Project Officer

**About the Department**

The department provides a wide range of learning and development support and services.

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.

**About the Victorian School Building Authority**

The Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) is part of the Department of Education. Established in 2016, it oversees Victoria's largest school building program since the state introduced free public education in the 1870s.

The VSBA upgrades and expands existing schools and plans, designs and builds new schools to meet enrolment demand. We also support schools to maintain their buildings and grounds by offering expert advice and coordinating maintenance programs and grants.

With Victoria recently introducing two years of funded kindergarten, the VSBA is also working with the early childhood sector on a massive kindergarten construction program.

**About the Division**

The Asset Management Division helps schools maintain and manage their buildings and grounds and ensures they are more energy efficient. The Division trains school leaders as facilities managers and supports them to develop school maintenance plans. They coordinate programs, assessments, and systems to ensure schools are routinely maintained and cleaned.

The Division includes the Asset Management Branch, School Asset Management Support Branch, Facilities Branch, Maintenance Delivery Branch and the Programs Branch.

**About the Role**

An exciting opportunity exists to work as part of a responsive and high-performing School Cleaning Unit within the VSBA. The School Cleaning Unit oversees the implementation and management of an area-based cleaning model for Melbourne metropolitan schools, along with a strengthened compliance and monitoring framework for regional schools.

As a Project Officer/Administration Advisor reporting to the Team Leader, you will join a high-performing and supportive team committed to delivering high-quality information, reporting, and business unit outcomes. This role requires a proactive self-starter with a good understanding of government processes and the ability to excel in a fast-paced, complex environment.

Role expectation:

- Prepares reports, briefs and correspondence on complex strategic issues that impact the business unit or organisational
- Conducts investigations, data analysis, and modelling to support evidence-based recommendations and reporting.
- Develops and implements operational communication and consultation strategies, such as guidance documents, responses to Ministerial requests, and direct replies to inquiries from schools and service providers.
- Manages projects or tasks, usually under limited direction with the expectation to deliver outputs with autonomy and self-driven timelines.
- Lead specialist administrative and corporate support for the business unit as required.
- Contributes to high-quality, effective service delivery by resolving operational issues, recommending resource allocation, and supporting the implementation of processes aligned to service agreements.
- Undertakes advanced case management, which may include cross agency collaboration whilst ensuring coordination of responses to stakeholder inquiries in a timely manner
- Establish and maintain strong relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, including other business areas, schools, and service providers. This includes direct engagement through phone with schools to provide support, resolve issues, and escalate matters when required

**Attributes**

The Project Officer works collaboratively and is a team player who supports the program's delivery.
- Strong stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills
- A customer-focused mindset with a commitment to service excellence
- Take initiative and be proactive in identifying and addressing issues
- Problem-solving capabilities to obtain meaningful results
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey information clearly and confidently to internal and external stakeholders
- Flexibility and adaptability in managing competing demands and shifting priorities in a dynamic environment

All VSBA staff have a shared responsibility to meet the same service standards outlined in the VSBA Customer Service Charter. Our goal is to make every interaction with the VSBA a positive one for our customers, colleagues, and key partners regardless of our individual roles or team.

**Desirable**Qualifications and Experience**
- Required: Strong administrative management skills, including proficiency in the Microsoft Office Package (Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, PowerPoint, Planner)
- Required: Strong admini