Operations Officer

Svitzer; Newcastle City Council; On-site; AUD 39,000 - 47,000; Part time

Job summary

Svitzer seeks an Operations Officer to join the East Coast Operations team in Newcastle on a casual basis, providing reliable coverage across shifts and ports. The role emphasizes coordinating tug bookings, crew and tug scheduling, and real-time system updates.

You will report to the Operations Centre Manager and support incident reporting, data entry, and ad-hoc management tasks to maintain safe, efficient operations throughout Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in resource and/or personnel scheduling within a fast-paced operational environment.
• Ability to interpret and apply enterprise agreements and operational procedures, ensuring compliance while managing schedules.
• Strong communication skills to build and maintain relationships with crews, internal teams, external stakeholders, and customers, particularly during urgent or critical situations.
• Demonstrated decision-making under pressure and the ability to handle complex or uncertain situations.
• High initiative and self-sufficiency, solving problems independently to keep operations running smoothly.
• Ability to learn new systems quickly and adapt to evolving operational demands.
• Willingness to work up to 12-hour shifts across days, nights, weekends, and public holidays.
• Proficiency in Excel and Microsoft Office Suites with high attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Tug Booking & Stakeholder Communication: Manage tug bookings, handle routine and emergency requests, and keep stakeholders informed across multiple ports on the East Coast in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
• Crew & Tug Scheduling: Allocate and schedule crews and tugs according to operational needs and enterprise agreements.
• System Management & Data Entry: Ensure accurate data entry across multiple systems for shipping movements, invoicing, payroll, tracking bookings and crew usage.
• Incident & Injury Reporting: First point of contact for incident and injury reporting in the East Coast region, following safety procedures.
• Ad-hoc Support for Management: Assist the management team with urgent or unexpected operational challenges.

Skills

Resource scheduling

Crew scheduling

Stakeholder communication

Excel

Microsoft Office

Attention to detail

Decision making

Adaptability

Tools

Excel

Microsoft Office

Job description

With over 190 years of maritime experience, Svitzer is a global leader in towage and marine services. But it’s not just about what happens on the water — our shore-based teams keep everything running smoothly. In every port across Australia and Papua New Guinea, our shore teams play a vital role in safe, efficient operations. When you join Svitzer, you join a team built on trust, purpose, and a commitment to doing things right.

We’re looking for an Operations Officer to join our East Coast Operations team in Newcastle on a Casual basis to provide reliable coverage.

Why You’ll Want to Join Us

In this role, you’ll gain exposure to the complexities of scheduling within a fast-moving industry, high-demand environment, handling real-time updates across a range of systems. With a combination of operational scheduling, stakeholder management, and on-the-fly problem solving, you’ll gain hands‑on experience in a role where no two days are the same. Whether responding to urgent requests, managing routine operations, or navigating system updates, you'll need to stay adaptable and efficient.

How You’ll Make a Difference

Reporting to the Operations Centre Manager, your key responsibilities will include:

• Tug Booking & Stakeholder Communication: Manage tug bookings, handle routine and emergency requests, and keep all relevant stakeholders informed across multiple ports on the East Coast in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
• Crew & Tug Scheduling: Allocate and schedule crews and tugs according to operational needs and enterprise agreements, anticipating demand and ensuring optimal resource use.
• System Management & Data Entry: Ensure accurate data entry across multiple systems for shipping movements, invoicing, payroll, tracking bookings and crew usage.
• Incident & Injury Reporting: Act as the first point of contact for incident and injury reporting in the East Coast region, assessing situations and following safety procedures.
• Ad-hoc Support for Management: Assist the management team with any urgent or unexpected operational challenges, remaining flexible and proactive.

What You’ll Bring

To thrive in this role, you’ll bring:

• Demonstrate proven experience in resource and/or personnel scheduling within a fast-paced operational environment (maritime or aviation experience is highly valued).
• Effectively interpret and apply enterprise agreements and operational procedures, ensuring compliance while managing schedules.
• Possess strong communication skills to build and maintain relationships with crews, internal teams, external stakeholders, and customers, particularly during urgent or critical situations.
• Have confidence in decision‑making, with the ability to handle complex or uncertain situations with clarity, staying composed and decisive.
• Show a high level of initiative and self‑sufficiency, solving problems independently to keep operations running smoothly.
• Break down complex tasks or instructions, prioritise effectively, and navigate ambiguity with confidence and clarity.
• Be a quick learner, able to swiftly understand new systems, adapt to changing processes, and respond to evolving operational demands.
• Be flexible and available to work up to 12‑hour shifts across days, nights, weekends, and public holidays to maintain continuous operations.
• Ability to work within defined timeframes to ensure continuity of the shipping program, and act with a sense of urgency.
• Competency in EXCEL and Microsoft Office Suites.
• High attention to detail for all the above.

Building a Diverse Workplace

In Svitzer we value the diversity of our talent and will always strive to recruit the best person for the job – we value diversity in all its forms, including but not limited to gender, age, nationality, race, sexual orientation, disability, or religious beliefs. We are proud of our diversity and see it as a genuine source of strength for building high performing teams.

Don’t meet every single requirement?Studies have shown that members from some under-represented groups are less likelyto apply for jobs if they don’t meet every single qualification. At Svitzer we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles, and we are excited about hearing from you!