Portfolio Director

Mini Masterminds; Sydney; On-site; AUD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Mini Masterminds is seeking an experienced Portfolio Director – Early Childhood Education & Care to provide strategic leadership across our network of centres. Reporting to the Area Manager, you will drive performance, quality and growth while supporting Centre Directors and Educational Leaders to deliver exceptional outcomes for children and families.

You will champion child safety, ensure regulatory compliance, optimise occupancy and budgets, and lead multi-site teams to sustain best-practice

Qualifications

• Diploma or higher in Early Childhood Education and Care with at least 1 year holding the qualification.
• Minimum 3 years of leadership experience in ECEC.
• Current Working with Children Check, First Aid, Anaphylaxis and CPR certifications.
• Approved child protection qualification and current child safety training.
• Strong knowledge of the NQF, National Law and Regulations related to child safety and quality.
• Demonstrated experience leading, coaching and developing teams across multiple services.
• Strong commercial acumen including occupancy growth, budgeting and wage management.
• Excellent communication, relationship-building and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and inspire Centre Directors and leadership teams to foster accountability and continuous improvement.
• Champion educational excellence aligning with NQF, NQS and approved learning frameworks.
• Prioritise child safety and ensure compliance with legislation and policies.
• Drive operational performance across multiple centres, ensuring staffing and efficiency.
• Grow occupancy and enrolments through strategies, tours, waitlists and retention.
• Manage budgets, wage costs and expenditure to improve efficiency while maintaining quality.
• Enhance family experience through strong partnerships and feedback-driven improvements.
• Lead change and cross-service improvement initiatives.

Skills

Leadership

Commercial acumen

Coaching

Communication

Occupancy growth

Budgeting

Stakeholder management

Child safety

Change leadership

Education

Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care or equivalent

Experience holding the qualification (1 year minimum)

Job description

Are you a passionate early childhood leader ready to take the next step in your career and make a meaningful impact across multiple early learning centres?

Mini Masterminds is seeking an experienced and driven Portfolio Director to provide strategic leadership, strengthen operational performance and champion exceptional outcomes for children, families and educators across our portfolio of early learning services.

This is an exciting opportunity for a confident, people-focused leader who combines a strong understanding of early childhood education with commercial acumen, operational excellence and a genuine commitment to child safety and quality education.

About the Role

Portfolio Director – Early Childhood Education & Care

Reporting to the Area Manager, you will play a pivotal role in driving the overall performance, quality and growth of our centres. You will work closely with Centre Directors, Assistant Directors, Educational Leaders and our central support teams to create consistent, high-quality experiences across the portfolio.

From developing future leaders and driving occupancy growth to maintaining regulatory compliance and improving financial performance, you will have the opportunity to influence outcomes at both a strategic and operational level.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and Inspire: Coach, mentor and develop Centre Directors and leadership teams, building a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.

• Champion Educational Excellence: Drive high-quality, child-centred and play-based learning practices aligned with the National Quality Framework (NQF), National Quality Standard (NQS) and approved learning frameworks.

• Prioritise Child Safety: Embed a strong child-safe culture across all services, ensuring compliance with relevant legislation, regulations, policies and mandatory reporting obligations.

• Drive Operational Performance: Oversee the day-to-day performance of multiple centres, ensuring services are well staffed, efficiently managed and consistently delivering quality outcomes.

• Grow Occupancy and Enrolments: Develop strategies to increase occupancy, improve tour conversions, manage waitlists and strengthen family retention.

• Manage Financial Performance: Monitor budgets, wage costs and expenditure, identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and profitability without compromising the quality of care.

• Enhance Family Experience: Foster positive partnerships with families and communities, using feedback and data to continually improve the experience across our centres.

• Lead Change and Improvement: Drive initiatives that strengthen centre performance, develop team capability and support consistent practices across the portfolio.

About You

You are an accomplished early childhood professional who thrives in a multi-site leadership environment. You know how to inspire people, build strong leadership teams and balance commercial outcomes with exceptional education and care.

You will ideally bring:

• A Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care or equivalent, or higher, with at least one year of experience holding the qualification.

• At least three years of leadership experience, preferably within the early childhood education and care sector.

• A current and valid Working with Children Check, First Aid, Anaphylaxis and CPR certifications.

• An approved child protection qualification and current child safety training.

• Strong knowledge of the NQF, National Law and Regulations, child safety requirements and educational quality standards.

• Demonstrated experience leading, coaching and developing teams across multiple services.

• Strong commercial acumen, including occupancy growth, budgeting, wage management and operational performance.

• Excellent communication, relationship-building, problem-solving and decision-making skills.

Most importantly, you are a values-driven leader who leads by example, embraces accountability and is passionate about creating safe, inclusive and inspiring environments for children, families and teams.

Why Join Mini Masterminds?

This is an opportunity to take on a significant leadership role where your expertise, ideas and leadership will help shape the success of multiple early learning services.

You will have the opportunity to:

• Make a meaningful impact across a portfolio of early learning centres.

• Develop and empower the next generation of early childhood leaders.

• Drive continuous improvement and influence educational and operational outcomes.

• Partner with central support teams to implement strategic initiatives.

• Help create a culture where children thrive, families feel connected and educators are supported to succeed.

Our Commitment to Child Safety

At Mini Masterminds, the safety, wellbeing and best interests of every child are our highest priority. We have a zero-tolerance approach to child abuse and are committed to providing safe, inclusive and respectful environments for all children.

All team members are expected to uphold our child safety commitments, comply with relevant legislation and organisational policies, and actively contribute to the protection and wellbeing of every child.