Deputy Chief Executive Officer

• SES Band 3
• Canberra

Job Number: EXT-SESB

Job Title: Deputy Chief Executive Officer

Classification: SES Band 3

Job Type: Ongoing,Non-ongoing

Employment Type: Full-time

Location/s: Canberra

Deputy Chief Executive Officer

Senior Executive Service Band 3

• Unique opportunity for strategic and innovative leadership
• Directly impacting the lives of Australians
• Lead critical transformation with whole-of-government collaboration
  Applications close 11:59pm AEDT, Wednesday 29 October 2025

About us

Services Australia (the Agency) is at the frontline of government service delivery, supporting millions of Australians with economic, health and social wellbeing payments and services.

We're making government services simple, so people can get on with their lives. Our goal is to make it easier to engage with the services that Australians rely on. To achieve this goal, we're transforming the way we work to deliver a simple, helpful, respectful and transparent experience for customers.

In the financial year, the Agency delivered $241 billion in total payments across Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support services. We delivered this through our digital channels with 1.1 billion transactions, 53.9 million phone calls and 10.7 million face-to-face engagements at our 318 service centres.

The Agency is one of the largest Australian Public Service (APS) agencies in Australia, with more than 32,500 ongoing staff, located in every state and territory.

Job Description

Deputy Chief Executive Officers (Deputy CEOs) are key members of the Agency's executive team, providing high-level advice to the Chief Executive Officer, as well as contributing to the effective leadership and strategic management of the Agency. Our Deputy CEOs must be able to develop and unite staff and stakeholders behind the Agency's 2030 Vision, establish and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders and lead complex change processes in a fast-paced environment. Deputy CEOs have exceptional communications skills and are adept at engaging senior stakeholders and building and sustaining relationships in complex environments. The role will require you to advise and support Ministers and Government more broadly.

We have an immediate vacancy for the position of Deputy CEO, Customer Service Delivery. You will lead a large and geographically dispersed team, providing strategic leadership across five divisions of over 23,400 staff, and be responsible for the effective operation of the Agency's face-to-face, telephony, processing and digital services delivering Medicare, Child Support and Centrelink services.

The Deputy CEO is responsible for 24/7 monitoring of operations and maintaining partnerships across government, non-government and private sector stakeholders, as well as coordinating the Agency's responses to emergencies, and delivering the Agency's remote, Indigenous and multicultural servicing strategies.

The Deputy CEO is also responsible for delivering cross-government and surge capacity services on behalf of other government entities.

Tertiary qualifications in a relevant field are desirable.

This process will also be used to establish a merit pool for future SES Band 3 vacancies across the Agency, as they become available within an 18-month period.

Location

The location for the Deputy CEO, Customer Service Delivery position is Canberra. Other locations may be considered by exception.

Salary and benefits

• The Senior Executive Band 3 level offers an attractive remuneration package, including 15.4% superannuation and salary packaging options.
• Conditions that support your health, wellbeing and lifestyle.
• Generous leave provisions, including accruable annual leave of 23 days per year, with the capacity to purchase an additional 4 weeks' annual leave per year after 12 months' service.
• Accruable personal leave including sick and carers leave at 18 days per year.

Eligibility

To apply, you need to be an Australian citizen.

An applicant's suitability for employment with the Agency will be assessed through a pre-employment screening process. This will include identity and criminal history checks.

You'll also need or have the ability to acquire and maintain a Negative Vetting Level 2 Australian Government security clearance. This will be arranged for you, if you're successful.

Apply

Before applying, please obtain selection documentation from the Executive Intelligence Group vacancies page: (ref #1029). If, after reading the selection documentation, you require further information please contact Tricia Searson or Karina Duffey at Executive Intelligence Group on

RecruitAbility applies to this vacancy. Under the scheme, if you meet the minimum requirements for the job and declare you have a disability, you will be invited to participate in further assessment activity for the vacancy if you choose to apply under the scheme. For more information see:

Preparing your application

Your application should include a CV and a 'pitch' of no more than 1000 words drawing out why you are interested in the role, what you offer the agency, your skill set, relevant career history and achievements, and your leadership attributes. In preparing your application, we suggest you take account of the following:

• SES Performance Leadership Framework. This sets the expectations for all SES employees.
• Secretaries Charter of Leadership Behaviours. This sets out the behaviours Secretaries expect of themselves, the SES and across all levels of the APS. The Charter focuses on behaviours that support modern systems of leadership within the construct of the APS Values and Code of Conduct.
• Integrated Leadership System upon which the above behaviours are built.

For more information, please visit the Australian Public Service Commission's page on Senior Executive Service (SES) recruitment.