Team Leader, School Communications

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools; City of Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working arrangements

Professional development budget

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Job summary

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) invites a senior communications leader to shape and deliver high-quality, scalable communications across Melbourne schools and the MACS system. You will provide strategic direction to the School Communications team, aligning messages with priorities and ensuring editorial excellence across diverse audiences.

You will partner with senior leaders to plan, execute, and govern communications on complex initiatives, changes and reputational risk, while

Qualifications

• Demonstrated senior-level experience leading communications teams and providing strategic communications counsel within large, complex organisations.
• Significant experience leading strategic, critical and change communications for complex matters, including management of reputational risk.
• Exceptional writing and editorial judgement for clear, credible communications.
• Experience working with governance, risk, legal, compliance, and employee relations functions.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing capability with senior leaders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the School Communications function with strategic direction and a high-performing team.
• Develop and improve a scalable communications service model aligned to priorities.
• Provide expert counsel on sensitive, high-impact issues from strategy to execution.
• Oversee end-to-end planning for significant organisational initiatives and change.
• Collaborate with senior leaders to scope requirements and messages.
• Govern enterprise communications to schools and update channels for coordination and effectiveness.
• Exercise editorial judgement on executive briefings, speeches, and stakeholder communications.
• Develop toolkits, templates, and governance processes for consistent messaging.

Skills

Senior leadership

Strategic communications

Editorial judgement

Stakeholder engagement

Governance risk knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in Communications/PR or related

Tools

MS Office

CMS/Editorial tools

Job description

At Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools Ltd (MACS) we envision every student to be inspired and enabled to flourish and enrich the world. MACS is the largest Catholic school system in Australia. We own, govern and operate approximately 300 Catholic schools, employ over 17,000 staff and serve more than 118,000 students and their families in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

It is an exciting time to join MACS, where we are transforming to bring to life our strategic plan - MACS 2030: Forming Lives to Enrich the World that will help all MACS staff come together to make the most of what a Catholic education has to offer so that we have the greatest and most distinctive impact in our classrooms, staffrooms and schools communities. More details on the MACS strategy can be found here.

WHY WORK FOR US?

• Professional development opportunities with a defined personalised annual budget
• Access to flexible working arrangements, which include working from home
• You will work in a tight-knit, supportive team to ensure you succeed in your role
• Employee Assistant Program (EAP) supported by Mental Health First Aiders in the workplace, providing a safe and caring environment to our staff and students

The MACS Code of Conduct (the Code) embodies our collective commitment to fostering a positive and supportive work environment that prioritises the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone, inspired by our Catholic faith. We ask that all staff read and understand the Code and model the behaviours that are expected of us.

YOUR ROLE

The Team Leader, School Communications leads the delivery of a high-quality, scalable communications service that supports schools and system priorities across Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools.

The role provides strategic leadership to the School Communications team while remaining hands‑on in the planning, development and delivery of communications supporting schools and organisational priorities. The role ensures school communications are strategically aligned, well‑governed, audience‑focused and delivered to a consistently high editorial standard, strengthening engagement with principals, parishes, School Advisory Councils and school communities.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Lead and provide strategic direction to the School Communications function, building a high‑performing team with strong capability in strategic, critical and operational communications.
• Lead the development and continuous improvement of a scalable, high‑quality communications service model that responds to school, system and organisational priorities.
• Act as a senior strategic communications adviser on complex, sensitive, high‑impact and time‑critical matters, providing expert counsel to senior leaders and shaping communication approaches from strategy through to execution.
• Lead end‑to‑end communications planning for significant organisational initiatives, school provision changes, transformation, critical information updates and change impacts, identifying stakeholder, reputational and communication risks and determining appropriate communication strategies.
• Partner with senior leaders, project leads and subject matter experts to scope complex communication requirements, establish audience and stakeholder needs, shape key messages and develop coordinated communication and engagement approaches.
• Lead and govern enterprise communications to schools, including the fortnightly Principal Bulletin, CEVN updates, newsletters, critical operational communications and other regular channels, ensuring information is prioritised, coordinated and delivered effectively.
• Exercise strong editorial judgement and oversee the development of high‑quality and sensitive communications, including executive briefings, speeches, scripts, editorials, presentations, key messages, FAQs, event briefings, newsletters and stakeholder communications.
• Develop and oversee communication toolkits, templates, governance processes, workflows and implementation resources that enable principals and school leaders to communicate complex or significant matters confidently and consistently with parents, carers, parish communities and other stakeholders.

ABOUT YOU

• Demonstrated senior‑level experience leading communications teams and providing strategic communications counsel within large, complex and stakeholder‑rich organisations.
• Significant experience leading strategic, critical and change communications for complex, sensitive and high‑impact organisational matters, including management of communication and reputational risk.
• Exceptional writing, editing, and editorial judgement, with the ability to translate complex, sensitive, and technical information into clear, credible and audience‑focused communications.
• Demonstrated experience working with governance, risk, legal, compliance, and employee relations functions to deliver communications that are accurate, appropriately sequenced and aligned with organisational requirements.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing capability, with the ability to build trusted relationships with senior leaders, subject matter experts and operational stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience developing communication strategies, frameworks, toolkits and resources that strengthen organisational capability and support consistent communication.
• Demonstrated experience developing communications for public‑facing school and community audiences, with strong understanding of audience needs, tone of voice and the ability to adapt messaging appropriately across parents, families, school communities and broader stakeholders.

Note: MACS is committed to the safety, wellbeing and protection of all children in our care. The successful candidate must hold or acquire and maintain a Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) and/or Working with Children Check and must be willing to obtain and maintain a National Criminal History Check.

Candidates must hold full Australian Working Rights and provide evidence of this.

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APPLICATIONS CLOSE

4.00pm Friday, 18 September 2026