An exciting opportunity to join a federal government department delivering a high-profile international engagement program.

This department leads Australia’s diplomatic and international engagement work. It administers an annual visitor program that brings around 20 delegations of emerging and senior leaders from across the Indo-Pacific region to Australia each year for tailored, high-level engagement with government, industry and academia.

Visit itineraries are built around the department’s foreign policy priorities and regularly include meetings with Ministers and senior office holders. The program is regarded internally as one of the department’s most prestigious people-to-people initiatives.

The Opportunity

What this 12-month + 12-month labour hire contract offers is ownership: sole responsibility for the end-to-end delivery of around four international delegation visits a year, each one a live, high-stakes program involving ministerial meetings, agency briefings and cultural engagements.

You will work inside a small team responsible for delivering the department’s full annual schedule of roughly 20 visits, contributing to planning across the whole program while personally accompanying and running your own allocation. It is a step into rare territory, with few program or event roles in Canberra carry this level of profile, protocol complexity, or direct exposure to senior government.

- Own end-to-end delivery of your own allocation of high-profile international delegation visits, not just support someone else’s
- Build protocol and delegation-management experience that is genuinely rare in the Canberra market
- Manage real budget and procurement responsibility, with accountability that sits with you
- Work inside a small,



close-knit team on a program the department treats as a flagship people-to-people initiative
- Contribute to planning and programming across the full annual visit schedule, not just your own visits

The Role This role sits at the centre of a small team delivering the department’s international visit program end-to-end. You will:

- Facilitate all logistics for your allocated visits, including domestic travel between engagements
- Accompany and manage approximately four visits a year end-to-end, from planning through to delivery
- Manage visit budgets, including reconciling payments and reporting on expenditure
- Manage financial and procurement activity in line with departmental and APS policy, and compliant with PGPA requirements
- Support planning and programming across the full annual schedule of approximately 20 visits
- Coordinate protocol arrangements for high-profile delegations, including work outside standard business hours during visit periods

The Ideal Person This role will suit someone who already operates at this level, not someone hoping to grow into it.

You have delivered complex visits, events or high-level engagements before, you know where things go wrong on the day, and you build in the contingency to handle it before it happens.

You don’t need a foreign affairs background.



This kind of role has been filled successfully by people from coordination, executive support, protocol and stakeholder engagement backgrounds alike.

What matters is that you can hold a detailed plan in your head, stay warm and unflustered when it goes off script, and make the people you’re hosting feel genuinely looked after.

You bring

- Demonstrated experience delivering complex visits, events or high-level engagements end-to-end
- Strong organisational and coordination capability across competing logistics and stakeholders
- A calm and personable style that puts visiting delegates at ease, even when the day is running late
- Willingness to travel domestically (multi-city, 6–8 days per visit) and work extended hours during visit periods

It would be highly desirable to have:
- Experience working within Commonwealth financial, procurement or governance frameworks (PGPA)
- A background in coordination, executive or personal assistance, protocol or stakeholder engagement

Salary / Rate

- $80/hr – $90/hr + Super
- Initial 12-month contract, with an option to extend for a further 12 months. Based in Canberra (Barton)
- Working primarily in office, with some flexibility to be discussed directly with the client
- This role requires travelling interstate as required every 1-3 months

How to Apply To apply online, please click on the appropriate link. Alternatively, for a confidential discussion, please contact Lisa Shakhovskaya on [02 6108 4878](tel:02 6108 4878) quoting ref no. 21768

HorizonOne is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce and we encourage applications from people of all cultures, capabilities and backgrounds.

📌 Program Coordination Officer (Canberra)
🏢 HorizonOne Recruitment
📍 Canberra