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 Capability delivers on the QFES organisational priorities and objectives, providing management of SES governance and capability functions, and implementation of new projects and initiatives. This is achieved through the provision of business 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 coordinating and managing the enhancement of the SES Capability Development program. You will be responsible for the review, renewal, implementation and management of a contemporary SES Capability Framework. You will work closely with key stakeholders, SES volunteers, and the Organisational Capbility, Doctrine and Lessons teams to support the review, implementation and ongoing delivery of the SES capability and investment model and strategic projects to meet organisational requirements, and SES service delivery.

Key requirements

Mandatory requirements

Highly desirable requirements
- Knowledge and experience and/or qualifications in project management methodologies.
- Knowledge and understanding of capability management or previous experience working with business capability models.
- Knowledge and/or experience in developing, maintaining and improving organisational policy (and process) management systems and frameworks.

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.
- Capacity to work at night and weekends to suit an SES volunteer environment.
- It is expected the incumbent will possess the necessary 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. Therefore, this role is also a designated SES uniformed position.
- 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 capability development within the SES, with an emphasis on training and business improvements to existing and emerging SES capabilities and functions.
- Develop, implement and review strategies to enable the SES to enhance service delivery, ensuring alignment with legislation and strategic direction to support changing community and environmental needs.
- Plan and manage activities, analysis and evaluation of project initiatives to ensure alignment with best practice methodologies, organisational requirements and governance frameworks.
- Assist with the implementation of policies and procedures to support ongoing investment planning, prioritisation and feasibility analysis that helps shape the investment plan for SES capability service delivery.
- Prepare, evaluate and review high-level correspondence, reports, submissions and communication on a range of complex and confidential issues and opportunities relating to project initiatives.
- Provide timely and accurate solutions and advice to senior management on a range of business improvement, policy and procedures to support capability planning and enable effective decision making processes.
- Build, liaise, consult, and negotiate with key internal and external stakeholders to promote and establish current management processes and the development of clear and concise capability statements.to ensure the delivery and monitoring of agreed outcomes and present project status reports as required.
- Represent the department on high level meetings and working groups relating to procurement and asset man