Exciting new opportunity to join a dynamic team!

• Full time position with salary of $105,000 - $113,999 excluding superannuation
• Located in Melbourne, other locations or virtual/Hybrid work arrangements will be considered

Role summary

You will work closely with the First Nations Executive Director and the First Nations team to lead the Foundation’s work to build the power of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to heal injustice and transform the future.

This will include implementing and refining the First Nations strategy, identifying opportunities to build the capacity and power of First Nations youth-led organisations and movements, coaching young First Nations advocates, designing large scale First Nations youth engagement projects and campaigns, and supporting our consulting business, YLab, in delivery of co-design projects with young First Nations people.

You will draw on your existing strong relationships with young First Nations people, Aboriginal controlled organisations, Elders and other community members. You will leverage your background in social change and movement building, including track record of organising, advocacy, fundraising or communications initiatives.

What you’ll do

• Relationship building - Deeply engage with young First Nations people, Aboriginal controlled organisations, Elders and other community members, to build relationships, understand issues and priorities, and set collective strategy.
• Strategy and project management - Deliver and refine a dedicated First Nations strategy to build the power of First Nations young people, their youth-led movements organisations. This will have a range of exciting self-determined, place-based and national initiatives.
• Advocacy, movements and campaigning - Work closely with the Advocacy and Campaigns team to deliver support to First Nations young people running campaigns and movements, including seeding them. This includes government relations, campaigning strategy and tactics, fundraising, organising, media and communications skills.
• Connector - Acting as an immediate point of contact and relationship holder for First Nations young people with FYA, facilitating participants into other programs of the organisation, such as Advocacy and Campaigns, Capacity Building, Strategic Projects, Fundraising and Partnerships and YLab.
• Building cultural safety - Assisting to decolonise FYA’s work processes and building the cultural competence and wellbeing of its staff and programs, including internal processes such as the Reconciliation Action Plan.
• Learning and Evaluation - You will help us improve our work by capturing the impact of our work and what we learn along the way.
• General support as required.

Who we are looking for

Our ideal candidate will have many of these experiences and skills:

• Experience in advocacy, organising, campaigning, systems change or building the voice of community members, especially young people.
• Experience in designing and delivering a diverse range of public advocacy or community engagement tactics, such as community organising, leadership development, decision-maker engagement, digital campaigning, art or media projects.
• Strong communications skills, including writing compelling communications as well as strong presentation and facilitation skills.
• Lived expertise and relationships in First Nations justice, racial justice or disability justice movements, including with First Nations organisations, young people and communities.
• Strong cultural understanding, including protocols and a commitment to decolonisation, and the ability to work with individuals and communities with diverse experiences.
• Proficiency with key workplace tools such as Google apps, Slack etc.

Experiences in skills in the “nice to have” category would include:

• Demonstrated experience of co-design with young people with lived experience of structural oppression
• Demonstrated experience with fundraising, including digital fundraising, grants and philanthropy.

Click Apply Now or head to the ‘work with us’ section of our website and follow the application process.

• Please include a detailed resume (no more than 3 pages)
• You will be asked two questions in your application in which you’re required to provide brief answers (no more than 500 words each), including:
  • A description of yourself and what excites you about this role and working for FYA
  • An explanation of how your experience or interests relate to what we’re looking for
  • We are open to receiving this as a video, audio or written piece e.g. poetry or essay (no more than 500 words each), a video or audio (no more than five mins). For video or audio applications please send your responses to [email protected] using the subject line: First Nations Director enquiry via EthicalJobs.

Further information:

For more information or a confidential discussion about the role contact:

Roxanne Moore
Executive Director, First Nations
[email protected] using the subject line: First Nations Director enquiry via EthicalJobs

For more information about the recruitment process:

Azianni Mustapa
People and Culture Coordinator
[email protected] using the subject line: First Nations Director enquiry via EthicalJobs

First Nations Director Position Description