SES Band 1, Assistant Secretary - Affirmative Measures, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Department of Employment and Workplace Relations

Sydney

Sur place

AUD 180 000 - 210 000

Plein temps

Il y a 10 jours

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Résumé du poste

Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) is seeking SES Band 1 leaders to shape its direction and position the department for future challenges. The role requires strategic judgement, executive leadership, and the ability to translate priorities into outcomes across policy, programs, and service delivery.

Leaders will work across branches, engage with senior decision-makers, and drive changes that improve employment opportunities, skills development, and fair workplaces.

Qualifications

Highly regarded candidates will bring a demonstrated track record of executive leadership, strategic judgement and delivery in complex environments.
Relevant tertiary qualifications, professional accreditations, executive leadership development or specialist expertise may be advantageous depending on the role and function.

Responsabilités

Shape direction, not simply respond to it. Understand the environment around your work, identify emerging issues and opportunities and develop a clear strategic direction that connects DEWR's priorities with broader government objectives.
Bring strategic policy thinking to complex problems. Look beyond the presenting issue to understand underlying causes, connections and consequences.
Frame choices and solutions. Turn complexity into clear and credible options, surface trade-offs and risks, provide impartial advice to senior executives, Ministers and government.
Connect strategy with delivery. Ensure ideas can be translated into practical delivery across policy, programs, services, and data.
Lead beyond organisational boundaries. Build coalitions across DEWR, the APS and external organisations to create shared ownership of outcomes.

Description du poste

Canberra, ACT; Sydney, NSW; Melbourne, VIC; Brisbane; QLD; Adelaide; SA; Perth, WA

Senior Executive Service (SES) Band 1
Canberra, ACT; Sydney, NSW; Melbourne, VIC; Brisbane; QLD; Adelaide; SA; Perth, WA

About The Department Of Employment And Workplace Relations

We are committed to empowering futures, ensuring rights and enriching lives. We support people to have safe, secure and well-paid work with the skills for a sustainable future as we ourselves strive to be a model employer.

We provide the framework for fair and productive relationships between employers and employees. We also oversee skills development and training initiatives to support those entering the workforce or re‑training to take advantage of emerging employment opportunities.

With us, your work directly contributes to shaping the employment landscape. Whether you are engaging in policy development, program implementation, or direct support services, your efforts will have a tangible impact on job seekers, employees and the economy by giving them a framework to build a future anchored and realised through employment.

It is our ambition to do things differently, to create the ‘department of great jobs’– where our people reflect our purpose.

About The Opportunities

We are looking for SES Band 1 leaders who can help shape DEWR's direction and position the department for what comes next.

Our work sits at the intersection of significant economic and social challenges - how people participate in work, how Australia builds the skills and workforce it needs, how workplaces remain fair and productive, and how government responds as technology, industries and expectations change. These challenges rarely sit neatly within one branch, profession or organisation. They require leaders who can see the bigger picture, make connections across systems, turn complexity into clear choices and bring people together around outcomes.

While current vacancies exist across several areas of the department, this process is designed to identify high-performing leaders who can apply their strategic judgement, leadership and expertise across different business areas and emerging opportunities.

As an Assistant Secretary, you will lead a significant area of DEWR's work. Opportunities may arise across policy, programs, service delivery, employment services, skills and training, workplace relations, regulation, digital, data, transformation, corporate and enabling functions. You will help shape strategic direction, provide high-quality advice to senior decision-makers and translate government and departmental priorities into meaningful outcomes. You will need to understand the environment around your work, anticipate emerging issues and opportunities, and recognise when established approaches are no longer enough.

Some opportunities may be in specialist corporate functions supporting the department's external budget responsibilities. These roles involve working across the portfolio and with central agencies to shape budget proposals, drive organisational performance, provide strategic advice and contestability, and support sound management of public resources.

Strategic policy capability will be particularly important. We are interested in leaders who can identify the underlying policy or strategic question, bring evidence and different perspectives together, understand the broader system and whole-of-government context, and develop practical, credible solutions to complex problems.

As a member of DEWR's SES cohort, you will also play an important stewardship role, building capability, developing future leaders and helping position the department to respond to challenges beyond today's priorities.

Roles may be located in Canberra or other major capital cities. While some positions may have a preference for candidates based in Canberra due to business requirements, applications from candidates located in other Australian capital cities are encouraged and will be considered on merit.

Duties and Responsibilities

Shape direction, not simply respond to it. Understand the environment around your work, identify emerging issues and opportunities and develop a clear strategic direction that connects DEWR's priorities with broader government objectives.
Bring strategic policy thinking to complex problems. Look beyond the presenting issue to understand underlying causes, connections and consequences. Draw together evidence, stakeholder perspectives, implementation experience and whole-of-government considerations to develop robust policy, strategy and advice.
Frame choices and solutions. Turn complexity into clear and credible options. Surface trade-offs, risks and consequences, challenge assumptions where necessary, and provide frank, evidence-informed and impartial advice to senior executives, Ministers and government.
Connect strategy with delivery. Ensure good ideas can work in practice. Bring policy, programs, services, regulation, people, resources, technology and data together as relevant, and maintain a clear line of sight between strategic intent and outcomes for Australians.
Advance outcomes for First Nations peoples and communities. Build genuine partnerships with First Nations stakeholders, incorporate First Nations perspectives into policy, program and service design, and contribute to the department's commitment to Closing the Gap through culturally informed and evidence-based approaches.
Lead beyond organisational boundaries. Build coalitions across DEWR, the APS and external organisations and communities. Navigate different perspectives and competing interests and use influence - not hierarchy alone - to create shared ownership of outcomes.
Lead through uncertainty and change. Recognise when existing approaches need to change, make deliberate choices about priorities and resources, and create clarity and momentum when information is incomplete or the path forward is contested.
Build capability for the future. Develop people and future leaders, strengthen professional and organisational capability, embrace opportunities presented by data and technology, and create inclusive environments where different perspectives improve decisions.
Contribute as an enterprise leader. Take responsibility for the success of DEWR beyond your own branch. Contribute actively to departmental priorities, culture, governance and stewardship, and demonstrate the judgement, integrity and accountability expected of an APS senior executive.

Qualifications and Education

We value diverse professional backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. There is no single pathway to success at the SES level.

Highly regarded candidates will bring a demonstrated track record of executive leadership, strategic judgement and delivery in complex environments. Relevant tertiary qualifications, professional accreditations, executive leadership development or specialist expertise may be advantageous depending on the role and function.

Resume

Please attach a concise resume to your application which clearly outlines your work experience, educational qualifications and relevant skills. In the application form you will need to provide the details of two referees who can attest and validate your credentials and suitability for the role.

Eligibility

These positions are only open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is consistent with Section 31 of the Australian Public Service Commissioner’s Directions 2022. The filling of this employment opportunity constitutes a special measure under subsection 8(1) of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.

Confirmation of Heritage

Candidates who are applying under Affimative Measures must have their Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander heritage confirmed.

A confirmation must stipulate that a person:

is of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent; and
identifies as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person; and
is accepted as such by the community in which they live, or formerly lived.

Suitable evidence of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage may include:

a letter signed by the Chairperson of an incorporated Indigenous organisation confirming that the applicant is recognised as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person, or
a confirmation of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent document executed by an Indigenous organisation.

If the above documents are not available, the department may accept a signed letter without a common seal a statutory declaration from the candidate and a Community Elder.

If you require support through the recruitment process, please contact Recruitment@dewr.gov.au

Citizenship

to be eligible for employment with the Department, you must be an Australian Citizen or, in limited circumstances, in the process of obtaining it.

Security Clearance

our successful candidate is required to hold, or have the ability to obtain, and maintain a Baseline security clearance.

Please refer to the Job Information Pack for more information about the role.

Job Information Pack Opens in new window

The Work level standards: Senior Executive Service accommodate the diversity of roles across the APS and are structured to clearly differentiate between the work expected (i.e. responsibilities and duties) at each classification level.

You will need the following for your application: