Principal Industrial Relations

Date: 20 Aug 2025

Job Posting End Date:

Job Country:Australia

Job State/Province: Queensland

Job Location/Region: Brisbane

About BHP

At BHP we support our people to grow, learn, develop their skills and reach their potential. With a global portfolio of operations, we offer a diverse and inclusive environment with extraordinary career opportunities. Our strategy is to focus on creating a safe work environment where our employees feel strongly connected to our values and objectives, and where the capability of our people is key to our success.

Come and be a part of this success.

About the Role

Provides expert risk advice and specialist support to teams across the end-to-end pay environment, recommending improvements to strengthen the controls against legislative requirements and employment obligations. Continually manage and update pay policies and processes against compliance standards. Supports periodic payroll audits in monitoring for compliance and testing assurance controls. Reviews and advises on pay rule configuration and translation into existing tools, checking that the obligation is operating as expected against the legal requirement.

• Managing, assessing and remediating risk across the hire to retire value chain, and driving compliance of payroll functional processes aligned to BHP's employment obligations, risk and governance protocols.
• Supports and influences a culture of compliance through training and advice regarding compliance-related risks, controls, and legal & regulatory obligations
• Supports the strategy, advisory and management of employee and labour relations matters and outcomes within the business
• Identifies, engages and manages a range of diverse internal and external stakeholders.
• Identifies and assesses risks, makes risk informed decisions, uses BHP's risk management framework and builds a risk aware culture to support safe and productive performance outcomes.
• Sources information, plans and conducts analyses to support evidence based decision making.
• Designs and implements governance/assurance practices and Management of Change procedures to control value outcomes across BHP.
• Engages the capabilities of the entire organisation.
• Strives to achieve 100% safety, 100% customer value and 0% waste.
• Knows our customer and is obsessed with meeting their needs.

About You

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent from a related discipline (Industrial Relations / Law / Legal Studies / HR / Payroll / Commerce)
• Substantial experience working in HR / ER / Payroll compliance or related functions across large or global organisation/s within a complex regulatory environment.
• Demonstrated experience in payroll remediation programs or risk and compliance functions, and risk management practices including implementing operational improvements, policies and procedures.
• Significant experience working in a technical specialist role focussed on industrial relations, payroll compliance or employment law.
• Demonstrated experience in the interpretation of employment obligations from various sources including Enterprise Agreements, Modern Awards and legislation.
• Demonstrated experience in providing timely and strategic advice on compliance issues to senior management.
• Compliance acumen and a clear understanding of governance, risk management and compliance frameworks in adjacent industries.
  
  Strong knowledge in the application of entitlements and obligations to business context, including different working arrangements, rosters and operational requirements.
• Demonstrated understanding of HR, ER and Payroll operations and risk management practices.
• Extensive ability to apply employment law and regulatory obligations to business operations and practices.
• Proficiency in research, documenting and applying legislative history, case law, regulatory guidance to inform interpretation of employment obligations and give practical guidance.

About Our Process

At BHP, we are committed to employing individuals who align with the BHP Charter Values and meet the requirements of the role. As part of the recruitment process, there are a number of checks which may be conducted to demonstrate applicants suitability for a role including police / criminal background checks, medical, drug and alcohol testing, due diligence checks, right to work checks, and/or reference checks.

If you are already employed directly by BHP, please log in using your BHP email address or apply via our internal jobs portal.

Supporting a Diverse Workforce

The size, stability and magnitude of our business not only provides significant opportunity for professional development, but also attractive salary packages with performance-based bonuses and a best-in-class employee share program. We know there are many aspects of our employees' lives that are important, and work is only one of these, so we offer benefits to enable your work to fit with your life. These benefits include flexible working options, a generous paid parental leave policy, other extended leave entitlements and parent rooms.

At BHP, we know that we are strengthened by diversity. We are an Equal Opportunity employer that is committed to making BHP a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and be at their best every day. We are focused on creating a workforce that's more diverse and represents the communities where we work and live. providing a work environment in which everyone is included, treated fairly and with respect. We are an Equal Opportunity employer and recognise that true diversity includes gender, age, race, disability status, sexual orientation, religion, neurodiversity, education levels, and many more aspects of your identity.

BHP is committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible for all. If you have a disability, we know that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. If you would like to reach out to someone about your situation and our recruitment process, please email us at .