Assistant Director Product Stewardship

EL 1 - $115,663 - $124,403
- Circular Economy
- Adelaide - SA, Brisbane - QLD, Canberra - ACT, Darwin - NT, Hobart - TAS, Melbourne - VIC, Perth - WA, Sydney - NSW
- Each year Australia generates over 75 million tonnes of waste, most of which ends up in landfill; losing the valuable resources these products contain and costing the economy billions of dollars.
- Each year Australians throw away around 20 kg of e-waste per person, one of the highest per capita e-waste levels in the world, sending over $430 million worth of valuable materials to landfill, each year.
- 25% of water used in agriculture is used to grow food that is ultimately wasted.
- Food waste costs the economy around $36.6 billion each year.
- Australian’s use and discard around 2.5 million tonnes of plastics each year.
- Product stewardship is a framework for reducing products’ impacts on the environment and human health.
- We value collegial discussion of ideas, collaboration, creativity and having fun while getting things done. Come and join us
- This role will be based in Canberra, ACT, or other locations under a flexible working arrangement.

**Who we are**
The Circular Economy Division delivers programs and develops policies that support the Australian Government’s ambitious agenda to transition to a more circular economy by 2030. We work collaboratively and extensively with industry along the length of Australia’s supply chain, non-government organisations (NGOs), foreign governments and Australia’s state, territory and local governments.

Our Circular Economy, Waste and Resource Recovery policy functions achieve tangible outcomes across a range of areas, including by:

- Providing strategic policy advice on how Australia can increase plastic recycling rates and reduce plastic waste and litter.
- Representing Australia in international negotiations toward a new global treaty to end plastic pollution.
- Coordinating the implementation of Australia’s National Waste Policy Action Plan.
- Driving investment in new recycling infrastructure to significantly increase Australia’s domestic recycling capability.
- Reforming Australia’s packaging regulation to improve how businesses design the product packaging that Australian consumers use every day.
- Working with industry to establish product stewardship schemes to ensure that materials in products are reused and not sent to landfill.
- Working with states, territories and industry to halve Australia’s food waste by 2030.

Vacancies exist across three product stewardship teams. These teams develop and implement products stewardship policies that aim to reduce products’ impacts on the environment and human health. The policies involve manufacturers, importers, distributors, retailers, and end-users sharing this responsibility, across all stages of a product’s lifecycle.

These positions exist in the following teams.

**Product Stewardship Regulatory Schemes & Reform**:
This team is responsible for development and oversight of regulated product stewardship schemes. This includes developing a new products stewardship scheme for solar PV systems and other small electrical products. It is also responsible for ensuring the Product Stewardship for Oil scheme continues to effectively manage over half a billion litres of waste oil every year.

**Product Stewardship Policy**:
This section leads the annual review and update of the Minister’s Product Stewardship Priority List. This includes industry engagement with stakeholders on listed products, such as tyres, têxtiles and oil containers. The team is also developing a product stewardship framework agreed by Environment Ministers to support State and Territory Government work on priority products.

**Product Stewardship Engagement and Accreditation**:
This section is responsible for delivering the Australian Government’s voluntary product stewardship accreditation program. The team works with a range of industry players and the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence to promote industry-led stewardship action. We work closely with the Product Stewardship Policy section to deliver Australian Government initiatives for voluntary stewardship approaches.

The successful applicants will undertake work that is complex in nature, and work under limited direction with reasonable autonomy and accountability. You will exercise both initiative and judgment in the development of policy, provide detailed advice in relation to complex problems, and assist in strategic planning, and policy development and administration. These roles may have a considerable level of public contact in relation to difficult or sensitive issues and may liaise with a range of stakeholders in a representational capacity. Work may involve management responsibilities requiring the setting of priorities and managing programs.

**The Job**
- Manage a small team to effectively deliver on programs of work.
- Support the policy development and/or legislative change proc