112 Oxford Road, Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, 2198
Private Bag X 20, Rosebank, 2196, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 11 637 6000
Fax: +27 (0) 11 492 0233
Website: www.anglogoldashanti.com
The Vice President (VP) of Occupational Health & Safety is a senior global leadership role reporting to the Senior Vice President (SVP) of Health & Safety. The role operates on a 2–5 year horizon and translates enterprise strategy into effective standards, programs, and performance outcomes across international underground and open‑pit gold mining operations, processing plants, exploration, and support functions. The VP leads technical excellence in occupational health, critical risk management, and crisis response while shaping a strong, proactive safety culture across the organization. This role is critical in operationalizing global safety strategy, reducing enterprise risk, protecting workforce health, and driving sustainable, reliable performance across a leading global gold mining company.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the design, deployment, maintenance, and continuous improvement of ISO 45001-compliant safety management systems and related global/regional standards, frameworks, procedures, and processes, ensuring alignment with enterprise direction while enabling practical site-level application.
- Provide applied expertise in qualitative and quantitative risk assessment methodologies (aligned with ISO 31000 principles), focusing on critical/catastrophic risks typical to gold mining (e.g., ground control, seismicity, explosives, tailings management, cyanide handling, occupational exposures).
- Drive the implementation and embedding of behavior-based and process-based safety programs across diverse global sites and operations, promoting employee engagement, visible felt leadership, and behavioral change.
- Oversee serious incident and fatality investigations, root cause analysis, and learning systems; co-lead investigations on major and extreme events; liaise with functional and Fatal Hazard champions to improve incident investigation quality and learning-from-incidents processes.
- Ensure effective operational hazard and risk management processes are maintained at all operations, including hazard identification, controls, and mitigation to prevent catastrophic events.
- Provide functional leadership for occupational health, industrial hygiene, and wellness programs, including:
- Establish and maintain a functional reporting line to site Health and Safety teams to deliver technical guidance, process governance, capacity building, and assurance.
- Facilitate cross-site learning and sharing of leading practices to elevate safety maturity and performance across the portfolio.
- Partner closely with regional/general managers, site leadership, and cross-functional teams to integrate health and safety into operational planning, budgeting, performance management, and decision-making.
- Monitor regional/site-level health and safety performance (leading and lagging KPIs), analyze trends, and drive targeted improvement initiatives and data-driven actions.
- Provide operational support during crisis events, ensuring coordinated and timely response; test and refine site emergency response and business continuity processes.
- Support the SVP in Board/ExCo/regulator/investor reporting by consolidating performance data, risk insights, and assurance information.
- Mentor and develop regional and site health and safety leadership, building capability, succession, and a high-performing function.
- Represent the function in internal/external forums, industry bodies, and regulatory engagements as required.
Qualifications & Experience
- Tertiary qualification in occupational safety, health, medicine, engineering, or a related discipline (required).
- Qualifications in occupational/public health or occupational medicine preferred; postgraduate qualifications or board certification beneficial.
- Minimum 10 years progressive safety and/or health leadership experience in mining or other heavily engineered, high-risk industries, including at least 5 years in senior leadership roles.
- Demonstrated international exposure with at least 3 years at corporate or regional level, overseeing multi-site or global operations.
- Proven track record in establishing and maintaining ISO 45001–compliant safety management systems and related global standards, frameworks, and procedures.
- Applied expertise in qualitative and quantitative risk assessment methodologies, including ISO 31000 principles.
- Deep knowledge of critical risk management, catastrophic risk prevention, and serious incident/fatality investigation methodologies.
- Demonstrated success in driving transformational change and influencing cross-functional outcomes within complex, matrix organizations.
- Demonstrated success in embedding behavior-based and process-based safety programs across diverse global sites.
- Strong understanding of occupational health, industrial hygiene, and wellness in large industrial or mining contexts.
- Experience leading cross-functional health programs across multiple jurisdictions.
- Capability to manage health crises such as pandemics, infectious disease control, or occupational exposure incidents.
- Demonstrated ability to roll out fatigue management and employee wellness programs.
- Demonstrated ability to implement occupational hygiene exposure monitoring and health surveillance programs.
Competencies & Characteristics
- Strong organizational, analytical, and interpersonal skills.
- Effective communicator and influencer capable of building relationships at all levels.
- Ability to translate strategy into actionable plans and drive disciplined execution.
- Comfortable leading in a matrix structure and influencing without direct authority.
- Resilient, adaptable, and able to manage multiple priorities in a fast‑moving, high‑hazard environment.
- Willingness to travel frequently across global operations.
AngloGold Ashanti Limited
Reg No: 1944/017354/06
Directors: G Patterson J Munanka KV Naidoo B Sangqu B Chauke
