Job Description

About Us

HumanAbility is a Jobs and Skills Council for the health, human services, aged care and disability, sport & recreation and early childhood industries.

HumanAbility’s objective is to advance education by supporting skills and workforce development for the above specified industries. It is a values-based organisation, that is not-for-profit, industry-owned and led, that is contracted by the federal government.

HumanAbility will achieve its objectives through:

• Implementation of the Jobs & Skills Councils – Strengthening Australia’s National Vocational Education and Training System program, or its replacement program, and similar programs supported by governments and/or industry;
• Workforce planning activities that develop strategies to address workforce challenges, using high-quality data and evidence on current and emerging skills needs (in collaboration with Jobs and Skills Australia) associated with a range of educational pathways, including vocational education and training (VET) and higher education;
• Formal and informal training product development, including resources aligned with standards set by Skills Ministers to improve the quality, speed-to-market and responsiveness of nationally recognised training products;
• Contributions to the implementation, promotion and monitoring of VET; and
• Industry stewardship to advance education by acting as a source of intelligence on issues affecting relevant industries and national training system opportunities.

We have an opportunity for an Executive Director, Strategic Engagement to join us on a full-time basis in an ongoing capacity subject to funding (currently funded until mid-2028). This role can be based anywhere in Australia and will require availability to travel as required in fulfilling the key accountabilities.

About the Position

The Executive Director leads the engagement efforts of HumanAbility, specifically by:

• Strategic engagement and partnerships that build influence and support for HumanAbility’s objectives, informed by a strong understanding of the policy, political and broader reform landscape within which HumanAbility operates.
• Achieving the strategic plan and the development, implementation and review of the operational plan.
• Building of a positive culture, in collaboration with the executive team.
• Developing and leading a strong and high performing team.
• Embedding the tripartite arrangements of HumanAbility across all our work..

Key Accountabilities

Strategic Leadership and Vision

• Lead the development and implementation of a high-value tripartite stakeholder engagement strategy that identifies, prioritises, and intensively manages the organisation's most significant relationships and aligned with organisational priorities and government policy objectives.
• Define and implement tiering criteria and engagement intensity levels for stakeholders, with bespoke engagement plans.
• Provide authoritative advice to the executive team on stakeholder sentiment, emerging issues, and engagement opportunities.
• Work with the Executive and their teams across HumanAbility to embed stakeholder insights into workforce planning, strategic workforce development projects, training package reviews, government relations and other projects and initiatives.
• Champion a culture of proactive, meaningful engagement across the organisation.
• Establish and drive the vision for how the organisation builds and sustains influential relationships nationally.

National Tripartite Stakeholder Coverage and Relationship Management

• Oversee and maintain a national portfolio of high-importance stakeholder relationships spanning all HumanAbility’s sectors, including, for example, peak bodies, industry groups, training providers and centres of excellence and unions.
• Lead the high value Industry Advisory Council (IAC) and ITAB engagement strategies and maintain strong relationships with their members, in addition to other committees that are formed from time to time.
• Ensure equitable and consistent engagement across all jurisdictions, and tripartite groups, with tailored approaches reflecting their differing priorities and contexts.
• Personally manage a defined portfolio of critical, senior-level stakeholder relationships and support the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief of Staff and Executive in their portfolios of relationships.

Deepening and Growing Engagement

• Design and implement strategies to deepen the quality and frequency of stakeholder engagement, moving relationships from transactional to collaborative and influential. This will require working closely with other members of the executive team to ensure this is consistent across the organisation.
• Identify and cultivate new stakeholder audiences relevant to the organisation's evolving mandate.
• Develop stakeholder segmentations to enable targeted, relevant, and impactful engagement at scale.
• Build and measure stakeholder trust, satisfaction, and influence through regular feedback mechanisms and engagement metrics. This includes responsibility for relevant metrics as required from DEWR.

Issues Management

• Lead the identification, monitoring, and management of emerging stakeholder issues with potential reputational, policy, or operational impact, working closely with other members of the executive team as relevant.
• Develop and maintain an issues management framework, including escalation protocols and response approaches.
• Collaborate with the executive team and the Communications, Research, and Training Products teams to ensure coordinated and timely responses to sensitive stakeholder concerns.
• Provide environmental-scanning and intelligence on stakeholder concerns, political developments, and sector trends to inform organisational decision-making.

Processes, Systems and Infrastructure

• Establish the governance framework, data quality standards, and strategic processes that optimise how the organisation utilises the Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) system, translating raw data into actionable engagement insights while bridging the gap between daily operations and technical system improvements.
• Establish and maintain a centralised events calendar, ensuring visibility of engagement activity across the organisation and avoiding duplication or gaps.
• Ensure consistence application of the ‘stakeholder engagement playbook’ for cross-organisational project teams.
• Design and embed standardised processes for stakeholder engagement, including briefing templates, engagement plans, contact protocols, and relationship reporting.
• Develop and maintain stakeholder journey frameworks that map touchpoints, milestones, and experience across the relationship lifecycle.

Events and Engagement Delivery

• Oversee the planning and delivery of a national program of stakeholder events, including roundtables, forums, consultations, and policy dialogues.
• Ensure events are strategically sequenced to support training product, research and policy and engagement goals.
• Establish evaluation frameworks to measure the effectiveness and impact of engagement activities and events.

Stakeholder Governance and Accountability

• Develop and maintain stakeholder engagement policies, frameworks, and guidelines consistent with DEWR obligations and better practice standards.
• Ensure engagement activity is appropriately documented, auditable, and aligned with accountability and transparency expectations.
• Contribute to corporate planning, budgeting, and reporting processes as a member of the senior leadership team.
• Represent the organisation at external forums, sector bodies, and external working groups as required. Coordinate the gathering and dissemination of insights where other members of the organisation are designated representatives for external working groups. Ensure adherence to governance structures pertaining to Industry Advisory Committees, ITAB network, and others that may be formed from time to time, including by ensuring the Terms of Reference are followed and that reporting requirements are met.

Team Leadership

• Provide high-quality reports to the CEO, the Chief of Staff, the Board and sub-committees in a timely manner. This includes reporting on all engagement and partnership activities, such as IACs and ITAB activity, in addition to sharing key policy insights to inform the work of the teams across HumanAbility.
• Ensure up to date knowledge of key policies that relate to the remit of HumanAbility and that this knowledge is shared across HumanAbility to inform cross-organisational work and priorities.
• Provide strong and collaborative leadership to the stakeholder engagement, partnerships and policy team including managing, and reporting on the performance of the team.
• Foster a collaborative and innovative work environment that encourages professional growth and effective teamwork.
• Set clear goals and performance metrics for each team, ensuring alignment with HumanAbility’s strategic objectives and values.
• Advocate for and role model work health, safety and wellbeing policies and guidelines.
• Guide the HumanAbility team to ensure services are delivered efficiently, meeting business needs
• Demonstrate organisational values, in collaboration with the Executive team, to build a positive work culture, and incorporating decision making and ways of working.
• Develop and lead a high performing team.
• Work with Executive Director, Finance & Operations to manage budgets within this position’s remit.

Qualifications and Experience

• A successful history of leading a stakeholder engagement or member relations function in an organisation of similar size, scale and complexity to HumanAbility.
• Possess or rapidly develop broad skill sector knowledge focused on industry structures, key organisations and people.
• A sound and contemporary knowledge of communication systems and their effectiveness in engaging with members and stakeholders.
• An understanding of the key workforce challenges in the sectors represented by HumanAbility and a knowledge of the professional development requirements of these sectors.
• Demonstrated expertise in quality improvement systems that reflect a personal commitment to learning, improvement and innovation.
• Relevant graduate and post graduate tertiary qualifications or equivalent experience

Further Information

This is position is offered on an ongoing basis to reflect Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) grant funding until June 2028.

All appointees must be willing to obtain a police check and Working with Children Check.

There may be times when it is required to work outside normal business hours i.e. evenings and weekends to meet operational and/or stakeholder requirements, and dependant on work deliverables, the role may be required to undertake travel.

We operate a hybrid working model. While flexibility is supported, the balance of office-based work, in-person attendance at meetings, events, etc and remote work will vary depending on role, location, and business needs.

Interested?

We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the stakeholders we work with. We value the unique perspectives, knowledge, and lived experiences that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples bring, and we actively support a culturally safe and inclusive workplace.

We encourage you to apply, even if you don’t meet every single criterion. We value diverse experiences and perspectives, and your unique skills could be a great fit for our team.

Click on Apply button to submit your cover letter and cv. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, we encourage you to apply without delay. If you have any questions about this role, please contact our P&C team confidentially at sonia.blacker@humanability.com.au.