Director, Strategic Innovation

Strategic Innovation Portfolio

The Strategic Innovation Portfolio provides strategic leadership, advice and planning to ensure the effective development and delivery of key Centre and whole of child and family services sector organisations priorities and projects. The portfolio leads critical areas of work (such as sector sustainability, equity for children, families and young people experiencing vulnerability and voice of client projects). In addition to providing a leadership and strategy advice to the Chief Executive Officer and the Board including, as Secretary to the Board, the Strategic Innovation portfolio includes high profile Centre projects, including: 

• Out of Home Care Philanthropic Funders Network
• Voice of Parents – A Model for Inclusion
• Child Healthcare, Adversity and COVID-19
• Residential Care Sector Occupational Health and Safety Capability Program
• Tri-Peaks

Role Purpose

The Director of Strategic Innovation provides strategic advice to the Chief Executive Officer and the Board on strategy, planning, reform, stakeholder engagement and key priorities and projects. The role identifies current and emerging issues for the child and family services sector and provides advice, develops and manages high profile projects, and is accountable the development and management of budgets, finances, procurement and expenditure for portfolio projects. The Director of Strategic Innovation undertakes a key leadership and engagement role, developing and maintaining effective senior relationships across the child and family services sector, allied sectors and government.

Position Details

• Full time
• Reports to the Chief Executive Officer

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Portfolio/Project/Program/ Management – demonstrates key project planning, management and evaluation skills that are critical to effective project delivery
• Strategic Planning & Execution – Setting strategic goals and determining actions to achieve the goals while focusing resources to executive project delivery
• Stakeholder Engagement – Communicate and engage effectively with all stakeholders and develop strong relationships
• Client Centricity – Hold the client at the core of all activities and decisions to deliver quality services, experiences and outcomes
• Emotional Awareness – Demonstrate empathy and integrity towards others and make effective judgements in complex situations
• Adapting to Change – Identify and understand the value of change. Demonstrate resilience and a positive and proactive attitude towards change
• Ability to problem solve – Apply critical thinking to solve problems, explain root causes and evaluate solutions
• Data & Information Analysis – Analyse and interpret information to deliver valuable insights

Position Requirements

The successful applicant will have:

Qualifications

• A tertiary qualification relevant to the community services sector or in business management, public administration, or equivalent, is highly desirable.

Key Selection Criteria

• Leadership: builds team commitment by demonstrating personal conviction; translates organisational strategy into meaningful long-term plans and objectives for own area of responsibility; motivates others to deliver against goals.
• Environmental scanning: builds awareness and understanding of social, economic and political trends that may affect the child and family services sector and allied sectors.
• Policy skills: formulates and communicates policy options and recommendations, scans for links and potential implications of proposed policy options. Keeps up-to-date with a broad range of contemporary issues.
• Influence and negotiation: implements complex strategies to build buy-in and support from key internal and external clients or stakeholders. Effectively negotiates with clients/stakeholders to achieve desired outcomes.
• Self-management: invites feedback on own behaviour and impact; uses new knowledge or information about self to build a broader understanding of own behaviour and the impact it has on others; understands strong emotional reactions and seeks ways to more effectively manage them.

Personal Qualities

• Creativity and innovation: generates new ideas, draws on a range of information sources to identify new ways of doing things, actively influences events and promotes ideas, translates creative ideas into workplace improvements, reflects on experience and is open to new ways to improve practice.
• Decisiveness: takes rational and sound decisions based on a consideration of the facts and alternatives; makes tough decisions, sometimes with incomplete information; evaluates rational and emotional elements of situations; makes quick decisions where required; commits to a definite course of action.
• Developing others: actively seeks to improve others’ skills and talents by providing constructive feedback, coaching and training opportunities; empowers others by investing them with the authority and latitude to accomplish tasks; appropriately delegates responsibilities to further the development of others.
• Teamwork: cooperates and works well with others in pursuit of team goals, collaborates and shares information, shows consideration, concern and respect for others feelings and ideas, accommodates and works well with the different working styles of others.

Conditional Employment Requirements

1. Satisfactory police check
2. Satisfactory Working with Children check
3. Proof of the right to work in Australia