The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) is part of the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. As primary agency for Australia's Antarctic Program (AAP), the AAD is responsible for achieving the Australian Government's Antarctic goals. These goals are to:
* Maintain the Antarctic Treaty System and enhance Australia's influence within it.
* Protect the Antarctic environment.
* Understand the role of Antarctica in the global climate system.
* Undertake scientific work of practical, economic and national significance.
The AAD also has responsibility for administering the Australian Antarctic Territory and the Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands.
The Operations and Logistics Branch oversees our operations in Antarctica – supporting people in our year-round research stations and remote field bases. The branch oversees air and sea transport (and the contracts to manage Australia’s icebreaker, the RSV Nuyina and Aviation capabilities) to transport expeditioners south and enable them to travel around Antarctica. We have staff with diverse skills, located primarily in Tasmania, in Antarctica and on Macquarie Island.
The Operations Management Centre (OMC) through the Chief of Operations provides strategic leadership and authoritative operational decision making for the OMC, ensuring a high reliability watchkeeping, after hours and incident management capability that safely and effectively delivers the Australian Antarctic season plan.
The key duties of the position include:
Key duties include:
Operational Leadership and Enterprise Authority
* Provide strategic leadership and clear operational intent to the Operations Management Centre (OMC) on behalf of the Branch Head – Operations and Logistics.
* Exercise EL2 delegated authority to set enterprise priorities, endorse schedule adjustments, and resolve logistics conflicts across maritime, aviation, station, and field operations within the Australian Antarctic Program.
* Ensure decisions comply with APS policies, duty of care obligations, and whole of program operational frameworks.
People, Capability and Resource Management
* Provide strategic leadership of people, capability and resources.
* Lead, mentor and empower EL1 managers to uphold professional standards, build capability, and meet cultural and performance expectations.
* Oversee integrated workforce planning, including strategic rostering and deployment, to ensure consistent operational coverage.
* Manage section budgets and procurement to optimise resources in line with seasonal priorities, organisational objectives and risk.
Situational Awareness and Common Operating Picture
* Maintain a shared, up to date Common Operating Picture (COP) across headquarters, deployed teams and partners by integrating information flows between Antarctic, sub-Antarctic and external stakeholders.
* Establish standards for timely, validated and decision ready information to support senior decision making and operational risk management.
* Provide executive oversight of situational awareness systems, data integrity, operational logs and reporting tools, ensuring platforms are reliable, secure and fit for purpose.
* Partner with ICT and service providers to maintain risk managed systems and effective escalation and remediation processes.
Operational Governance and Reporting
* Drive the program’s operational governance cycle by setting clear reporting rhythms, standards and quality benchmarks.
* Lead production of executive outputs, including daily summaries, Situation Reports and time critical briefs for Senior Executives, Ministerial Offices and delivery partners, ensuring reporting is accurate, forward looking and risk based.
Operational Readiness, Incident Management and Escalation
* Maintain all-hours operational readiness through governance of watchkeeping, after hours response and surge arrangements.
* Authorise recalls and prioritise after hours tasking where required to protect safety, continuity and mission critical outcomes.
* Define and enforce escalation criteria and critical information requirements.
* Determine activation thresholds and lead incident management under the AAD Incident Management Framework, ensuring proportionate, coordinated and accountable responses.
* Lead post incident reviews and drive continuous improvement.
Partnerships and International Collaboration
* Cultivate strong internal and external partnerships across logistics, ICT, WHS, risk and operational leadership functions, including with the ADF, Bureau of Meteorology and whole of government watch offices.
* Steward international Antarctic partnerships and agreements to enhance resilience, capability, interoperability and Australia’s leadership and obligations in the region.
Compliance and Business Continuity
* Provide executive oversight of OMC compliance, SOPs and business rules.
* Drive continuous improvement of systems, facilities and processes, and ensure business continuity arrangements are tested, resourced and capable of sustaining critical OMC functions during disruption.
Desirable qualifications
* Substantial operational leadership experience in a high-consequence, time-critical environment such as emergency management, defence, maritime, aviation, or whole-of-government operations - with demonstrated ability to lead incident management, maintain situational awareness, and exercise authoritative decision-making under pressure.
* Tertiary qualifications in incident management, emergency management, operations management, defence studies, or a related discipline - or equivalent executive-level operational experience are desirable.
* Formal AIIMS accreditation or equivalent incident management certification would be highly regarded.
For detailed information about the job-specific capabilities for this role, please view the Job Description which can be downloaded from our website - the Apply Now link will take you there.
Eligibility
Citizenship - to be eligible for employment with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water you must be an Australian citizen.
Security Clearance - this position requires a Negative Vetting Level 2 security clearance. You will be required to obtain and maintain a clearance at this level.
Pre-employment checks - your suitability for employment will be assessed through a pre-employment screening process. This process includes a requirement to undergo and satisfy a National Police Check, referee checks, character clearance and where required a pre-employment medical assessment, specified mandatory qualification(s) validation and a probation period.
Notes
We currently have two vacancies available for immediate filling in Kingston TAS. A merit pool for filling the same or similar position in Kingston TAS may be established at the conclusion of this selection process.
Please note:
* Relocation assistance is subject to negotiation.
* The position may require them to participate in an on-call roster (for which an appropriate restriction allowance will be paid) and be available to perform duty outside standard hours.
* You may be required to perform occasional out-of-hours and weekend work.
* You must wear appropriate protective personal equipment and clothing to comply with departmental Work Health & Safety policies and procedures.