General Manager, People & Culture

Heinemann Oceania | Sydney An executive HR leadership opportunity where people strategy meets commercial performance.

About the opportunity

Civitas Talent is delighted to be partnering with Heinemann Oceania to appoint their next General Manager, People & Culture.

For anyone who's travelled internationally, there's a good chance you've come across Heinemann's duty-free retail operations.

But behind the retail experience is a complex, fast-moving business where customer experience, workforce capability and operational performance all need to work together.

And that's what makes this opportunity particularly interesting.

Heinemann is looking for a commercially minded People & Culture executive who can operate as a genuine peer to the broader leadership team, influence business decisions and connect people strategy to measurable commercial outcomes.

About the role

As General Manager, People & Culture, you'll take ownership of the full P&C; portfolio, working closely with fellow General Managers and regional stakeholders to translate business priorities into practical people, capability and workforce strategies.

The remit is broad, bringing together traditional HR leadership with workforce planning, payroll governance, WHS, training and customer service excellence.

Key priorities will include:

- Commercial leadership: Partner with the executive team on business strategy, organisational capability, workforce productivity and people-related investment.

- Workforce planning and analytics: Lead workforce modelling, labour cost management, roster optimisation and data-driven decision-making.

- People & Culture operations: Set the direction for business partnering, talent, organisational design, succession and leadership development.

- ER/IR and governance:



Provide sound commercial advice on complex employee relations matters, union engagement, employment compliance and payroll governance.

- Learning and customer experience: Connect frontline capability, leadership development and customer service standards to measurable business performance.

- Systems and transformation: Drive improvement across HR technology, processes, automation and operational efficiency.

Ultimately, this is about building a high-performing, customer-focused workforce while ensuring the business has the right structures, capability and commercial discipline to support its future.

About you

We're keen to connect with experienced HR executives who understand that being commercially minded means more than simply having a seat at the leadership table.

You know how to influence decisions, challenge constructively and balance the needs of employees with the realities of running a business.

You'll ideally bring

- Around 10 years' experience in a comparable senior HR leadership role or operating environment.

- Experience across complex, operational workforces, ideally within retail, hospitality and multisite

- Strong commercial acumen, particularly around workforce productivity, labour costs and organisational performance.

- Sound Australian ER/IR expertise, employment legislation knowledge and experience managing workforce risk.

- Proven experience leading broad People & Culture functions and developing high-performing teams.





- Confidence working with senior executives and translating business challenges into practical people solutions.

- A genuine interest in data, systems, innovation and improving how work gets done.

- Relevant tertiary qualifications in Human Resources or a related discipline.

Just as importantly, you'll be someone who builds trust, brings energy to the room and is comfortable moving between executive-level strategy and operational reality.

Someone who can challenge the business when needed, but also bring people along with them.

Why consider this opportunity?

What stands out about this role is the breadth of influence.

You'll be joining a business where People & Culture has a direct connection to customer experience, commercial outcomes and operational performance.

It's an prospect to work across a genuinely diverse portfolio, partner with senior leaders and shape how the organisation develops its people and capabilities.

For an HR executive who enjoys complexity, commercial conversations and making a tangible difference, there's plenty here to get excited about.

Interested?

Civitas Talent is managing this appointment on behalf of Heinemann Oceania.

For a confidential discussion about the opportunity, please contact:

Shane O'Neill

Director | Civitas Talent

*@civitastalent.com

Applications and referrals are welcome.

Heinemann Oceania is committed to inclusive recruitment and welcomes requests for reasonable adjustments throughout the selection process.

Recruitment agency notice

This search is exclusively managed by Civitas Talent. Unsolicited candidate submissions from third-party recruitment agencies will not be accepted. Any such submissions will be treated as referrals without fee entitlement, unless expressly agreed in writing with Civitas Talent before submission.

📌 General Manager People & Culture (Sydney)
🏢 Civitas Talent
📍 Sydney