Shape the metadata, governance and structure of a new national skills taxonomy from the ground up, and help define how it’s used in the future.

Our client is a large Australian Government department responsible for national skills, training and workforce policy.

It plays a central role in delivering the National Skills Agreement between the Commonwealth and the states and territories, and in building a more coordinated, transparent skills system for the Australian labour market.

As part of this work, the department is building the National Skills Taxonomy (NST), a national information asset designed to create a consistent language for describing skills across education, training and employment.

The NST spans everything from foundational definitions and information structures through to data acquisition, repository management and public-facing data products, and is intended for long-term use across the Australian skills system.

The Opportunity

There is a senior Information Management Specialist position available on a labour hire contract until the 30th of June 2027, with an opportunity to extend a further 12 months.

You’ll join at a foundational stage of the NST’s development, working across policy, information management and technical delivery functions to translate policy intent into practical information management outcomes.

Day to day, you’ll act as the connective tissue between subject matter experts, data scientists, data engineers and publishing teams, ensuring the taxonomy’s definitions, structures and governance arrangements hold together as the asset scales.

This is building work, with the metadata standards, business rules and maintenance processes you help design shaping how the NST is used and maintained for years to come.

You’ll have the opportunity to:

- Have access to flexible and remote working arrangements, with roles available in the ACT, NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA, TAS, NT
- Shape the foundational metadata, governance and business rules for a national information asset,



rather than maintain an existing one
- Work directly across policy, data engineering and publishing disciplines, instead of a single functional silo
- Apply classification, ontology and knowledge organisation expertise to a problem of genuine national scale
- Produce lasting artefacts that will guide the asset long after this contract ends
- Contribute to capability uplift, sharing project knowledge and providing structured handover to ongoing government staff

The Role

This is a hands-on information management role spanning concept design, implementation and eventual handover.

You will be responsible for:

- Developing and maintaining definitions, preferred terms, scope notes, and inclusion/exclusion rules for skills and skill groupings
- Facilitating multidisciplinary agreement on terminology and information structures, resolving ambiguity, duplication and overlap
- Defining the metadata, identifiers, provenance, quality assurance controls and governance requirements needed to support the taxonomy
- Designing and implementing processes for concept creation, consultation, review, approval, versioning, release and change management
- Assessing, configuring and supporting implementation of the taxonomy within information management software, including leading data loading, administration and quality assurance
- Documenting requirements through use case analysis, workflow design, business rules and acceptance criteria
- Working with data engineers and data scientists to ensure data structures and pipelines consistently apply agreed definitions and business rules




- Aligning the taxonomy with relevant external standards and skills frameworks while preserving differences in purpose and provenance
- Developing and maintaining operational documentation, including user guides, administration guides, data dictionaries and maintenance procedures
- Supporting capability uplift by sharing project knowledge and providing structured training and handover

The Ideal Person

You’re comfortable working at the intersection of policy and technical delivery, equally at ease setting governance rules and resolving ambiguous classification problems.

You bring structure to complex, contested information, and you’re motivated by building something durable rather than documenting what already exists.

You will bring the following skills and experience:

- Demonstrated experience in information management, taxonomy, ontology or classification work in a large or complex organisation
- Experience developing metadata standards, governance frameworks and business rules for large-scale information assets
- A track record of translating policy intent into practical information management and data solutions
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with experience working across policy, technical and subject-matter expert groups
- Explicit technical writing skills, with experience producing user guides, data dictionaries and governance documentation

It would also be desirable if you have:

- Experience working within a government or public sector information management context
- Familiarity with taxonomy, ontology or information management software platforms

Australian citizenship is required, with the ability to hold or obtain a Baseline security clearance preferred.

Salary / Rate

- $100/hr – 140/hr + Super
- Labour hire contract until the 30th of June 2027, with an opportunity to extend a further 12 months
- Location is flexible across Australia, with work-from-home and flexible working arrangements considered on a case-by-case basis

📌 Information Management Specialist (Braddon)
🏢 HorizonOne Recruitment
📍 Braddon