The People and Culture Manager is a broad, hands-on leadership role in a successful SME, responsible for the full people function — policy, employee engagement, learning and development, and recruitment — while also providing Chief of Staff support to the CEO. This is a role for someone who is equally comfortable setting strategy and rolling up their sleeves to execute it.

Key responsibilities

Continuously improve HR policy and procedure appropriate to an SME environment, ensuring compliance with the Fair Work Act, relevant Modern Awards, and other applicable employment legislation in the countries of operation.

Own the employee lifecycle — onboarding, performance management, career development, and offboarding.

Lead employee engagement initiatives, including regular pulse surveys, feedback mechanisms, and culture-building activities suited to a business with a multi-cultural, high pressure workplace.

Act as a trusted advisor to the CEO and leadership team on workplace relations, performance issues, and organisational design as the business grows.

Manage workplace health and safety (WHS) obligations, including policy, training, and incident management across the company's multiple sites, including home based workforce.

Lead end-to-end recruitment across the business.

Partner with department leaders to forecast workforce needs aligned to growth targets.

Build and maintain talent pipelines.

Develop and manage a consistent, compliant onboarding experience.

Design and deliver training programs covering compliance essentials (WHS, code of conduct, antitrust, data security), leadership capability, and role-specific skills.

About you





Demonstrated experience in a generalist people leadership role within an SME environment (ideally within a business of comparable size or complexity).

Strong working knowledge of Australian employment law, the Fair Work Act, and relevant Modern Awards.

Experience overseeing or working closely with a payroll function.

Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build trust across all levels of the organisation, from frontline staff to the CEO and board.

High degree of flexibility and comfort operating in a hands-on, resource-constrained SME environment.

Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience preparing materials for executive or board-level audiences.

Prior experience in the tourism, hospitality, or broader travel industry (desirable).

Experience supporting a CEO or senior executive in a Chief of Staff or executive support capacity (desirable).

Formal qualifications in Human Resources, Employment Law, or a related discipline (desirable).

About us

The Walshe Group is one of Australia and New Zealand's leading airline GSAs, tourism representation and marketing agencies, working with some of the world's most respected travel brands. The company is celebrating 50 years as a successful SME in the Australia and New Zealand markets, along with its sister company Southern Travelnet, an inbound tour operator specialising in the Japan market. The company currently has 80 employees based in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Philippines and Malaysia.

Competitive base salary, superannuation, and performance-based short-term incentive (STI) tied to people and organisational metrics.

Non cash benefit, training allowance, community service leave, versatile working arrangements and birthday leave after 12 months.

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📌 People and Culture Manager (Sydney)
🏢 The Walshe Group
📍 Sydney