Assistant Director - Recruitment and Planning

Australian Public Service Commission; Australia; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

The Australian Energy Regulator is seeking an Assistant Director - Recruitment and Planning to develop and deliver functions that identify, acquire and onboard the capabilities the AER requires. You will provide strategic and operational leadership across recruitment, capability and workforce planning.

This career-defining opportunity invites you to apply deep recruitment and workforce planning expertise to evolve a critical HR function in a new organisation.

Qualifications

• Australian Citizenship – our successful candidate must be an Australian Citizen
• Security clearance – our successful candidate is required to hold, or have the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance at the required level
• Employment check – your suitability for employment will be assessed through a screening process.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver the functions that identify, acquire and onboard the capabilities the AER requires.
• Lead the development and implementation of recruitment and workforce planning strategies and activities.
• Review and enhance standard configuration for recruitment and organisation management modules in the AER’s enterprise resource planning system (TechOne).
• Provide strategic and operational advice about workforce matters.
• Lead and support end-to-end SES recruitment activities, including planning, stakeholder engagement, assessment design, panel coordination, candidate management, governance, risk management and preparation of high-quality selection documentation to support timely and merit-based outcomes.
• Collaborate with key AER stakeholders to develop, deliver, evaluate and improve regular plans to recruit and develop the capabilities the AER requires to deliver its strategic plan.
• Develop and implement work plans for people in the Recruitment and Planning team that directs the work area, defines expected outcomes, articulates the purpose and importance of the work;
• Develop and lead the team, fostering an inclusive culture, high performance, and build capability through coaching, providing performance feedback and opportunities for career development.

Job description

APSJobs experienced an unexpected outage between 5:50pm on 16 September and 1:30am on 17 September 2026. Services have now been restored. If you are concerned the outage affected an application that closed on 16 September, please contact the relevant agency. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Employees are required to work in the office a minimum of 2 days per week

Learn how a merit list or pool may be used

Applicants suitable for the role but not offered the position for the current vacancy, may be placed in a merit list or pool. If the applicant agrees, the results may be shared with other Australian Public Service (APS) agencies for filling similar roles. Applicants may be offered a future role, without the need to reapply. A merit list or pool may be used for up to 18 months. This merit list or pool may be used to fill other vacancies anywhere in Australia. For more information about Merit Lists or Merit Pools please go to APSC's website - The APS Merit Principle

Assistant Director - Recruitment and Planning

As the Assistant Director - Recruitment and Planning you will develop and deliver the functions to identify, acquire and onboard the capabilities the AER requires. You will provide strategic and operational leadership across recruitment, capability and workforce planning functions. This role is a career-defining opportunity to apply your deep recruitment and/or workforce planning expertise to evolve and operate a critical HR function in a new organisation.

The key duties of the position include:

Working under limited guidance and exercising considerable discretion, the Assistant Director - Recruitment and Planning will:

• Develop and deliver the functions that identify, acquire and onboard the capabilities the AER requires.
• Lead the development and implementation of recruitment and workforce planning strategies and activities.
• Review and enhance standard configuration for recruitment and organisation management modules in the AER’s enterprise resource planning system (TechOne).
• Provide strategic and operational advice about workforce matters.
• Lead and support end-to-end SES recruitment activities, including planning, stakeholder engagement, assessment design, panel coordination, candidate management, governance, risk management and preparation of high-quality selection documentation to support timely and merit-based outcomes.
• Collaborate with key AER stakeholders to develop, deliver, evaluate and improve regular plans to recruit and develop the capabilities the AER requires to deliver its strategic plan.
• Develop and implement work plans for people in the Recruitment and Planning team that directs the work area, defines expected outcomes, articulates the purpose and importance of the work;
• Develop and lead the team, fostering an inclusive culture, high performance, and build capability through coaching, providing performance feedback and opportunities for career development.

• Australian Citizenship – our successful candidate must be an Australian Citizen
• Security clearance – our successful candidate is required to hold, or have the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance at the required level
• Employment check – your suitability for employment will be assessed through a screening process.

RecruitAbility applies to this vacancy. Under the RecruitAbility scheme you will be invited to participate in further assessment activity for the vacancy if you choose to apply under the scheme; declare you have a disability; and meet the minimum requirements for the job. For more information visit: https://www.apsc.gov.au/recruitability . This initiative/program is only applicable where the successful applicant will be employed under the Public Service Act 1999. Similar conditions may apply when employed under other Acts. For clarification please contact the advertising agency.

Getting to know the Australian Energy Regulator

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) works to make energy consumers better off, now and in the future. We focus on ensuring a secure, reliable and affordable energy future for Australia as it transitions to net zero emissions. We regulate electricity networks and covered gas pipelines, in all jurisdictions except Western Australia. We set the amount of revenue that network businesses can recover from customers for using these networks. From 1 July 2026, the AER structurally separated from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and transitioned into a standalone non-corporate Commonwealth entity with its own accountable authority, staff and budgetary control. The separation of the AER from the ACCC is a significant regulatory reform aimed at improving the governance and operational autonomy of the AER.