Head of People Partnering & Employee Relations

Perth Airport is Australia’s Western Hub connecting the people, businesses and communities of Western Australia with the rest of Australia and the world. Operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year, Perth Airport plays a significant role in providing economic, social and cultural benefits to West Australians. 

Perth Airport is investing more than $5 billion in new infrastructure so we can support our airline partners to grow, offering more services to new destinations and an improved customer experience. 

Over the coming decade we will expand T1 International, and build new domestic terminal facilities, a parallel runway, two multi-storey carparks and our first airport hotel. This will deliver one airport for the people of Western Australia which will host all flight services in a central location giving passengers a seamless, world-class travel experience. 

The Perth Airport estate is spread over 2100 hectares and has developed a $1.5 billion portfolio of existing industrial premises and significant vacant land holdings. 

We service a truly diverse community and play an important role in strengthening cultural, family and social bonds while supporting business, tourism and leisure travel. 

About the role 

Reporting to the General Manager, People & Culture, the Head of People Partnering & Employee Relations leads the Business Partnering and Talent Acquisition functions. You will be the critical link between P&C strategy and business execution - translating plans into practice, embedding frameworks into day-to-day operations, and equipping leaders to build capable, engaged, and well-designed teams.

This is not a role that sits at arm's length. You'll operate as a trusted advisor to senior leaders across operations, corporate functions, and a major projects portfolio, with a team of HR Business Partners and Talent Acquisition professionals delivering alongside you.

You will:

• Shape and execute people strategies aligned to business priorities, strengthen organisational capability, and lead high-performing teams that deliver measurable enterprise-wide impact.
• Lead the Business Partnering & Talent Acquisition Partnering function across all areas of the business, operations, corporate, and major projects - building team capability and ensuring commercially relevant, strategic advice to leaders.
• Own and embed the Employee Relations framework, ensuring contemporary, consistent and compliant practice. Coach leaders to manage complex ER matters with confidence, maintain constructive union relationships, and ensure correct application of the EBA and relevant legislation.
• Execute talent management, performance and engagement programs designed by the OD function, embedding them into business operations through the partnering team. This role is about driving execution, not duplicating design.
• Champion the airport's change management philosophy ensuring leaders are familiar with, confident in, and consistently applying PAPL's change management approach and tools as part of how the business manages people-related and organisational change.
• Drive cyclical P&C processes including salary reviews, performance management, FTE budgets, succession planning and strategic workforce planning, in partnership with P&C peers and Finance.
• Partner with senior leaders on organisation design, role clarity, and workforce planning to ensure structures are fit for purpose and aligned to current and future business needs.

About You 

You are a credible and contemporary people leader, recognised for bringing strategic judgement, organisational influence and a calm, assured presence to complex environments. Operating confidently at senior level, you build trusted relationships, shape critical conversations and provide the leadership required to align people, culture and business performance in moments that matter. You will bring: 

• Broad HR leadership experience across multiple disciplines, business partnering, employee relations, talent acquisition, workforce planning, with ER as a genuine strength.
• 7+ years in senior-level HR leadership roles, with a demonstrable track record of achievement in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Deep expertise in employee relations, change and organisational transformation, with the ability to lead through complexity and ambiguity.
• Proven experience building and embedding ER frameworks and executing talent and OD programs through a partnering model into business operations.
• A contemporary commercial mindset, translating people strategy into practical outcomes that strengthen performance and organisational capability.
• A strong understanding