Principal Program Officer

About us

As a department our purpose is to help the community to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from the impact of fire and emergency events.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) is the primary provider of fire, rescue and emergency management programs and services throughout Queensland. The department encompasses the Fire and Rescue Service, disaster management services, the Rural Fire Service and the State Emergency Service, and also supports other volunteer groups providing emergency response to Queenslanders.

QFES is one department with many services, many capabilities and many partners.

Purpose of the role

SES Strategy and Planning Branch delivers on the QFES organizational priorities and objectives, providing strategic management of SES future and developing capabilities and functions. This is achieved through the provision of strategic planning support to SES Regions and volunteers, delivering on the QFES Commissioner's responsibilities as described in the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990, Division 2, section 131 (a), (b), (c) (ii).

Reporting to the Executive Manager, you will be a key member of team reporting, coordinating and managing SES risk. You will be responsible for the development, implementation and management of a Risk Management Framework and standards for SES operational and business functions and capabilities. You will work closely with key stakeholders, SES volunteers, and the risk and business continuity team to manage and coordinate updates to risk assessments and ensure the SES risk management framework and standards meets organisational requirements, and supports SES capability management and service delivery.

Key requirements

Highly desirable requirements
- Knowledge and/or experience in risk management within a large, diverse, dispersed organisation.
- Knowledge and/or experience in developing business improvement strategies within a complex service delivery environment.

Special requirements
- The incumbent will be appointed as a staff member of the State Emergency Service. The hours of duty applicable to this role are pursuant to the Queensland Public Service Officers and Other Employees Award - State 2015: specifically, the spread of ordinary hours for SES staff are 0600 to 2200, Monday to Sunday.
- Capacity to work on night and weekend to suit an SES volunteer environment.
- It is expected the incumbent will participate in an out-of-hours on-call roster during emergency operations. This may require work outside of normal hours (e.g. night shift), including weekends, working extended hours and may include travel to rural and remote communities, intrastate or interstate travel as necessary and/or deployment activities to other parts of the state.

Your key accountabilities

Your part in the ongoing success of our department, in supporting frontline services will see you responsible for a variety of work, including, but not limited to:

- Manage the risk management process within the SES, with an emphasis on business and operational functions and capabilities, and implement strategies to improve and promote risk management maturity and culture.
- Develop, implement and review risk management standards and compliance strategies to enable the SES to enhance service delivery.
- Provide strategic advice to senior management on a range of business continuity and compliance related issues to support planning for risk identification, evaluation, treatment reporting and escalation.
- Research, analyse and identify opportunities to improve and further develop SES risk registers, frameworks, and tools to ensure integration of risk management in strategic and business planning processes.
- Prepare and review complex reports, briefs, submissions and correspondence relating to business continuity and risk management issues, in accordance with departmental requirements.
- Develop and maintain effective relationships with key internal and external stakeholders to effectively embed risk frameworks, processes and systems to support ongoing capability development within SES.
- Undertake projects on a diverse range of risk management activities, including data collection, analysis, evaluation, and interpretation, and provide recommendation to solve issues.
- Provide support to ensure planning and operational readiness activities are maintained and undertake operational duties during emergencies and disasters as required.

Capabilities

To determine your suitability for the role, you will be assessed on the following Leadership Competencies for Queensland behavioural profiles that link to the "key accountabilities" for this role:
Leadership Competency Stream - Individual Contributor (leading self)

Vision
- Leads change in complex environments
- Makes insightful decisions

Results
- Builds enduring relationships
- Drive accountability and outcomes

Accountability
- Fosters healthy and inclusive workplaces
- Demonstrates sound governance

Once you join us we will w