Associate Director Engineering Workforce Orchestration

Optus is an Australian telecommunications company, delivering more than 11 million services to our customers every day across mobile, broadband and digital solutions.

We're looking for a strategic and operational leader to run the end-to-end flow-to-work engine for a diverse group of engineers across Software, Platform, SRE, QA, and Data disciplines in AU and IN. This is a portfolio orchestration role—not a coding role—focused on matching the right people to the right work at the right time.

You'll partner closely with the Project Office and Engineering Managers to balance demand, capability, and continuity, ensuring sustainable delivery and fair access to opportunities.

Join us to help shape the future of work at Optus.

You'll drive

• Prioritisation & sequencing of requests (with stakeholders)
• Assignment decisions and rotation timing within published guardrails
• Continuity & sustainability rules (min. engagement lengths, max WIP)
• Service levels (e.g., time-to-fill, notification lead times) and exception handling/escalations

The day to day

• Operate the full scheduling lifecycle: demand intake, prioritisation, assignment, onboarding/offboarding.
• Maintain a forward-looking view of capacity and skills, factoring in leave, training, and regional coverage.
• Allocate engineers to project teams with clear timelines, managing renewals and minimising unplanned rotations.
• Coordinate AUIN handovers and ensure sustainable coverage during "golden hours."
• Chair regular allocation discussions with key stakeholders to resolve conflicts and align priorities.
• Standardise entry/exit processes including plans, shadowing, and handover checklists.
• Publish and enforce clear rules around engagement length, team rotations, and exception handling.
• Report weekly on key metrics: time-to-fill, utilisation, continuity, and assignment satisfaction.

What you'll bring

• Proven experience in engineering workforce orchestration, portfolio management, or PMO leadership.
• Skilled in scheduling multi-disciplinary tech teams across regions and time zones.
• Strong stakeholder management across Delivery, Product, PMO, and Engineering.
• Data-driven mindset with experience building dashboards using tools like Jira, Planview, or Smartsheet.
• Practical understanding of software, platform, and SRE lifecycles to assess fit and sequencing.
• Calm, fair, and bias-aware decision-making under pressure.
• Ability to build trust with engineers and managers while balancing delivery needs.
• Passion for continuous improvement, standardisation, and simplifying complex processes.

The good stuff…

• Competitive remuneration and employee discounts. Make life easier (and more affordable) with $80 monthly credit and 25% off Optus products and unique shopping discounts with our retail partners.
• Flexible working arrangements with opportunities to work three days in the office, two days remote or home.
• Vibrant and collaborative office campus that includes cafes, convenience store, chill out zones, GP, post office, gym and on-site childcare centre.
• Competitive leave policies, including additional 'Connected' days to focus on culture, family, health, community, or whatever's important to you.
• We support growing families with inclusive, carer-neutral paid Parental Leave of up to 16 weeks.
• Direct your own development and build future-ready skills with Optus U's industry-focused micro-credentials, developed with La Trobe and Macquarie Universities.
• Build meaningful connections through employee-led networks and diversity initiatives including Culture Connect, Elevate Women, Disability Network and Express Yourself (LGBTQIA+).
• Put your wellbeing first with free access to counselling and support services, 24/7 — in-person, by phone, SMS, or video.
• Free Optus bus from Macquarie University Metro Station (every 6-8 minutes); morning and afternoon.

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