About the Role

Join a friendly, high performing team passionate about making a difference for Victoria's school workforce through high quality public policy advice.

The Workforce Policy and Strategy Division plays a key role in advising government on the future direction of Victoria's school workforce. As a policy officer, you will support the development of workforce policy initiatives and workforce policy advice for department executives and ministers.

We are looking for a policy officer who has solid research and analytical skills and enjoys thinking creatively, working collaboratively and responding to short and long-term policy tasks. You will have the opportunity to grow your written and verbal communication skills, policy skills, research skills, stakeholder engagement skills and your understanding of the Victorian schools workforce.

Both ongoing and fixed-term opportunities are available.

Attributes

The successful candidate will:

- be curious and thoughtful, demonstrating capacity and willingness to learn about school workforce systems, issues and solutions, and identify opportunities for improvement
- be flexible, adaptable and resilient
- be able to effectively prioritise tasks in line with their urgency and impact
- enjoy working collaboratively on both short and long term policy tasks
- demonstrate awareness of the political and organisational environment in which school education operates
- have excellent written and verbal communication skills
- possess strong research and analysis skills
- be committed to understanding client/stakeholder requirements and delivering high quality outcomes for those clients/stakeholders
- understand the importance of partnering with the client/stakeholder in developing successful strategies, programs or products.

Desirable Qualifications and Experience

A relevant tertiary qualification and/or experience in public policy or public administration is desirable.



Refer to the Position Description for the Key Selection Criteria.

About the Division

The Workforce Policy and Strategy Division brings together workforce strategy, policy and data analytics to lead a strategic approach to the management and development of Victoria's school education workforce by:

- Establishing and maintaining coherent system-level workforce strategies for school and regional-based education workforces
- Providing DE with a centralised strategic policy capability, with expertise in workforce issues
- Supporting the project management and monitoring the delivery of education workforce supply programs and initiatives
- Providing an authoritative voice for DE on education workforce supply, demand and quality at a state-wide and local area level
- Maintaining departmental expertise in qualitative and quantitative analysis of the school-based workforces to support investment, quality improvement, and regional/system-level workforce management decisions
- Supporting strategic workforce planning though providing data and analysis on state-wide and localised workforce trends.

About the Department

The department provides a wide range of learning and development support and services.

The department provides policy leadership, plans for the future of education in Victoria and leads key cross-sector collaboration. The department plays an important system steward role by providing support, guidance, oversight and assurance across early childhood and school education systems,



as well as directly providing school education and 50 recent early learning centres.

Further Information

For more details regarding this position please see attached position description for the capabilities to address in application.

The department values diversity and inclusion in all forms - gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. For more information about our work, working for the Department, diversity and inclusion, and our employment conditions visit the and our

Applicants requiring adjustments can contact the nominated contact person.

Information about the Department of Education's operations and employment conditions can be located at .

For further information pertaining to the role, please contact Ben Ellwood – Manager, Workforce Strategy via (03) 7022 2845 or [email protected].

Preferred applicants may be required to complete a police check and may be subject to other pre-employment checks. Information provided to the Department of Education will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Please let us know via phone or email if you require any adjustments to ensure your full participation in the recruitment process or if you need the ad or any attachments in an accessible format (e.g large print) due to any viewing difficulties or other accessibility requirements.

Applications close 11:59pm on Tuesday 8th September.

Job details

Job Reference: VG/DE/SW/1943634
Location: Melbourne - CBD
Work Type: Ongoing - full time
Job Function: Policy
Classification: VPSG3
Salary Range: $81,496 - $98,955
Job Duration: N/A
Date posted: 25-Aug-2026
Application Close Date: 08-Sep-2026
Attachments: (PDF, 272KB)

Contact:

Benjamin Ellwood

[email protected]

📌 Policy Officer (Melbourne)
🏢 State Government Of Victoria
📍 Melbourne