together with a covering letter.

We review every application personally.

We are at the point in this business where the next person through the door genuinely shapes what it becomes. If that is the kind of work you have been looking for, we would very much like to hear from you.

Thank you for your valuable time in reviewing this opportunity.

Kindest regards,



Montanna and Dion Denouden

Co-Founders, Ouden Consulting

📌 People Partner (HR Consultant) (Melbourne)
🏢 Ouden HR Consulting
📍 Melbourne