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 Readiness supports operations through the leadership, management and integration of high-level planning products and services to respond to emergency and disaster events and maintain an operational capability that contributes to the development of risk-based planning and policy at all levels of Queensland Disaster Management Arrangements (QDMA). The team is also responsible for ensuring that there is an operational coordination capability within the SES state office.

Reporting to the Executive Manager, you will be a key member of the team, providing support to facilitate operational planning and exercising and policy development within the context of disaster and emergency management to ensure the effective preparation for and response to emergencies and disasters. You will also provide high-level administration and management support to the team, including logistics, planning and reporting to support SES state operational readiness capability.

Key requirements

Mandatory requirements

Highly desirable requirements
- High level understanding of Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System (AIIMS) and QFES operational concepts.
- Demonstrated knowledge and/or experience working in an operational coordination centre along with knowledge or the ability to rapidly acquire knowledge of QLD Disaster Management arrangements (QDMA).
- Hold or the ability to obtain, Level 1 Procurement Queensland Government purchasing qualification.

Special requirements
- The incumbent will be appointed as a staff member of the SES and 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.
- This role is also a designated SES uniformed position; therefore, it is expected the incumbent may possess and/or maintain the necessary skills/expertise or experience to be appointed as an Authorised Rescue Officer in accordance with section 148(2) of the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990.
- Understanding of a volunteer environment to support the operational capability of the SES.
- It is expected that 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 key frontline services will see you responsible for a variety of work, including, but not limited to:

- Provide high-level administrative and project support, including maintaining document management systems, filling and financial administration to ensure business objectives are achieved.
- Provide management support for SES readiness, including logistics, planning and reporting in relation to disaster and emergency operations across all levels of QDMA.
- Liaise with staff and volunteers to develop an understanding of SES planning and exercising activities and readiness capability requirements to build operational capability during times of emergency events.
- Assist in the conduct and review of severe weather-related operational exercises and platforms to support SES disaster and emergency management activities and enable development of relevant plans.
- Develop and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure information is shared between regional operations centres, other emergency services and agencies through timely communication and liaison.
- Assist in the preparation and review of reports, briefing notes, submissions departmental or other correspondence, relating to capability readiness initiatives and issues, in accordance with organisational requirements.
- Research, analyse and observe SES operational capability trends and issues, including assessment of capability readiness products, and provide recommendation to ensure quality decision making.
- Undertake and support operational duties during emergencies and disasters and work within a dynamic environment, fostering teamwork and actively participate in performance and develop