Sydney Global Program Manager

We're flexible with full-time or part-time arrangements for the right candidate and are also open to alternative models — including job shares or splitting the role across multiple people — where it makes sense.

Submission closure date: Monday 30 June, 9:00am AEST

About the Committee for Sydney

The Committee for Sydney is the leading urban policy think tank for Greater Sydney. We are an independent, not-for-profit organisation representing a diverse coalition of members across business, government, academia, and civil society, united in their commitment to making Sydney the best city in the world.

The Committee for Sydney is undertaking a landmark program reframing how Sydney is positioned to the world. We're looking for someone to help us lead on this work - this is your opportunity to help reshape Sydney's global brand narrative. See more information on the program below.

Help reshape Sydney's brand: about the Sydney Global Program

Sydney Global is a flagship initiative to reframe Sydney's story to the world – strengthening its global identity, enhancing international competitiveness, and aligning public and private efforts behind a long-term brand narrative.

Role summary

The Sydney Global Program Manager is responsible for delivering on the strategy, implementation, and day-to-day management of the Sydney Global initiative.

This is a role for a skilled communicator and project manager – someone who thrives on complexity, delivers outputs and outcomes, and builds deep cross-sector relationships to drive real-world impact across research, engagement, events, communications, and coalition building.

Key responsibilities

Program leadership and delivery

• Lead and implement the Sydney Global program roadmap, including research, advocacy campaign development, and public facing leadership of the program

• Support Sydney Global partner organisations and secure funding (renewals and new funding sources)

• Coordinate delivery across internal and external teams, managing timelines, deliverables, and reporting requirements

Governance and secretariat functions

• Establish the Sydney Global governance structures to effectively guide program delivery and maximise meaningful consultation and coalition building, enabling input from key stakeholders

• Serve as the secretariat for the program's engagement activities, including advisory groups, working groups, coalition, and partners

• Manage agendas, papers, minutes, and follow-up actions for all Sydney Global meetings

Stakeholder engagement

• Build and sustain deep relationships with program funders, sponsors, and champions.

• Act as the primary liaison for 6 Partner organisations and 70 Coalition organisation across government, business, and academia

• Design and deliver an engagement and consultation strategy that includes 1:1 meeting, sector workshops, roundtables, and public events

Communications and advocacy

• Work closely with the Committee's communications team to shape and deliver an effective narrative about the Sydney Global program and its objectives

• Contribute to campaign development, including key messaging, media engagement, and event communications

• Represent the Committee in external forums, conferences, and briefings in relation to Sydney Global

Project and operational management

• Monitor and manage project budgets, risk registers, and milestone tracking

• Prepare high-quality updates and briefings for internal and external audiences, including the Board and Executive Committee

• Coordinate inputs from across the Committee's policy, events, and comms teams

• Maintain an accurate CRM for Sydney Global using Salesforce and other tools. Ensure all engagements are tracked, logged, and reportable for impact and relationship management.

Selection criteria

Essential

• Demonstrated senior experience across program and project management, policy development, community engagement, communications, stakeholder engagement, advocacy

• Experience establishing and managing governance structures and secretariat responsibilities

• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-sector collaborations (private sector and government) and deliver complex projects with multiple project partners

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience preparing briefings, public-facing content, and appearing at high-profile meetings with industry, academia and government

• Highly organised, output and outcome-driven, able to manage competing priorities

• Proven ability to secure partnership and sponsorships and onboard financial partners/sponsors for the Sydney Global program with the objective of increasing the program's scale and impact

• Strong commitment to Sydney's future and passion for urban, economic or global affairs

Desirable

• Experience working with or within government, economic development, or place branding organisations

• Familiarity with global city benchmarking and branding, international investment and/or talent attraction, destination branding/marketing

What we offer

• A values-driven team committed to making a difference

• Flexible working and professional growth opportunities

How to apply:

• Applications must be submitted with a 1-page cover letter to [email protected]

• For any questions please also reach out to [email protected]

Please note: We will aim to hold interviews in the first week of July 2025. Only candidates with the right to live and work in Australia will be considered.

More information on the Sydney Global Program:

Help reshape Sydney's brand: about the Sydney Global Program

Sydney Global is a flagship initiative to reframe Sydney's story to the world – strengthening its global identity, enhancing international competitiveness, and aligning public and private efforts behind a long-term brand narrative.

Sydney is a visually stunning city, and its natural beauty has made it a top destination for tourists. However, Sydney's reputation is dominated by its visual brand – focusing on the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, and beaches – while failing to promote the full reality of the city's potential.

This narrow brand narrative does not reflect the true lived experiences of the 5.5 million residents who live and work across Sydney, or the rich food, culture, world-class education and innovation economy that make it special. So, the world does not see Sydney's full all that it is and can be. The Committee for Sydney's global benchmarking research has highlighted this performance/perception gap year after year.

Meanwhile, other cities are already promoting themselves with more wholistic narratives as top destinations to live, work, study, and invest.

The Committee for Sydney is bringing together experts from diverse sectors of Sydney's economy to jointly develop a proposal to deliver a better Sydney brand narrative: Sydney Global.

The Committee for Sydney is bringing together key institutions, including business, government, and academia, to build a coalition to address this problem.

We will develop a robust evidence base that demonstrates the effectiveness of a cohesive brand narrative and its potential to deliver significant value to Sydney's economy.

This is not about a new logo or a tagline. This is about developing a unified and cohesive Sydney brand narrative co-owned by everyone.

This research will empower business, government, and academia to establish governance and decision-making frameworks for Sydney's brand that will better position Sydney, and all it has to offer, in the global economy.

That's where you come in We're looking for a Program Manager to take this work forward for the next three years.