Job Description

Acknowledgement of Country

CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View our vision towards reconciliation

Role highlights

• Lead meaningful partnering discussions that shape high-impact, strategic opportunities
• Play a key role in driving revenue growth & cross-organisational collaborations.
• Work with expert teams across CSIRO to influence & optimise a diverse opportunity portfolio

About CSIRO

As Australia's national science agency, CSIRO is solving the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. Many of our iconic innovations were once considered impossible until someone, just like you, joined us and took on the challenge.

Visit CSIRO.au for more information.

The opportunity

As the Business Development Manager Space and Astronomy (S&A) you will engage with early partnering conversations to clarify and align stakeholder goals, identify scaling opportunities, and build strong, effective relationships.

You will support major impact and revenue initiatives within the Research Unit, while also contributing to cross-organisational opportunities developed through the broader research portfolio. Working closely with Partnerships and Business Development (P&BD) colleagues and Enterprise Units, the position helps coordinate and prioritise projects to ensure consistent, strategic approaches that strengthen CSIRO’s overall opportunity pipeline.

Your high-level duties will include:

• Actively contribute to influence and implement a Partnerships and Business Development (P&BD) strategy that drives impactful innovation and science.
• Through confident guidance, articulate the value of early engagement with partners to optimise the scope, scale, business model, and impact of research partnerships up to the level of ecosystem coalitions, in a way that crosses CSIRO boundaries and empowers the P&BD team and wider organisation.
• Act at the program on a page level, partner with researchers across boundaries to grow the scale of CSIRO’s partnering and business development activities including research partnerships with universities, industry and government up to enterprise level coalitions.
• Represent CSIRO in engagements with relevant stakeholders and engage strategically with priority industry and government relationships.
• Working collaboratively with Research and Enterprise Unit colleagues, ensure optimised business and commercial outcomes are negotiated and managed for all relationships, including strategic partnerships and stakeholder engagement.
• Undertake activities that successfully support project ideation, development and execution.
• Implement programs and initiatives to improve how CSIRO engages with relevant stakeholders, industry, universities, and the broader innovation community.
• Develop and implement business development plans and partnerships that align with CSIRO short-term requirements and long-term strategy to drive business growth and research impact.

Role particulars

Location and office arrangements: All AU CSIRO Sites in Major Cities will be considered

Salary: AU$135,571 to $158,863 (pro-rata for part-time) + up to 15.4% superannuation

Tenure & work schedule: Indefinite

Reference: 101979

As the successful candidate, you will bring:

Essential criteria

• Relevant bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant work experience in a relevant science area relevant to the Domain, and/ or with business and commercial qualifications.
• Demonstrated business acumen, including in the functioning of publicly funded research organisations, scaling, business modelling, and negotiating successful multi-stakeholder partnerships with industry, government, and other research institutions, how industry and/or governments (large and small) adopt technology, and technology commercialisation pathways including licensing and venture creation.
• A demonstrated history of professional and respectful behaviours and attitudes aligned to CSIRO values in a complex working environment with both internal and external clients/partners and colleagues that encourages new ideas, builds trust and supports the development of beneficial outcomes
• Strong relationship management skills and the demonstrated ability to use complex influencing strategies, to advise and support colleagues, internal & external stakeholders to achieve CSIRO’s strategic objectives.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and negotiation skills, including experience working with a broad range of stakeholders, and science, commercial or engineering staff and a proven ability to work with and influence outcomes across all levels in an organisation.
• A growth mindset, proven ability to anticipate, manage and develop appropriate solutions to complex problems, effectively manage ambiguity and readily adapt to changing circumstances.
• Proven ability to develop, advance and maintain and client/partner leads to achieve specified outcomes to achieve significant opportunities in partnership with Research Units.
• Demonstrated experience in successful project management, including planning, engagement, monitoring and reporting to meet or exceed specified outcomes and timeframes.

Please note, Under CSIRO policy only those who meet all essential criteria can be appointed.

CSIRO is an Equal Opportunity employer working hard to recruit world-class talent that represents the diversity across our society. As part of our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment outcomes, preference will be given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who meet the role criteria. CSIRO considers conscious inclusion practices intended to constitute a special/equal opportunity/affirmative measure under section 8(1) of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth)

For full details about this role, including all selection criteria and duties, please review the

Eligibility

Applications for this position are open to Australian Citizens and Australian Permanent Residents. Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander candidates being considered for the role under CSIRO’s Conscious Inclusion Practices may be required to provide evidence to confirm that they are an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person.

For Internal Applicants: You must be a CSIRO indefinite or specified term employee who has been previously appointed to an advertised vacancy via a competitive process

Setting you up for success

We are committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible to everyone. We recognise that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. Please contact Careers.online@csiro.au and let us know how we can support you.

Life at CSIRO and flexible work arrangements

We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. We can discuss flexible work arrangements with you during the recruitment process. CSIRO also offers a range of leave entitlements, benefits and career development opportunities. To find out more, visit Careers at CSIRO

Inclusion and belonging

Solving Australia's greatest challenges takes a diversity of minds and lived experiences. We know diverse teams are more effective and deliver more innovative outcomes. As an equal employment opportunity organisation, we are committed to creating diverse and inclusive teams where people feel they belong. We recognise true diversity encompasses all ages, abilities, cultures, faiths, levels of education, genders, sexualities, diversity of thought and much more. We focus on hiring people who share our values of People First, Further Together, Making it Real and Trusted.

CSIRO holds Gold Status for the Australian Workplace Equality Index for LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and a Science in Australia Gender Equity Bronze Award.

Child safety

CSIRO is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people involved in our activities and programs. View our Child Safe Policy

How to apply

Please apply online and submit a cover letter (maximum 2 pages) and CV that demonstrate your motivation and ability to meet the essential requirements of this role.

Applications close

9 February 2026 11:00pm AEDT