The Investment Dialogue for Australia's Children (IDAC) is an ambitious 10-year collaboration between government and philanthropy to improve the wellbeing of children, young people, and their families, by working with communities to make long-term, intergenerational change.

The Lead, Strategy and Projects is a senior role reporting to the head of the IDAC central team, which is responsible for convening and strategically shaping the IDAC partnership. The IDAC team is based in ARACY, a leading organisation supporting complex systems change initiatives for children and young people in Australia.

As the IDAC team are geographically dispersed, this role offers the opportunity to work flexibly from home.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and delivery – Lead the collaborative design of complex projects across the portfolios of place, early years and young people, as well as other cross-cutting and innovative initiatives. This includes strategy development, scoping, initiative design and implementation planning.
• Strategic engagement – Lead strategic engagement to support collaboration and ‘getting things done’ on key projects. This includes facilitating relationships and influencing across commonwealth, state and territory governments, philanthropic organisations and community partners.
• Emerging priorities – Manage the delivery of emerging and evolving priorities, from providing advice and problem solving, to supporting the delivery of key events and developing strategic communications, and more.

Skills and capabilities required

• Ability to lead workstreams independently, including applying excellent judgement and problem-solving skills to bring work to completion despite setbacks or difficulties.
• Excellent ability to build collaborative working relationships with internal and external stakeholders, and ability to find common ground among stakeholders to facilitate effective partnerships.
• Excellent project design skills, with an ability to translate complex and often ambiguous ideas into clear products and undertake end-to-end project planning to support disciplined delivery.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including development of a range of types of documents.
• Adaptable and comfortable operating in an evolving environment.
• Team player who is comfortable working with team members who are geographically dispersed.

Experience and knowledge required

• Experience working in philanthropy, government, consulting or systems intermediaries is required, ideally with a focus on strategy, initiative design and/or cross-agency coordination.
• Experience in developing initiatives across the portfolios of place, early years and young people, including strategy development, initiative design and implementation plans.
• Experience undertaking strategic engagement, supporting collaboration and coordination across a diverse range of partners and stakeholders.
• An understanding of systems change and/or policies targeted at improving the wellbeing of children, youth, families and communities would be beneficial.

General Conditions

All IDAC and ARACY staff are required to:

• Obtain and maintain a Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) or equivalent certification
• Have the lawful right to work in Australia
• Behave at all times in ways that accord with the organisation’s policies and procedures

A position description is attached.