Head of Corporate Affairs WA

About the Role

Reporting to the Vice President Corporate Affairs Australia, the Head of Corporate Affairs WA leads the strategy and team responsible for protecting and enhancing BHP’s reputation, managing risk and continuously contributing to social value creation in Western Australia. 

This key leadership role will lead the WA Community, Social Investment, Communications, State Government Relations and Corporate Affairs plans and activities. This includes acting as a key strategic advisor to both the Western Australia Iron Ore Asset President and Vice President Nickel West and being a member of both the Asset and Australian Corporate Affairs Leadership teams.

As the Head of Corporate Affairs, Western Australia you will be accountable for:

• Successfully leading a diverse Western Australian Corporate Affairs team encompassing Community, Government Relations and Communications, fostering a safe, inclusive culture and driving enhancements to capability and performance. 
• Overseeing the development and execution of BHP’s Corporate Affairs strategy in Western Australia across State Government Relations and public policy, Communications, Social Investment and Community.
• Steering the Corporate Affairs response to complex issues in the WA region requiring effective risk identification and management, stakeholder engagement and collaboration.    
• Acting as a key trusted advisor to the Asset Presidents and Leadership teams providing strategic corporate affairs advice to achieve business outcomes. 
• Working collectively with peers as a member of the Australian Corporate Affairs leadership team to enhance strategy, practice and capability across the regional Corporate Affairs team.
• Liaising with and engaging senior WA political leaders, government officials, industry associations and community groups on a broad range of issues, negotiating key partnerships in the State, and ensuring active, regular monitoring, analysis and research on political and community attitudes to WA operations. 
• Collaborating with the Indigenous Engagement team in an effective and culturally safe way to support the implementation of BHP’s Indigenous Engagement strategy in Western Australia and to enhance relationships with Indigenous Peoples.  
• Driving BHP’s Community and Social Investment outcomes in Western Australia; and 
• Ensuring the delivery of mastery level communications and campaigns that support BHP’s strategy and positioning, help manage risk and realise opportunity. 

This role will be based in Perth, Australia.

About You

You are an established leader in Corporate Affairs with proven experience in elevating teams within complex environments. Your high motivation and passion for people leadership underscore your understanding of the critical importance of reputation and External Affairs. As a natural leader you are a respected role model of BHP’s values of Doing what’s right, Seeking better ways and Making a difference.

With strong strategic acumen, your career history demonstrates your ability to serve as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders, offering insightful corporate affairs advice to achieve business outcomes. You exhibit excellent judgment, leveraging relevant experience to seamlessly connect the BHP brand, community and public policy. This includes bringing deep industry knowledge and external perspectives. Your ability to drive strategy and develop and influence strong networks across the business is key, as is converting strategic insights into measurable actions and results. 

You can manage complex priorities and meet multiple deadlines and showcase strong critical reasoning skills, paying attention to detail while seeing the bigger picture. Calm under pressure, your excellent communication skills and engaging style establish credibility and help build strong relationships and networks, critical to this role.