Human Resources Business Partner

Acknowledgement of Country

CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View our vision towards reconciliation.

Role highlights

• Partner with senior leaders to shape People strategies and influence CSIRO's priorities.

• Support Executives, lead organisational initiatives, and help shape culture and ways of working.

• Work across multiple units, deliver high-value HR solutions, and contribute to research-enabled success.

About CSIRO

As Australia's national science agency, CSIRO is solving the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. Many of our iconic innovations were once considered impossible until someone, just like you, joined us and took on the challenge.

Visit for more information.

The opportunity

CSIRO is seeking an experienced HR Business Partner to engage with senior leaders, understand business needs, provide strategic advice, and broker people services and initiatives. In this pivotal role, you will translate CSIRO's priorities into actionable plans that guide the People Team's efforts, acting as the key entry point for Executives seeking guidance and support.

You will join a small, expert team of HR Business Partners within People Partnering & Services, supporting our Enterprise Services staff—professionals who provide essential services enabling our researchers to deliver impact.

Reporting to the Executive Manager, People Partnering, you will partner with senior leaders across Enterprise Services, providing insight into strategy and people matters, and managing a broad portfolio of units and leadership teams to drive organisational success.

Your high-level duties will include:

• Engage with senior leaders to understand CSIRO business needs, provide strategic HR advice, and broker people services and initiatives.
• Contribute proactively to leadership teams on people matters and provide input into business unit strategy.
• Translate business priorities into actionable People plans, supporting talent development, succession, workforce planning, and organisational design.
• Support organisational change, fostering the desired culture and employer brand.
• Apply HR expertise and current trends to recommend solutions and collaborate with subject matter experts to improve HR services.
• Analyse insights from strategic reports to inform decision-making.
• Demonstrate integrity, tact, and confidentiality, and communicate respectfully with all stakeholders.

Role particulars

Location: Melbourne (Clayton), Brisbane (Dutton Park or Pullenvale), Canberra, (Black Mountain) other locations may be considered.

Salary: AU$131k – AU$153k per annum (pro rata for part-time), plus 15.4% superannuation

Tenure & work schedule:

Specified term of 12 months, full-time, flexible work arrangements can be discussed based on needs of role and individual circumstances.

Reference: 101553

As the successful candidate, you will bring:

Essential criteria

• Relevant Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience in Human Resource Management, Business Management, or other relevant discipline.

• Demonstrated experience of developing of effective people solutions to diverse business problems and supporting senior executives.

• A minimum of 10 years' experience in a role providing generalist and strategic HR advice on a range of complex HR, organisational and employee relations issues across the employment lifecycle.

• Demonstrated ability to lead conversations with senior stakeholders to articulate business needs and develop an appropriate strategic response.

• Demonstrated ability to effectively challenge, coach and hold leaders to account, i.e., managerial courage.

• A track record of being able to anticipate and balance the needs of multiple stakeholders.

• An ability to assess the risk and opportunity of identified strategies, options and actions while overcoming problems and setbacks in achieving goals.

• Strong interpersonal skills exemplified by experience establishing and maintaining strong partnerships and a history of delivering a credible and exceptional level of customer service.

• Extensive change management experience in an organisation of comparable size and complexity, with the ability to deliver high quality outcomes.

• Superior written and oral communication skills, evidenced by high-level reporting, presentation and negotiation abilities, and the capacity to identify and influence critical stakeholders to gain support for contentious proposals/ideas.

• Exceptional organisational skills and attention to detail, able to prioritise competing demands, and a clear understanding of risk and when to escalate issues to achieve positive outcomes.

Demonstrated evidence of professional and respectful behaviours and attitudes in a collaborative team environment.

For full details about this role, and other criteria, please review the Position Description.

Not sure if you meet all the criteria?

While it is CSIRO policy that the successful candidate must meet all the essential criteria, there are many ways to demonstrate this. Don't let the list discourage you. If you are unsure about applying, please reach out to the contact person in the Position Description.

Setting you up for success

We are committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible to everyone. We recognise that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. Please contact and let us know how we can support you.

Life at CSIRO and flexible work arrangements

We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. We can discuss flexible work arrangements with you during the recruitment process. CSIRO also offers a range of leave entitlements, benefits and career development opportunities. To find out more, visit Careers at CSIRO.

Inclusion and belonging

Solving Australia's greatest challenges takes a diversity of minds and lived experiences. We know diverse teams are more effective and deliver more innovative outcomes. As an equal employment opportunity organisation, we are committed to creating diverse and inclusive teams where people feel they belong. We recognise true diversity encompasses all ages, abilities, cultures, faiths, levels of education, genders, sexualities, diversity of thought and much more. We focus on hiring people who share our values of People First, Further Together, Making it Real and Trusted.

CSIRO holds Gold Status for the Australian Workplace Equality Index for LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and a Science in Australia Gender Equity Bronze Award.

Eligibility

Applications for this position are open to Australian Citizens, New Zealand Citizens and Australian Permanent Residents. Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.

Child safety

CSIRO is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people involved in our activities and programs. View our Child Safe Policy.

How to apply

Please apply online and submit a cover letter (maximum 2 pages) and CV that demonstrate your motivation and ability to meet the essential requirements of this role.

Applications close

Tuesday 14 October 2025, 11:00pm AEDT