Brigade Support Officer

Purpose of specific work area and position

Rural Fire Service Queensland (RFSQ) Area Offices are responsible for providing support to Rural Fire Brigades and volunteers. As the primary local contact point, Areas connect local needs with District, Regional, and State resources to enhance training, mitigation activities, asset management, and brigade operations. The main purpose of the Areas is to provide seamless and responsive support to volunteers to ensure the effectiveness of operational bushfire response and mitigation.

Each Area encompasses a cluster of Local Government Areas and includes operational and non-operational staff, volunteers and Rural Fire Brigades who provide bushfire management, mitigation, and response services for rural and semi-rural communities, including some urban fringe areas across the state.

The Brigade Support Officer is responsible for providing day-to-day operational and business support to local brigades, ensuring brigades are supported and empowered to effectively protect the community. You will need to maintain a strong customer focus, and most of your time will be spent interacting with brigades and their members to support service delivery. Reporting to the Area Manager, the role works closely with volunteers and other Area and District stakeholders.

Mandatory requirements
- Must meet the mandatory requirements and attributes as outlined in the generic RFSQ Rural Officer One (RFSO1) role description.

Highly desirable requirements
- Knowledge of, or experience working with volunteers and/or within a volunteer organisation.

Primary duties

In addition to the generic RFSO1 role description, the primary duties of the Brigade Support Officer include but are not limited to:

- Respond to rural fires and other emergency incidents to provide operational support, mentoring and leadership either on-site or in incident control centres.
- Support operational preparedness, which may include maintaining heavy plant registers and conducting station, equipment, and fleet audits, to ensure operational capability and capacity across the Area.
- Assist Bushfire Mitigation Officers with local bushfire mitigation activities, including identifying bushfire risks, providing basic mitigation advice to landowners, and supporting community education.
- In collaboration with the Operational Capability Coordinator, assist brigades with planning, procuring, operationalising, maintaining and disposing of catalogue and non-catalogue equipment items.
- Support the execution of fleet and station maintenance plans (ensuring assets are available for planned maintenance and disposal); and assisting with managing unplanned maintenance activities (including coordination of repair quotes, coordination of replacement vehicles, and assisting with insurance claims).
- Attend Rural Fire Brigade and/or Group meetings to provide timely updates, expert advice, assist with early resolution of issues, and support brigade governance requirements.
- Assist with training coordination, delivery, and facilitation across the Area, District and Region, as required, to ensure training needs and gaps for volunteers are identified and rectified as appropriate.

Additional information
- Be able to meet the attributes of the generic Rural Officer One (RFSO1) role description.
- Volunteers and external parties with appropriate skills are highly encouraged to apply, noting that they may be asked to provide additional information to satisfy internal policies.
- Applicants will: have proven commitment to maintaining bushfire competencies and operating in a team environment.
- capacity to participate out of hours (i.e., night or weekends) shift roster during disaster operations.
- Thorough knowledge of the concepts, strategies and issues associated with managing rural fire services, particularly in a volunteer environment and have a sound knowledge of and ability to provide operational leadership at emergency situations utilising the AIIMS/IMS methodology.
- Incumbents may be required to travel and work within their area of responsibility and may also be required to undertake intrastate and/or interstate deployment and travel.
- This is a day work position yet may require flexible hours of work to meet functional demands, including working at night on weekends as part of the role.
- Officers appointed to this position will participate in a personal professional development program in conjunction with their supervisor.