Operations & HR Manager (Buddina)

Operations and HR Manager
- Kawana Dental, Buddina, Sunshine Coast QLD | Full-time | $100,000
- $120,000 + super We're an established independent and family-run dental practice with a team of 50 clinical and support staff, including 10 dentists and 5 OHT/hygienists. We run 9 dental chairs with a host of latest technology including CEREC, 3D scanners and 3D imaging. Our current Practice Manager is moving on, and we're taking the time to find the right person rather than the available one. This is a senior role with real responsibility. You'll be running the business day-to-day
- our people, our patients, our performance
- and you'll be helping shape what kind of place this is to work and to be treated. The team here is valuable and your job will be to help them work towards their best. We want someone who genuinely cares about both sides: the systems that keep the practice running well, and the culture that keeps people wanting to be here. How we think about the role A good manager keeps the wheels turning. A great one does that while also building a team that's proud of where they work and patients who feel looked after the moment they walk in. We're looking for someone who:
- Cares about people. Genuinely. You can hold standards firmly and still be the person staff want to bring their problems to.
- Sees recurring problems as system problems, not people problems. When something keeps going wrong, you fix the process, not the individual.
- Can have direct, fair, kind conversations when standards aren't being met. You don't avoid the hard ones, and you don't make them harder than they need to be.
- Communicates with clarity. Bottom line first, then context. Feedback grounded in what you observed, not in character judgements.
- Implements. You close the gap between good intent and actual change on the floor.
- Builds culture deliberately. You know that a happy team and a well-run practice are the same project, not competing ones. What you'll actually do
- Lead, coach and develop a large team across reception, clinical support, hygiene and admin
- Own rostering, recruitment, onboarding, performance management, and the harder conversations that come with people leadership
- Build and maintain the operational backbone: patient flow, standard work for the routines that matter most and daily rhythms
- Help us shape the culture of the practice
- the small daily things that make people feel valued, and the bigger rhythms (team meetings, celebrations, professional development, feedback loops) that hold it together
- Work alongside the ownership team on commercial performance
- Maintain compliance with infection control, radiation safety, AHPRA, WHS and privacy obligations
- Be the person patients and staff trust to listen, follow through, and do the right thing What we need from you
- Proven people leadership experience managing 15+ staff. Non-negotiable.
- A genuine interest in the people side of the work
- coaching, development, team culture. We can teach dentistry. We can't teach you to care about your team.
- A track record of implementing, not just planning. Be ready to talk about something you actually built or changed in an organisation and what it looked like 12 months later.
- Strong commercial sense. You can read a P&L; and act on it.
- Calm under pressure, direct in communication, fair in your judgement.
- Comfortable with technology Nice to have
- Dental or medical practice experience (we'll happily train the right operator from another sector)
- Formal training in operational leadership or practice management What you get
- $100,000
- $120,000 + super, negotiable on experience
- A structured handover and the time to learn the practice before you're expected to change it
- Direct working relationship with the owners, with autonomy and accountability. The owners are actively engaged in the practice and want to help you succeed.
- A team that's already good and a practice that's set up to be great How to apply Send us your CV and a short cover letter. Tell us about a recurring operational problem in a previous role, what you did to resolve it permanently, and how you knew it had stuck. Applications to: Apply on Kit Job: kitjobau.com/job/3rh1b7