Operations Lead

About the Opportunity
Vanguard Group has spent more than three decades keeping people and vehicles moving safely across New Zealand's workplaces and infrastructure projects. Two years ago the family-owned business took its safety products across the Tasman, and Australian demand has taken off since. Next year's volume is expected to double, and the year after, double again.
That growth needs a dedicated operational presence on the ground in Brisbane: someone who can take charge of receiving, dispatch, and supply coordination, and run day-to-day operations the way Vanguard runs them in New Zealand.
Reporting to the Head of Operations, you'll work within clear frameworks and limits, with the autonomy to make calls day to day and a genuine hearing when you spot a better way to do something.
The Role
This is a hands-on, varied seat covering five main areas:Process orders and manage the day-to-day customer experience for AU accounts, getting ahead of delays and ETAs before customers have to chase them.Coordinate freight, suppliers, and 3PL partners, confirming dates are realistic before they're promised and arranging exception freight when standard service won't meet a commitment.Run the warehouse side end to end: receiving, storing, picking, packing, and dispatching stock, with ownership of stock accuracy and site compliance.Support installs and project work on the ground, acting as Vanguard's presence for site access, measure-ups, and installer coordination.Handle returns and order issues through to resolution, and flag recurring patterns so they get fixed at the source rather than absorbed.Some weeks are steady. Others bring a large one-off job that takes the whole day. You'll work independently and make calls within clear limits, escalating what's genuinely outside them rather than sitting on it. What We're Looking For
You've spent at least three years in operations, logistics, or warehouse coordination, ideally with exposure to multi-state freight rather than single-site coordination. You know how to run a shift or act as 2IC in your own right, and you're comfortable managing 3PL relationships and stepping in when something needs to move faster than planned.
You'll need a full driver's licence, a current forklift licence, and the physical capability for warehouse and dispatch work day to day. You'll also need current rights to work in Australia.
Beyond the technical background, this role suits someone with a genuine bias toward structure: someone who documents how something should work rather than just getting it done and moving on, so what you build can be handed on and scaled as the team grows. Why This Is Worth Considering
This is Vanguard's first operational hire in Australia. You'll be the one putting Vanguard's way of operating into practice on the ground, and where the Australian market needs something done differently, your input genuinely shapes how the business runs from here.
Australian volume is set to double next year, and double again the year after. Growth like that doesn't sit still. As the pipeline stabilises over the next six to twelve months, there's a genuine path to this role growing into a team lead position, either building out a small warehouse team or moving into a project-focused seat, depending on where the business heads and where your own interests sit.
You'll work closely with the Head of Operations and get real exposure to how a family-owned New Zealand business scales into a new market, with the support in place to make it stick. Logistics and how to apply
This role is based in the Northern Suburbs of Brisbane with occasional national travel for site visits and installs, typically around once a month, with notice given in advance.