The Assistant Director Communications and Media leads a small, highly skilled team of multidisciplinary communications professionals delivering TEQSA’s strategic and operational communications.

A key focus of the role is leading and enabling an established, capable team: setting priorities, triaging competing demands, managing workflow and resources, and ensuring high-quality communications are delivered in a timely and coordinated way.

The Assistant Director provides clear direction and support while empowering team members to continue to apply their expertise and take ownership of their work.

The role has a strong focus on media and issues management. You will lead TEQSA’s day-to-day media function, manage reactive and proactive media activity, identify and respond to emerging issues and provide timely, trusted strategic advice to the CEO, senior executive team and other leaders.

You will lead the agency’s communications function with a solid focus on external communications, media and issues management, digital communications, stakeholder engagement and social channels while overseeing aligned internal communication planning and delivery.

As Assistant Director Communications and Media, you will be responsible and accountable for:

- leading and managing the Communications team, setting priorities, triaging competing demands and managing workflow and resources; building team capability; and ensuring communication products and services are timely, coordinated and of a consistently high standard.
- leading TEQSA’s day-to-day media and issues management, including proactive and reactive media activity, monitoring and identifying emerging issues, managing media enquiries and providing strategic advice on communications and reputational risk.
- overseeing the planning and delivery of TEQSA’s communications, including key publications and communication products, website and digital content, social media and internal communications, ensuring they are accurate, accessible, audience focused and consistent with TEQSA’s brand, editorial and relevant Australian Government standards.
- strengthening TEQSA’s communications capability and relationships,



including implementing and continually improving communications strategies and plans, building productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders, monitoring communication outcomes, and representing TEQSA in relevant cross-agency and sector forums.

Our ideal candidate

TEQSA is looking for high-performing and agile team members who are committed to TEQSA’s role in assuring the quality and integrity of Australian higher education and protecting students’ interests.

Our ideal candidate will have:

1. Demonstrated leadership and people management capability, including setting priorities, managing workflow and performance, building team capability, supporting continuous improvement and ensuring high-quality and timely outcomes.
2. Demonstrated experience in media relations and issues management, including providing strategic media advice, managing proactive and reactive media engagement, responding to complex and sensitive media enquiries, and identifying and managing emerging issues and reputational risks.
3. Demonstrated experience developing and delivering communication strategies and plans that support organisational priorities, working collaboratively with subject matter experts and managing competing priorities and complex projects.
4. Demonstrated ability to build and maintain productive, trusted relationships with senior leaders and key internal and external stakeholders, and to understand and respond to developments in a complex regulatory, government or public policy environment.
5. Sound judgement, resilience and political awareness, with demonstrated ability to work with a high degree of autonomy and provide high-quality, strategic communication advice on complex, sensitive and emerging issues, often within tight timeframes.
6. High level written and oral communication skills,



including the ability to translate complex, technical or sensitive information into clear, accurate and compelling communications tailored to diverse audiences, and strong editing and proofreading capability.
7. Sound knowledge of, or the ability to quickly develop knowledge of, the Australian Government and APS operating environment, including relevant communication, accessibility and publishing requirements.

Qualifications and experience The following experience or qualifications will be highly regarded:

- relevant tertiary qualifications in communications, journalism, or related discipline, and/or substantial relevant professional experience
- communications experience in government, a regulatory environment, higher education or another complex public-facing organisation
- demonstrated experience working across contemporary digital communication channels and platforms
- experience managing complex communications projects and competing priorities
- digital and website content and publications production skills and experience, and
- project or change management experience.

The successful applicant must:
- be an Australian citizen.
- be able to complete a satisfactory National Police Check.
- be able to obtain and maintain an Australian Government Security Vetting Agency (AGSVA) clearance to Baseline status, supported by TEQSA, which must be maintained throughout the period of employment.

- This recruitment process is being conducted to fill an ongoing vacancy.
- A merit pool of suitable applicants will be created from this process and may be used to fill similar ongoing and non-ongoing vacancies. It is active for 18 months from the date of this advertisement.
- Before commencing in the role, the successful candidate will be required to disclose details of any material personal interests in connection with their employment at TEQSA via a Declaration of Interest form and seek approval to undertake any outside employment (paid or unpaid) via an Outside Employment application.
- For further information on this role, please contact Julie Pearce on 03 8306 2567 or email [email protected]

📌 Assistant Director Communications and Media (Australia)
🏢 Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency
📍 Australia