Senior Manager, Workforce Strategy & Planning

REA Group; City of Yarra; Hybrid; AUD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Flexible leave

Parental leave

Community volunteering

Hackdays

Job summary

REA Group is seeking a senior expert in strategic workforce planning to design and own the enterprise talent system architecture. You will connect workforce planning, capability development, mobility, and analytics to enable enterprise decisions.

Reporting to the GM of Talent Strategy & People Partnering, you will partner with People Partnering and provide PMO support, shaping global workforce modelling and location strategy.

Qualifications

• Experience leading strategic workforce planning in a large, complex organisation.
• Ability to own and run multi-year supply and demand forecasting and scenario modelling.
• Proven track record influencing senior leadership and delivering recommendations.

Responsibilities

• Design and establish SWP as an enduring capability with governance and cadence.
• Define taxonomy of capabilities and embed into talent systems for decision making.
• Own framework for cost, speed, risk and retention trade-offs in capability gaps.
• Shape global workforce model and location strategy.
• Model workforce implications of agentic-first delivery and inform senior stakeholders.
• Build enterprise data foundations and analytics to support ELT decisions.

Skills

Strategic workforce planning

Multi-year forecasting

Senior leadership influence

Enterprise design governance

Hands-on execution

Coaching others

Technology & AI interest

Job description

• Permanent Role
• Melbourne Based
• Hybrid Ways of Working

We're REA

With bold and ambitious goals, REA Group is changing the way the world experiences property. No matter where you're at on your property journey, we're here to help with every step - whether that's finding or financing your next home.

Where Workforce Strategy and Design fits in

Workforce Strategy and Design is one of three pillars within Talent Strategy & People Partnering, alongside People Partnering and Talent & EVP. Together the three pillars form an integrated people operating model that connects portfolio partnering, enterprise talent architecture and talent attraction.

Our purpose is to translate enterprise strategy into the workforce, capability and organisation choices that make it deliverable, and to hold the enterprise view of how REA's workforce is planned, shaped and structured. Our core remit is strategic workforce planning and multi-year forecasting; critical capability definition and the sourcing mix across build, buy, bot, borrow and bond; global workforce and location strategy; organisation design principles and governance; the enterprise architecture for mobility, succession, performance and talent review; and workforce insights, modelling and scenario testing.

What The Role Is All About

Reporting to the General Manager, Talent & Partnering, the role designs and owns the enterprise talent system architecture connecting workforce planning, critical capability, mobility, succession, insights and global workforce choices – and establish strategic workforce planning as an enduring capability at REA. The role partners with Talent and People Partnering and has dedicated PMO and analytics support.

Strategic workforce planning

• Design and establish SWP as an enduring capability: operating model, outputs, cadence and governance, embedded in existing talent and business planning cycles. Own creation of the three-year supply and demand forecast and enablement roadmap for critical capabilities.
• Define and own a single agreed taxonomy of critical capabilities and roles, and embed it into talent and people systems so it drives decisions. Identify both scarcity and surplus capacity, and design the reskilling and mobility pathways out of surplus.
• Own the framework and recommendation for closing each capability gap across build, buy, bot, borrow and bond, including cost, speed, risk and retention trade-offs. Hand clear demand signals to Talent & EVP and to Learning & Capability.
• Help shape REA's global workforce model and location strategy.
• Partner with the GM and Manager, People Partnering on the workforce implications of agentic-first delivery, modelling agentic capacity as a direct input to the forecast.
• Build REA's workforce models and scenario testing, and own the workforce interpretation reaching ELT, directing central analytics and working from enterprise data and definitions.

Enterprise design standards and governance

• Set and maintain the principles for how work is grouped and structured (spans and layers, team boundaries, centralised vs embedded, capability against value streams), and the governance that tests org design decisions consistently. Act as design consult on proposed structural change.
• Evolve and govern the enterprise architecture for internal mobility, succession, performance and talent review, setting the standards and definitions; delivery executed through People Partnering and Talent teams, with dedicated PMO support.

Building the function

Supported by the GM, build SLT/ELT support for SWP, coach People Partnering and Talent colleagues in the method, and make the evidence-based case at 12 months for pillar resourcing and the enduring workforce analytics model.

What We’re Looking For

• Solid experience in strategic workforce planning in a complex organisation, with genuine exposure to building a capability rather than maintaining an established one.
• Experience owning multi-year supply and demand forecasting, including the capability taxonomy, data definitions and scenario modelling beneath it, and the judgement to recognise when a model is being asked to carry more than it can.
• Experience influencing at senior leadership and executive level, with the confidence to hold a position and the credibility to have the recommendation land.
• Sound organisation design judgement at enterprise level – spans and layers, team boundaries, how capability is organised – and the discipline to set principles and hold them under pressure from well-argued exceptions.
• A genuine willingness to be hands‑on.
• Experience delivering through teams the role does not manage, and an interest in coaching People Partnering and Talent colleagues in the method.
• A genuine interest in technology, AI and building something.

The REA Experience

The physical, mental, emotional and financial health of our people is something we’ll never stop caring about. This is a place to learn and grow.

Some of our Perks & Benefits include

• A hybrid and flexible approach to working
• Flexible leave options including, birthday leave and purchase additional leave
• Flexible parental leave offering for primary and secondary carers
• Our Because We Care program offers employees volunteering leave, community grants, matched payroll giving and our Community Café donates 100% of revenue to charity
• Hackdays so you can bring your big ideas to life

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We are committed to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity, equity and inclusion. We believe teams with diverse ideas and experiences are more creative, more effective and fuel disruptive thinking. If you've got the skills, dedication and enthusiasm to learn but don't necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch.

Join our Talent Neighbourhood

Keen to be part of REA but didn't find a perfect match with this opportunity? Perhaps the timing isn't right? You should join our Talent Neighbourhood!