Senior Manager, Safety

Zerra develops and operates hyperscale data centre campuses across Australia, Japan and India, delivering capacity at scale into markets driven by the growth of cloud and AI. Zerra's flexible campus developments support hyperscale and neocloud organisations, enabling some of the world's fastest-scaling technology businesses to grow with certainty and ambition. 

At Zerra, we empower exceptional people to challenge convention, drive innovation and make a real impact in digital infrastructure. Our culture fuses entrepreneurial agility with global expertise, enabling our teams to deliver results that matter. 

We believe that diverse perspectives, inclusive leadership and equitable opportunities are essential to building stronger teams and better outcomes. We are committed to fostering a workplace where everyone feels respected, supported and empowered to thrive. 

Zerra is part of AGP, an independently owned investor and asset manager that develops and operates real assets across the energy, digital and real estate sectors. 

Western Downs Digital Park
Western Downs Digital Park (WDDP) is a master-planned digital and energy precinct in regional Queensland, developed and operated by Zerra. Planned across multiple delivery phases, WDDP brings together AI-ready data centres, energy infrastructure and a purpose-built campus environment. 

Located close to major power infrastructure within the Western Downs Special Industry Area, WDDP represents a major investment in Queensland's digital future and an opportunity to help deliver the critical infrastructure supporting the continued growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Experience 

• 10+ years of progressive HSE experience in complex, high-risk construction, ideally including data centre, HV, or MEP-intensive delivery.
• Demonstrated track record managing principal contractor HSE obligations under Australian WorkSafe jurisdictions, including notifiable incidents and formal regulatory investigations.
• Experience embedding HSE requirements into GC and OSE vendor contracts and enforcing them through delivery.
• Experience leading incident investigations and driving corrective action closure on a live construction site.
• Queensland regulatory experience is highly regarded.
• Comfortable operating within a centrally governed HSE function, applying APAC-wide standards and frameworks at project level.

Skills 

• Deep working knowledge of ISO 45001 HSE-MS design and implementation.
• Structured investigation methodologies; HSE data analytics and dashboard production for leadership audiences.
• Contract management: drafting and enforcing HSE schedules in GC/vendor contracts.
• Proficiency in digital HSE platforms for documentation, audit tracking, and reporting.
• Working knowledge of high-risk activity controls — HV switching, confined space, working at height, energisation.
• Clear reporting — able to translate site safety performance into leadership-ready dashboards and narratives.

Desirable Qualifications and Professional Certification

• Degree in Occupational Health & Safety, Engineering, or Construction Management.
• Professional membership: Safety Institute of Australia (SIA), IOSH (CMIOSH), or equivalent; ISO 45001 Lead Auditor or Lead Implementer certification is advantageous.
• ICAM or TapRooT Lead Investigator certification is highly regarded.
• High-risk work qualifications or demonstrated HSE management experience in HV energisation and confined space programmes.

Competencies 
Leadership — Builds a technically credible, operationally present safety presence on site that drives outcomes with GCs and subcontractors through demonstrated expertise and consistent enforcement. 
Delivery Mindset — Drives corrective action closure, holds contractors to account without hesitation, and measures success through leading indicators, not lagging statistics alone. 
Stakeholder Orientation — Engages effectively across site workers, GC supervisors, the Project Delivery Director, and WorkSafe authorities, calibrating content and tone to audience without diluting the standard. 
Analytical Thinking — Identifies systemic issues before they become events through incident data, leading indicators, and audit findings. 
Integrity & Ethics — Reports safety performance honestly, including failures, to leadership and regulators; refuses to trade genuine safety outcomes for programme schedule or cost.  The Senior Manager, Safety, WDDP owns HSE delivery for the WDDP campus — the function that keeps the leased building’s construction, and each future building as it mobilises, Injury & Incident Free while meeting Zerra’s regulatory and contractual obligations in Queensland. 

This role owns the WDDP HSE plan and site safety programme, contractor HSE accountability from tender through delivery, incident management and investigation, and HSE reporting for the campus. 

Scope covers the leased building’s construction through handover, extending to each future building as it enters delivery. The role works daily with the Project Delivery Director, WDDP on site safety governance and stop-work decisions, with the PMO Director on safety milestones and readiness gates, and directly with GC and OSE vendor safety teams, while reporting functionally to the HSE Director, APAC on HSE methodology, standards, and incident escalation. 

Success is a site where every worker goes home safely every day — leading indicators (near-misses, hazard identifications, audit compliance) trending in the right direction, zero notifiable incidents left unmanaged, and a safety culture GCs and subcontractors take as seriously as Zerra does.

Responsibilities 
Safety Leadership (Injury & Incident Free) 
This role carries personal accountability for maintaining an Injury & Incident Free (IIF) environment across all activities, teams, and sites it influences. 

• Model visible safety leadership through regular, unannounced site visits; engage directly with workers, GC supervision, and subcontractors on live site conditions.
• Exercise and enforce stop-work authority without hesitation; create an environment where every person on site feels empowered to do the same.
• Report safety performance honestly — including failures — to the Project Delivery Director, WDDP and the HSE Director, APAC; build a just culture that distinguishes human error from recklessness and responds proportionately.
• Ensure all high-risk activities (HV switching, energisation, confined space, working at height) are conducted under approved method statements and permit-to-work controls.
• Own the WDDP site’s IIF culture end to end — from induction through to handover — so safety is treated as a delivery input, not a compliance formality.

HSE Strategy & Leadership 
This role owns the WDDP HSE plan and resourcing model, calibrated to the campus’s construction volume and site risk profile, and feeds project performance into the APAC HSE function. 

• Define and own the WDDP HSE plan, annual programme, KPIs, and resourcing model — calibrated to the leased building’s construction volume and site risk profile, scaling as future buildings enter delivery.
• Participate in the quarterly APAC HSE Leadership Forum, representing WDDP’s programme performance, regulatory matters, and significant incidents.
• Ensure HSE budgets are correctly scoped within the WDDP cost plan from pre-construction, working with the Capital Project Controls Director, WDDP; provide HSE inputs to the annual ESG report.
• Contribute to the DC operations HSE framework ahead of the leased building’s handover, establishing the safety standards and protocols that will govern the live operational environment.

Construction Safety & Contractor Accountability 
This role embeds HSE requirements into every GC and OSE vendor relationship on WDDP, from tender through to demobilisation. 

• Embed HSE requirements in GC and OSE vendor contracts for WDDP from tender; approve HSE Management Plans, Site Safety Plans, and Emergency Response Plans before any site activity commences.
• Deploy and supervise site-embedded safety personnel; maintain a live critical risk register reviewed at every WDDP programme governance cycle.
• Drive proactive interventions — site walks, stop-work authority, near-miss reporting — across GC and subcontractor workforces on site.
• Feed HSE performance results into contractor reappointment and procurement decisions, working with the Project Delivery Director and Capital Project Controls Director.

Regulatory Compliance 
This role owns WDDP’s regulatory relationships and compliance posture in Queensland. 

• Maintain an up-to-date compliance matrix for WDDP across relevant Queensland and Commonwealth requirements, and own regulatory authority relationships, including formal submissions and regulatory engagements.
• Manage notifiable incident reporting, authority audit responses, and enforcement interactions with Queensland WorkSafe and other relevant regulators.
• Track legislative change and update WDDP’s compliance posture before obligations take effect.

Incident Management & Governance 
This role applies the APAC Incident Management Framework at WDDP and owns investigation and closure on site. 

• Apply the APAC Incident Management Framework at WDDP; lead all site investigations; deliver completed reports to the Project Delivery Director and HSE Director, APAC within defined SLAs.
• Coordinate legal exposure arising from incidents with Zerra Legal.
• Maintain a live corrective action register with tracked closure dates; drive near-miss and hazard identification culture as the primary leading indicator of site safety health.

Reporting, Risk & Analytics 
This role owns HSE risk and performance reporting for WDDP, feeding into both project governance and the APAC HSE function. 

• Produce monthly WDDP HSE dashboards (TRIFR, LTIFR, near-miss ratios, audit compliance) benchmarked against internal targets, feeding into APAC ExCom packs.
• Own the HSE risk register for WDDP; provide formal risk opinions at stage gate reviews; integrate HSE risk considerations as early as pre-construction planning for future buildings to reduce construction-phase risk.

People & Culture
This role builds site safety capability at WDDP and keeps the campus current on Zerra’s HSE technology and standards. 

• Recruit, manage, and develop Site Safety Officers/Advisors on WDDP; own their performance cycles in partnership with People & Culture.
• Build HSE capability across the WDDP delivery team through structured inductions and leadership training.
• Apply Zerra’s HSE technology stack on site and drive digitisation of WDDP safety documentation.