Grace Kelly

Based in Abu Dhabi and currently in an active career transition, investing my time and energy into a full-time search for the right next role. I am deliberately immersing myself in the local market, building relationships, understanding organisational priorities, and identifying where my experience in talent acquisition and workforce strategy can add genuine value.

~ Delivered end-to-end recruitment outcomes at scale, managing 200+ hires annually over four consecutive years while maintaining strong stakeholder confidence and quality of hire. ~ Consistently achieved a median time-to-hire of 40 days in competitive labour markets, outperforming standard market benchmarks. ~ Built trusted candidate relationships that resulted in a 99.8% offer acceptance rate, supported by clear alignment between role requirements, market conditions, and stakeholder expectations. ~ Achieved 100% first-year retention through disciplined selection, realistic role framing, and a strong candidate experience.

As Senior Recruiter at AusGroup, I led the workforce mobilisation following Chevron’s award of the Primary Maintenance Contract for Wheatstone’s first major turnaround. Within a 90-day mobilisation window, I delivered a critical recruitment program to support project readiness and execution. Working in close partnership with project and operational leadership, I secured experienced white-collar capability across project management, engineering, supervision, safety and other key functions essential to turnaround delivery. This role required operating under compressed timelines, high compliance expectations and significant stakeholder scrutiny, reinforcing my ability to deliver complex recruitment outcomes in major energy and infrastructure environments.

I transitioned into recruitment from a site-based mining training competency background, bringing first-hand experience from remote, safety-critical environments. This enables me to assess candidates beyond technical capability, with a focus on behavioural alignment, site readiness and safety culture. I continue to support workforce performance by securing talent aligned to high safety, compliance and operational standards.

In my role as HSE Training and Competency Senior Advisor, I focus on strengthening safety performance through robust competency assurance. I ensure HSE training systems are risk-based, effective, and aligned to operational requirements, working closely with leaders to embed accountability for workforce capability, authorisations, and continuous improvement across industrial and operational environments.

After working as a workforce competency coordinator, I transitioned into an HSE Officer role to contribute more directly to site safety. Drawing on my knowledge of mining operations, I supported site operations teams with daily safety activities, including toolbox talks, safety observations, safety stops, and incident investigations. This role gave me practical experience applying HSE procedures, supporting emergency response readiness, and reinforcing safe work practices on site, while continuing to develop my technical HSE capabilities.

Established and managed workforce competency processes by developing training records, verifying tickets and licences, and aligning all requirements to the company's Training Needs Analysis and site access standards. My site-based training enabled me to operate through a workforce-readiness and risk-management lens, managing authorisations, competency verification, and compliance in remote, safety-critical mining environments.

Operated heavy equipment in safety-critical environments while acting as a site HSE Representative, supporting toolbox talks, safety observations, hazard reporting, and reinforcement of safe work practices in line with site HSE requirements.

Supported early works field activities during site construction, assisting with drill rig sample collection, blast hole preparation, survey pegging, and basic mapping. Worked under construction-phase HSE procedures, permits to work, and risk assessments, supporting safe contractor operations and accurate field data capture in remote project environments.