Associate Director, Stakeholder Engagement

Optus actively forges its future through innovation and investment, embodying a challenger brand.

As the Associate Director, Stakeholder Engagement - Customer Inclusion and Advocacy, you will lead our efforts to engage and support collaborators who represent vulnerable and marginalized customer groups. This role drives inclusive outcomes, and ensures Optus presents consistent, coordinated messages across all interactions.

Your day in the life of an Associate Director, Stakeholder Engagement – Customer Inclusion and Advocacy at Optus

Lead the identification, analysis, and prioritisation of key external collaborators, focusing on community groups, advocacy organisations, and customer representation bodies.

Develop and maintain strong governance frameworks to manage collaborator relationships effectively, ensuring interactions are coordinated and feedback is incorporated into Optus' business decision-making processes.

Foster strong, trust-based relationships with external collaborators from diverse, vulnerable, or marginalized customer segments.

Serve as a key liaison between the company and community organisations, ensuring their voices are reflected in business practices and policy development.

Work closely with internal teams (e.g., Customer Care, Regulatory Affairs, Inclusion & Diversity, Government Relations, Product, Corporate Affairs) to ensure alignment and consistency in collaborator engagement.

Proactively identify and address collaborator concerns and reputational risks through thoughtful engagement and remediation strategies.

What we're looking for

Demonstrated history of collaboration experience (minimum of 10 years), ideally in a heavily regulated or customer-focused sector.

Deep understanding of issues affecting vulnerable or marginalised communities and experience working directly with representative organisations.

Strong interpersonal, negotiation, and influencing skills – able to navigate complexity and build consensus across diverse groups.

Experience in designing and implementing collaborator mapping tools, governance frameworks, and reporting mechanisms.

High emotional intelligence, cultural proficiency, and a collaborative approach.

Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to represent Optus credibly at external forums.

Perks we love at Optus

3 days in the office, 2 days remote – with flexible hours to suit

Inclusive gender-neutral paid Parental Leave of up to 16 weeks

Competitive leave including 2 additional 'Connected Leave' days

All Optus colleagues have access to resources, webinars, and support via the 'Parents at Work portal'

Own your own growth by accessing an extensive online and facilitator-led learning catalogue.

Connect at work through our colleague-led volunteer groups: Culture Connect, Elevate Women, Disability Network, Express Yourself (LGBTQIA+), United Veterans, Yarn Network, Wellbeing Network and Young Professionals.

Vibrant campus life, variety of facilities including restaurants, cafes, gymnasium, GP, and post office

Free Optus bus from Macquarie University Metro Station (every 6-8 minutes); morning and afternoon

Keen to see what it's really like to work at Optus? Search #OptusLife on LinkedIn to go behind the scenes

At Optus, we are strengthened by others and that means valuing diversity and saying 'yes' to embracing individual differences. We are committed to ensuring that our application process provides an equal employment opportunity to all job seekers, including individuals from diverse gender, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, individuals with a disability, individuals identifying as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community, individuals who may have served in the armed forces or who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. We also want to do our best to make our recruitment process inclusive. If you require any adjustments or accessibility support to participate fairly and equitably in the recruitment process, please email

or call We're here to help. When you contact us, please advise your preferred method of contact and we will be in touch within 48 hours.

For more information on Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Optus, please visit

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