postdoctoral fellow

research scientist

project officer

software engineer

shipping and receiving clerk

CSIRO

What is the best part of working at the company?
Training and equipment, networking support, and safety preparation for the people working there

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
One of the most stressful aspects is the subtle bias that international staff can experience. Although there are EDI initiatives in place, in practice they don’t always feel effective. For example, programs like the “speak up” initiative exist, but when concerns are raised, leadership sometimes appears uncomfortable rather than receptive. This gap between the stated commitment to inclusion and the lived experience can create stress and discourage open dialogue.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment at CSIRO can be flexible and supportive, especially with the hybrid work model that allows a balance between independence and teamwork. However, collaboration across teams and departments is not always consistent—sometimes there is duplication of effort, even in areas of common research, and not everyone is equally open to cross-disciplinary work.

There are also strong efforts to promote EDI but the culture can feel somewhat formal and hierarchical, which may limit open dialogue. Overall, it is an environment that values scientific contribution and reliability, while still having room to improve in terms of collaboration and authentic inclusivity.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day involves a mix of independent research and coding or data analysis, combined with project meetings and discussions with colleagues. Whwn working in there, I usually spent part of my day advancing technical tasks and part contributing to collaborative projects and reporting.

In my previous role at CSIRO, I multi-tasked at a high level due to demands of my role reporting to 3 supervisors. The work demands were constantly and highly changeable and unpredictable on a daily basis and therefore, affected my schedule of priorities. I thrived on keeping ‘abreast and on top’ of these constant changes and hence, relied on my skills and high competency, especially in CSIRO’s Intranet, Network Outlook, MeetingPlace, Sharepoint, video and/or audio conferencing, Confluence and the newly upgraded Science Reporting portal in CSIRO SAP Interface. This upgrade enabled me to drill down definitive project budgets (either an individual project or collectively); FTE’s; Work in Progress; Staff Allocation; expenditure updates and so forth. Due to one of my supervisor’s key role as Stream Leader in WfO Flagship, and his demanding role/duties and the execution/delivering his science in projects in WA, nationally and collaborative projects internationally, it was one of my duties of advising him on a regular basis of the financial status of his projects and if any are in the ‘red”, to immediately bring this to his attention.

Stressful. I went from no blood pressure to start with and left taking 300mg of irbesartan each day.
No one has a clue about managing a team of STEM people. Management and HR interfere. Disrespect is anything that questions or pushes back. Very few have business or industrial experience. The management thinks milestones and deadlines can be met by any change. They have no idea what project management is. They pull people out of projects to work on their favorite/pet projects, instead of what you're supposed to be doing.
They take advantage of students, don't pay them properly, if at all.

A typical day involved managing correspondence, coordinating meetings, financial administration and records management. I learned strong ERP and stakeholder communication skills over seven years. Management was supportive, approachable and genuinely valued work-life balance. The culture was inclusive, respectful and team-oriented. The hardest part was juggling competing priorities while maintaining accuracy, though great systems and colleagues made it manageable. The most enjoyable part was the people and the positive, collaborative environment that made coming to work a pleasure every day.

I am an international joint PhD student working currently with CSIRO. This organisation is an excellent stockpile of great thinking minds you are unlikely to find somewhere else. However, the government of Australia is unfortunately cutting the necessary budget in many areas and many bright scientist are forced redundant while they are half way through their fruitful scientific career. If I had something in my hands, I would have donate it to help this organisation keep moving forward. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to make important decisions, however public awarness may help csiro to survive.

This was by far the best team I have ever worked with. People that loved science and had as much fun letting people know about it as they could, because promoting science as a career was one of the prime reasons for the organisation.

My role was a supporting one, but none the less my advice was sought, valued and acknowledged. Brilliant manager, I never heard a cross word from him.

On the down side the labs and storage area were dilapidated, and I was one of many made redundant on a political whim of an incoming federal government.

I manage myself and have little interaction with my manager who is a walking personality disorder. 
This company has a very bad management code of conduct issue. Everything is geared towards perception of the law but management has done nothing to improve it by getting rid of management behaviour issues. Search for Victims of CSIRO and you’ll find a lot of examples. 
The hardest part of this job is dealing with the overwhelming amount of harassment and backstabbing. 
The most enjoyable part of my job is going home and not being bullied by management for that day. 

Overall, colleagues were great, very helpful, easy to work with, and never had a problem with them. CSIRO attracts some incredible people, but it tends to be overshadowed by the casual racism and sexism (by a minority, but they are highly placed). If you are a white male, you will have a great time. Otherwise, don't expect to be valued or receive a fair go.  Pay is great, holiday is great. Minorities won't see their careers go far, nor will their voices be heard.

I had wonderful time with CSIRO. This was my first and last job. I think myself I was very lucky guy because I worked at very good organisation and worked with very good people for around 30 years.

My main working area was experimental work involving 
* creation of novel ideas
* negotiation with possible clients 
* application of knowledge
* carrying out experimental work
* writing report, publishing professional journals and patents
* supervising junior staff and PhD students

It seems that, at least in the Kensington arm of CSIRO, that the environment is very welcoming and open and the work hours are flexible in a way that really allows people there to get things done as is necessary, while having time to relax and refocus. It is a govrnment organisation and, as such, there is a bit of red tape to deal with, but on the whole, every day I am there I feel welcomed and a part of the team, despite me only being a summer intern there.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Postdoctoral fellow 41 salaries reported	$105,526 per year
Research scientist 26 salaries reported	$120,292 per year
Project officer 21 salaries reported	$93,198 per year
Software engineer 10 salaries reported	$105,968 per year
Shipping and receiving clerk 2 salaries reported	$3,977 per month

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