Senior Advisor

Occupation: Governance and risk management

Location: Melbourne - CBD and Inner Metro suburbs

Reference: VG/DE/ECE/1876817

The Senior Advisor – Compliance is responsible for leading complex investigations, audits, and enforcement actions to ensure early childhood education and care services comply with relevant laws and regulations. The role requires expertise in risk-based regulation, behavioural compliance, and legal interpretation, and involves preparing evidence for legal proceedings, advising stakeholders, and contributing to strategic compliance initiatives.

About the Role

The Senior Advisor – Compliance plays a critical role enforcing non-compliance with relevant laws and regulations to ensure children attending early childhood education and care service are safe from harm and their wellbeing is protected. The position holder is expected to be able to demonstrate expertise in contemporary risk-based regulation, behavioural compliance and the ability to undertake complex audits, reviews and investigations to motivate or enforce compliance with the relevant laws and regulations.

The Senior Advisor – Compliance will undertake a range of compliance and enforcement related activities and be expected to have expertise:

• Leading investigations into non-compliance with relevant laws and regulations and applying best practice investigative techniques and methods, including collecting evidence and conducting records of interviews.
• Preparing high quality briefs of evidence to support enforcement decisions and legal proceedings, including prosecutions.
  • Interpretating legislation and applying legal and regulatory principles to provide authoritative, clear and accurate advice to internal and external stakeholders.
    • Leading and conducting risk-based compliance audits and investigations to assess compliance with relevant laws and regulations.
    • Developing, leading and participating in targeted compliance projects involving multi-functional teams and a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
      • Collaborating with internal and external stakeholders, including co-regulators and government departments to facilitate information sharing and effective co-regulation.
      • Contributing to strategic and responsive regulation by identifying emerging risks, trends and industry issues through risk managed data analysis.
      • Developing and implementing guidelines, frameworks, policies and procedures to ensure effectiveness of regulatory compliance and enforcement processes.

Regulatory Strategy, Services and Compliance (RSSC) Branch

The RSSC Branch undertakes QARD's licensing function and provides expert regulatory advice, strategic direction, and leadership on a broad range of regulatory issues and complex compliance and enforcement matters. The RSSC Branch also provides business intelligence, data and risk analytics for the Division. It manages QARD's information management systems and technologies, and maintains corporate governance and finance processes.

The RSSC Branch comprises of four business units:

• Service Administration and Support Unit– licenses and approves early childhood education and care service providers and services including assessments of fitness and priority and administers existing service licences. Also provides a first point of contact for regulatory enquiries.
• Monitoring and Compliance Unit– leads and provides advice on complex compliance and statutory enforcement matters, strategic compliance, supports the development operational policy, engages with co-regulators and promotes implementation of best regulatory practice.
• Joint Monitoring Compliance Monitoring Program- is a collaborative program between QARD, other state and territory regulatory authorities and the Commonwealth Government to target joint compliance projects against serious non-compliance and fraud risks.
  • Business Systems and Review Unit– develops and maintains QARD's information management systems and technologies, user support, undertakes systems improvements, reporting, data analytics, business planning, budget planning, enterprise risk management and governance and assurance oversight.

About the Divisi on

The Quality Assessment and Regulation Division (QARD) carries out the regulatory functions of the Victorian Regulatory Authority. QARD's regulatory oversight of more than 5,000 early childhood education and care services operating across the Victoria is undertaken through licensing, assessment and rating of quality, compliance monitoring, investigation and enforcement functions.

About the Department

The department provides policy leadership, plans for the future of education in Victoria and leads key cross-sector collaboration. The department plays an important system steward role by providing support, guidance, oversight and assurance across early childhood and school education systems, as well as directly providing school education and 50 new early learning centres.

Qualifications and Experience

• Essential - successful candidateis required to hold a valid Working with Children Check and Victorian driver's licence
• Desirable - qualifications or demonstrated experience working in a regulatory compliance,enforcement and risk-based environment; previous experience in investigations, evidence collection and conducting records of interview;Certificate IV in Government Investigations.

How to Apply

Please submit a CV and cover letter (max. 2 pages for cover letter) summarising your skills, relevant experience and suitability against the requirements of the role.

Further Information

For more details regarding this position, please see attached position description for the capabilities to address in application.

For further information pertaining to the role, please contact Helen Theocharous, Manager, MCU via email at helen.theocharous@education.vic.gov.au .

Applicants requiring adjustments can contact the nominated contact person.

The department values diversity and inclusion in all forms - gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. For more information about our work, working for the Department, diversity and inclusion, and our employment conditions visit theDepartment website and ourDiversity and Inclusion page .

Information about the Department of Education's operations and employment conditions can be located atwww.education.vic.gov.au .

Preferred applicants may be required to complete a police check and may be subject to other pre-employment checks. Information provided to the Department of Education will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Applications close 11:59pm on Monday 11 August 2025.