People and Culture Manager

Our valued Oil and Gas Client is looking for a People & Culture Manager to join their Darwin team. The successful candidate will report to the Senior Manager – People & Culture.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities

• Partner with offshore and onshore leaders to translate operational priorities into pragmatic people solutions, supporting safe, compliant, and high-performing business outcomes.
• Provide Asset Management and senior P&C leadership with early visibility of emerging workforce and IR issues, aligning on communication and risk mitigation approaches before significant employee discussions occur.
• Manage complex ER/IR matters from initiation to resolution — including disciplinary, grievance, and Speak-Up cases — while maintaining constructive relationships with unions and employee representatives.
• Maintain primary accountability for Australian employment law compliance, proactively identifying people-related risks and providing trusted, legally sound advice to leadership.
• Lead, coach, and develop the local P&C team, ensuring high-quality service delivery, consistent practice, and ongoing capability uplift across the function.
• Partner with hiring managers on recruitment strategy, build effective agency and vendor relationships, and support talent management, succession planning, and annual remuneration reviews.
• Provide People & Culture expertise across the full employee lifecycle, partnering with and coaching people managers on day-to-day matters, business planning implications, and performance — in line with global principles, best practice, and local context.
• Own end-to-end mobilisation and demobilisation for offshore and international personnel, ensuring compliance with immigration, visa, and local labour requirements.
• Develop and maintain local P&C policies aligned to global frameworks, Australian employment law, and best practice, embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout.
• Deliver P&C KPIs, dashboards, and management reports, using data and people insights to identify trends, risks, and continuous improvement opportunities for leadership decision-making.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree, preferably in Human Resource Management or Business Administration. Professional HR qualification preferred but not essential.

Skills

• Proven experience in an operational or offshore environment, with an understanding of shift-based or rotational workforce structures and the challenges these create.
• Experience handling complex employee relations cases independently — including disciplinary, grievance, and Speak-Up matters — from initiation through to resolution.
• Experience working in or alongside a unionised workforce, including engagement with employee representatives and working within collective agreements
• Strong leadership and team development skills, with the ability to coach and standardise practice across a team.
• Experience partnering with operational managers to deliver solutions that balance commercial, legal, and human considerations.
• High level of integrity, professionalism, and discretion when handling confidential employee information.

Remuneration and Benefits:

• Competitive remuneration package.
• Opportunities to travel to offshore locations and operational offices.
• A diverse culture with inclusive, fun and creative teams who lead with integrity.

Our client is seeking individuals who not only resonate with their core values – (Collaborative, Ambitious, Reliable and Enduring) but also have a proactive approach to problem-solving, are attentive to details, have excellent communication skills and able to collaborate effectively across the teams.

With over 90 years' combined experience, NES Fircroft (NES) is proud to be the world's leading engineering staffing provider spanning the Oil & Gas, Power & Renewables, Chemicals, Construction & Infrastructure, Life Sciences, Mining and Manufacturing sectors worldwide. With more than 80 offices in 45 countries, we are able to provide our clients with the engineering and technical expertise they need, wherever and whenever it is needed. We offer contractors far more than a traditional recruitment service, supporting with everything from securing visas and work permits, to providing market-leading benefits packages and accommodation, ensuring they are safely and compliantly able to support our clients.