Your new company

Join a highly respected global engineering and construction management organisation as it enters an exciting period of growth across Australia and New Zealand. This is a new HR Greenfield opportunity working for a global infrastructure business entering the local market. With a growing presence in Sydney and Melbourne, the organisation will invest significantly in its Australian operations and build the local capability needed to support its expanding project portfolio.

Your new role

As the organisation's first dedicated HR Manager in Australia, you will have the opportunity to establish and shape the local HR function from the ground up. Working closely with regional and international leaders, you will provide practical and commercially focused HR support across the complete employee life cycle for a small business of 15 staff with growth plans to 60 for 2027.

Your responsibilities will include:

- Establishing the Australian HR function and supporting the continued growth of the ANZ operations

- Developing, reviewing and implementing locally compliant HR policies and procedures

- Managing recruitment of new employees as the business grows as well as all onboarding

- Supporting workforce planning and organisational design for new and upcoming projects

- Building consistent onboarding and offboarding processes across Australia and New Zealand

- Partnering with managers on employee engagement, retention and capability development

- Advising local and global leaders on ER issues, local Australian employment law and compliance

- Managing remuneration, benefits and payroll activities for the local workforce with the wider Centre of Excellence overseas

- Maintaining accurate HR records, reporting and workforce insights

- Localising global processes, programs and policies when needed

- Ensuring compliance with Australian employment legislation and statutory requirements

What you'll need to succeed





- You will be an experienced HR Greenfield Specialist who is comfortable working autonomously and building practical people processes in a growing setting

- You will be experienced in working in a smaller business environments and thrive in more entrepreneurial cultures.

- Experience within construction, engineering, infrastructure, property, project management, or another project-led environment would be highly regarded.

- You must have strong knowledge of Australian employment legislation and contemporary HR practices

- Demonstrated experience across end to end recruitment and talent attraction strategies

- You MUST be hands-on and happy to do the basics as well as the more strategic work

- Exposure to a global HR or regional HR matrix would be highly regarded

- Strong stakeholder management, influencing and relationship-building capability

- A commercially minded, pragmatic and solutions-focused approach

What you'll get in return

- This is a rare opportunity to build an Australian HR function at an early stage of the organisation's ANZ growth journey.

- Genuine ownership of the local HR function and experience the excitement of a new startup

- The opportunity to create policies, processes and people frameworks from the ground up

- A highly visible role with direct access to senior regional and global stakeholders

- A supportive, relationship-driven culture built around trust and empowerment

- Initially a remote role, but it will be a Sydney CBD based location when the office is established and then a hybrid working arrangements

- Salary is 120 - 140K base + super + generous employee benefits

This is not a senior leadership position but a fun, fast paced, hands on stand-alone role with all the basic operational work to be done and established. There is future appetite for more strategic work, but right now it's getting the basics right and helping the business grow.

What you need to do now

If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, including your current notice period, salary needs and any experience in the Construction or Engineering sector.

📌 HR Manager - Greenfield (Sydney)
🏢 Hays Human Resources
📍 Sydney