About Us

Tonka Learning is a learning and organisational development consultancy. Since 2020 we have developed leaders at every level and the cultures they work in, across higher education, professional services, not-for-profit, retail, FMCG and elite sport.

Today we run around 160 leadership programs a year, reaching participants in 65 countries. Our team includes consultants we have partnered with for years and everyone who delivers our work is an experienced practitioner. Nobody is learning on the job.

Our group programs are blended and rarely a single workshop. They are often supported by one-to-one and group coaching, peer learning circles, a digital platform and continued contact with participants after a program ends.

Our OD and strategy work is typically intensive and time-bound, done in partnership with senior stakeholders over a defined period. Our coaching runs over months with senior leaders, long enough to change how someone leads.

Every client we started with in 2020 is still with us today.

The Role

This is a current role, created because we have more work than senior people to lead it.

The Principal holds client relationships, facilitates, designs and leads the consistency and quality of what we deliver. It is hands-on: you would be building material as well as shaping it and delivering as well as leading.

You would work closely with our founder and our team, and with clients who are demanding in the best way. We learn as much from them as they do from us.

A typical week looks like one to two days facilitating group programs,



three or four client meetings across the accounts you hold, a coaching engagement, around half a day of protected preparation and around a day leading quality, the team and our strategy. That is indicative and the role can be shaped around the right person.

Tailoring is central to how we work: understanding the client and their strategy, understanding the audience, meeting participants beforehand and building case studies and material that belong to that organisation.

You would lead a Learning Experience Designer and two Learning Coordinators and have oversight of our consultants in Australia and overseas. That team will grow and you would shape who joins it.

OD engagements arrive periodically rather than weekly and are typically short and intensive. When you take on OD work, something comes off your schedule for that period. It is not added on top of an existing load.

What We Are Looking For

Facilitation is where our bar is highest. Our clients are discerning and our consultants are highly experienced practitioners, so a Principal must be exceptional in front of a room.

Alongside that

- You have held senior client relationships independently




- You understand how complex organisations actually work, usually because you have worked inside one recently enough for it to still hold true
- You have designed and delivered modern leadership programs at scale, from early career through to senior leadership
- You have led and mentored people, holding a high standard and a high regard for the people meeting it
- You prepare thoroughly and pay attention to detail
- You work at pace and still go deep
- You use AI actively to improve the quality and speed of your work

Experience across all of our sectors is not expected. Depth in one or two is sufficient.

We know this describes a broad role. We would settle it together over the first months, agree what matters most, and protect the time that good work takes.

The Part That Matters Most The right person takes as much pleasure in someone else delivering a session well as in doing it themselves. The role keeps you in front of clients most weeks, so it suits someone who still wants to be delivering and who measures a good week by the team’s work as much as their own.

We do not sit still and we would rather be challenged than agreed with. We are also the same people with a client, in front of an audience and with each other. None of it is a performance and we would want the same of you.

Practical Details

Melbourne based, with our office in Richmond. Light and mostly domestic travel. Commencing February 2027. Reporting to our founder. This is a senior appointment and remuneration reflects that.

📌 Principal (Leadership Development) (Melbourne)
🏢 Tonka Learning
📍 Melbourne