Principal Adviser

Location: Melbourne | CBD

Job type: Full time / 25 January 2026

Organisation: Victorian Health Building Authority

**Salary**: $129,379 - $173,138

Occupation: Construction

Reference: VG/DH/HI/1731115

**Role purpose**

The Victorian Health Building Authority (VHBA) is responsible for the planning and delivery of the Victorian Government's multibillion-dollar health infrastructure program including $16.6 billion in managed assets and $8.8 billion in planning and delivery.

Our work includes planning and building new hospitals and ambulance stations, aged care and mental health facilities, early parenting centres, redeveloping existing hospital facilities as well as replacing and upgrading engineering infrastructure.

The Principal Adviser works with the VHBA Executive to prepare advice on financial and budget information, capital program delivery updates, asset management and maintenance, and planning activities and pipeline, to a range of clients. This advice ranges across the Health, Mental Health, Ambulance, Housing, and Ageing portfolios. In addition to providing external advice, the Principal Adviser works with the VHBA Executive on internal planning and strategy, Departmental processes, and office management.

You will be expected to provide this advice in a collegiate fashion and will provide leadership within the organisation and consistency of messaging in order to drive change and effectiveness. You will develop workforce capability specific to VHBA and deliver advice on wider Departmental and Government activities. The role requires a great deal of flexibility and an ability to meet the competing timelines of various stakeholders in an expert manner, to the satisfaction and approval of the CEO.

**Are you**:

- Collaborative with highly developed written and verbal communication skills
- Have a demonstrated ability to negotiate and influence stakeholders
- Methodical with strong attention to detail, including an ability to anticipate, deal with, and manage changing requirements in an evolving organisation

**Knowledge and skills**:

- **Policy Skills**: builds trusting relationships with stakeholders to inform policy development and gain commitment to implementation. Scans for links and potential implications of proposed policy options.
- **Conceptual and Analytical Skills**: deals with concepts and complexity comfortably. Uses analytical and conceptual skills to reason through problems. Understands the business of VHBA and is confident when discussing it and advising on it.
- **Teamwork**: demonstrates capacity to work across a large, diverse organisation and to partner with others to achieve outcomes. 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, encourages resolution of conflict within the group. Leads and supports the development of cohesive teams and effective relationships with health agencies and the broader market.
- **Stakeholder management**: identifies issues in common for one or more stakeholders and uses to build mutually beneficial partnerships; identifies and responds to stakeholder's underlying needs; uses understanding of the stakeholder's organisational context to ensure outcomes are achieved; find innovative solutions to resolve stakeholder issues.

**Personal qualities**:

- **Relationship building**: establishes and maintains relationships with people at all levels; promotes harmony and consensus through diplomatic handling of disagreements; forges useful partnerships with people across business areas, functions and organisations; builds trust through consistent actions, values and communication; minimises surprises
- **Self-discipline**: maintains a consistent and sensible pattern of behaviour under pressure; recognises and restrains inappropriate emotions during a situation or interaction; recognises own limitations and works with others to ensure plans are achieved.
- **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.
- **Flexibility**; adaptable; receptive to new ideas; respond and adjust easily to changing work demands and circumstances; not bound by old ways of doing things
- **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.

**Specialist expertise**:
Demonstrated experience in the delivery of a capital projects across a range of procurement forms, and an ability to manage a program of works across a portfolio.

Demonstrated knowledge of relevant governmen