Who we are
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:
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Maintain the Antarctic Treaty System and enhance Australia's influence within it.
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Protect the Antarctic environment.
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Understand the role of Antarctica in the global climate system.
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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 job
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.
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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.
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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.
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Lead, mentor and empower EL1 managers to uphold professional standards, build capability, and meet cultural and performance expectations.
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Oversee integrated workforce planning, including strategic rostering and deployment, to ensure consistent operational coverage.
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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.
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Establish standards for timely, validated and decision ready information to support senior decision making and operational risk management.
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Provide executive oversight of situational awareness systems, data integrity, operational logs and reporting tools, ensuring platforms are reliable, secure and fit for purpose.
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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.
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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.
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Authorise recalls and prioritise after hours tasking where required to protect safety, continuity and mission critical outcomes.
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Define and enforce escalation criteria and critical information requirements.
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Determine activation thresholds and lead incident management under the AAD Incident Management Framework, ensuring proportionate, coordinated and accountable responses.
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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.
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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.
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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.
What you'll gain from the experience
This is not an ordinary leadership role. You will be leading complex operations and incident management in one of the most remote, high-risk, and dynamic environments on the planet. If your background spans one or more of these fields - logistics, maritime, aviation, emergency management, defence, or whole-of-government coordination, and you're ready for your most significant professional challenge yet, we want to hear from you.
What we are looking for
We are seeking candidates who can demonstrate the following:
- Enterprise-level stakeholder leadership and influence – Demonstrated capability to lead, shape and sustain engagement with a broad range of senior internal and external stakeholders, including the ability to inform, advise, consult and influence diverse stakeholder groups in complex, time-critical and politically sensitive operational environments.
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Strategic prioritisation and operational direction – Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities, urgent deadlines and fluctuating operational support demands while providing clear, strategic direction to senior operational leaders.
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Recognises and balances organisational, seasonal, operational and logistics constraints to achieve safe, effective and coordinated outcomes.
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People leadership and capability development – Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, mentor and develop managers and multidisciplinary teams to work cohesively and perform effectively in a high-consequence operational environment, fostering a culture of safety, professionalism, accountability and continuous improvement.
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Advanced analysis, synthesis and executive communication – Highly developed ability to collate and analyse large volumes of complex information from multiple and disparate sources; synthesize critical elements into clear, decision ready briefing or instructional materials; and articulate ideas, options and recommendations to senior executives, Ministerial audiences and operational teams through high-quality oral and written communication.
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Judgement under pressure – Strong professional judgement with the ability to make timely, defensible decisions under uncertainty, ensuring risks to people, assets, the environment and Australia’s reputation are effectively managed and communicated. Please note that the successful applicant may be required to travel to the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions therefore they may be required to meet specific medical, adaptability and personal qualities requirements appropriate to working in those environments.
A working knowledge of the Australasian Inter-agency Incident Management System (AIIMS) is required.
Additional requirements
- Note that relocation assistance is subject to negotiation.
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Note that 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.
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Note that you may be required to perform occasional out-of-hours and weekend work.
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Wear appropriate protective personal equipment and clothing to comply with departmental Work Health & Safety policies and procedures.
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.
