- EL 1 - $129,106 - $138,861 per annum plus superannuation
- Finance & Investment Division
- Canberra, ACT

The successful applicant will work closely with the Director, business areas, Finance Business Partners, Cost Recovery Teams and other internal stakeholders to support a department-wide review and improvement of activity-based costing processes. Why YOU are important to us and what impact will you have on the Finance & Investment Division and the departments’ goal.

Our division ensures the department remains financially sustainable, compliant and well-equipped to meet its goals. We provide expert financial advice, tools and support to help teams manage budgets, make informed decisions and use public resources responsibly. By partnering across the department we help align financial processes with strategic priorities. We also support ministers and stakeholders with clear, accurate financial insights that drive effective policy and program delivery.

We lead the department’s financial policy and funding strategy, focusing on cost recovery, agricultural levies, external budgets and revenue assurance. Our team provides expert advice and support to portfolio agencies and oversees financial improvement initiatives. We help ensure funding arrangements are transparent, sustainable and aligned with government priorities.

By managing financial inputs effectively we support the department’s ability to deliver programs and services that benefit industry and the community.

This is where you play an important role.

The role involves examining how regulatory and other departmental activities are performed, identifying resources and cost drivers associated with those activities and developing practical and defensible approaches to allocating costs to programs, services and outputs. It will also support the establishment of revised cost baselines and charging arrangements including the analysis of costs, revenue, workload and service-demand information. The position requires a combination of technical financial expertise, practical business analysis and strong stakeholder engagement.

The successful candidate will be expected to translate complex operational and financial information into costing methodologies, models, guidance and advice that can be understood and applied by financial and non-financial stakeholders.

The role requires a candidate who is comfortable operating in an evolving environment where existing information, processes and costing methodologies may be incomplete or inconsistent. The successful candidate will apply practical problem-solving,



careful stakeholder engagement and qualified judgement while balancing technical detail with the broader policy, regulatory and financial management objectives of the department.

The duties of the role include but are not limited to the following:

- Supporting the implementation of recommendations arising from recent reviews of the department’s activity-based costing, cost allocation and cost recovery arrangements.
- Working with business areas to catalogue work functions, understand operational and regulatory processes and map inputs, activities, outputs and services.
- Designing and implementing fit-for-purpose approaches to the collection of activity, effort, workload, volume and cost-driver information including the preparation of templates, activity catalogues and supporting guidance.
- Facilitating workshops, interviews and other structured consultation processes to obtain, test and validate operational and financial information.
- Reviewing corporate, program, activity and service-level cost allocation methodologies to determine whether drivers are accurate, transparent, consistently applied and supported by reliable data.
- Developing, reviewing or refining activity-based costing and financial models including models used to establish cost-recovery fees, charges and other charging arrangements.
- Analysing current and forecast expenditure, revenue, service demand, activity volumes and operational assumptions to support the establishment of defensible cost and charging baselines.
- Reconciling financial and operational data throughout the costing process and identifying anomalies, gaps, duplication, unsupported assumptions and risks to data integrity.
- Working with Finance Business Partners, Cost Recovery Teams and business areas to understand existing charging arrangements and identifying opportunities to improve consistency, transparency, efficiency and assurance.
- Considering relevant Commonwealth financial management, cost recovery and regulatory requirements when developing methodologies, models and recommendations.
- Preparing reports, briefings, options, recommendations and other advice for senior executives on progress, risks, issues and emerging findings.
- Supporting improvements to internal charging practices, cost recovery governance, documentation and knowledge management arrangements.




- Building internal capability through practical guidance, coaching, knowledge sharing and cooperative delivery of costing and cost recovery work.

Please note that this non-ongoing vacancy will be offered for an initial period of twelve months with the possibility of extension up to a maximum period of two years in total. This position may become ongoing in the next eighteen months. Should the position become ongoing then the merit pool established through this selection process, which is valid for a period of 18 months from the date the vacancy was advertised in the Public Service Gazette, may be used to fill the vacancy on an ongoing basis. Who we are looking for

Knowledge and experience

Our ideal applicant will have:

- substantial experience in financial management, management accounting, activity-based costing, cost allocation, regulatory charging or cost recovery
- experience developing or reviewing costing models that assign corporate, program and operational costs to activities, outputs or services (highly desirable but not mandatory)*
- experience working in a Commonwealth regulatory, service delivery or similarly complex operating environment (highly desirable but not mandatory)
- experience with Excel modelling, TechOne or comparable financial and costing systems (highly desirable but not mandatory)
- strong technical knowledge of management accounting, activity-based costing, cost allocation and financial modelling, including the capacity to develop practical and defensible costing methodologies
- experience examining business processes and translating operational activities, inputs and outputs into structured costing models
- demonstrated experience preparing clear reports, executive briefings, options and recommendations arising from detailed financial or operational analysis.
- Note that this may include experience establishing cost baselines, reviewing drivers, analysing workload and service volume data, developing pricing options or supporting Cost Recovery Implementation Statements and comparable charging documentation.

VetPaths The Australian Public Service (APS) values the unique skills, perspectives, and experiences that veterans gain during their Australian Defence Force (ADF) employment and encourage veterans to apply. Support may be available to veterans transitioning to meaningful APS careers through participation in VetPaths, which offers veterans an opportunity to participate in a six-month program offering formal learning and development, career mentoring and activities for wellness and peer support.

📌 Assistant Director (Canberra)
🏢 Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
📍 Canberra