National Situation Room Operations - Shift Leader

Requisition Number: 131662 Position Number/s: 60160548 Classification: Executive Level 1  Location: ACT   Branch: National Crisis Operations   Section: National Situation Room   Security Classification: Negative Vetting Level 1  Salary: $117,335.00 to $133,729.00   Contact: Sherrian Oldrey  Email: ***************@nema.gov.au Period of Vacancy: Ongoing Number of Vacancies: 1

Applications close: Monday 01 April 2024 at 11:59pm (midnight) - AEDT. Late applications will not be accepted.

Who can apply:

Please note this opportunity is available to current Australian Public Service employees and all eligible members of the community.

National Emergency Management Agency:

National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was established on 1 September 2022 as a single, accountable Commonwealth authority that delivers a whole-of-nation approach to reducing disaster risk, planning, preparing for, responding to and recovering from all hazards across the emergency management continuum. 

NEMA works closely with states and territories to deliver the best outcome for communities across Australia. To help communities respond and recover, while preparing Australia for future emergencies, we:

• Fund programs and initiatives, big and small, that help communities in times of emergency, as well as to recover and prepare, including through disaster recovery funding and the Disaster Ready Fund to help reduce the risk and impact of disasters;
• Have officers located across Australia, working in partnership with states and territories to support disaster-affected communities to collectively build resilience, reduce risk and harm, and effectively respond to and recover from disasters
• Provide national leadership to share knowledge, situational awareness, and trends in disaster efforts to inform, guide and shape the national picture and decision-making at the Commonwealth, state and local Government level – including through policy development and strategy to improve risk reduction, resilience and recovery; and
• Provide round-the-clock all-hazards monitoring and operational coordination for domestic and international emergencies, including supply chain disruptions, critical infrastructure outages, biosecurity risks and widespread cyber-attacks, and through supporting preparedness and response activities, including through the operationalisation of the Australian Government Crisis Management Framework.

Overview of the Branch and Section:

The Australian Government National Situation Room (NSR) is part of the National Crisis Operation Branch (NCOB) of NEMA’s Emergency Management Response Division (EMR). The NCOB provides awareness of unfolding and potential situations (situational awareness), decision support, prediction of potential community impacts (predictive analysis) and impact and consequence assessment for crisis that are emerging or underway. These functions support NEMA Crisis Coordination Teams to prepare for and respond to nationally-significant events through the activation of National Plans and coordination of Australian Government non-financial assistance.

The NSR monitors and reports on emerging, current and predicted hazards to support decision making across the Commonwealth, states and territories and industry. The majority of NSR work relates to monitoring and reporting on natural disaster events across Australia (flood, bushfire, cyclone, heatwave and earthquakes), and includes a strong focus on weather forecast and relationships with the Bureau of Meteorology and Geoscience Australia. Under an ‘all-hazards' remit, the NSR also conducts monitoring and reporting on security incidents including cyber, significant demonstrations, impacts to critical infrastructure, space weather and space debris re-entry.

The NSR issues SMS, verbal and written notifications on all-hazard emergency events to key Government and jurisdictional stakeholders. Increasingly this information is available to our stakeholders through the National Joint Common Operating Picture (NJCOP), a web-based platform which provides decision makers with near real-time, automated, situational awareness and decision support for nationally significant hazard events.

The NSR houses the National Security Hotline (NSH), a public facing phone and email line for reporting concerns of national security to law enforcement agencies for further investigation. The NSH operator role is a significant component of the NSR Senior Officer position.

About the role:

The Shift Leader manages a seven person shift team operating in a 24/7 Operational Centre. They ensure Australian Government agencies and other key partners are appropriately briefed on unfolding natural disasters, security and terrorism related incidents or events. The Shift Leader provides strategic direction and advice to their team. They coordinate and clear a suite of routine and incident briefing or notification products. They are able to communicate with high level stakeholders and influence accordingly. The Shift Leader is also responsible for delivery of high level projects and initiatives separate to the work of the shift floor.

The Shift Leader is expected to exercise a significant degree of independence and operate under the broad direction of the Director, NSR Operations. The Shift Leader may report directly to Senior Executive across the Australian Government, State and Territory agencies, law enforcement and intelligence communities regarding unfolding incidents out of hours.

The NSR can escalate rapidly from steady state monitoring, to coordination of reporting across current and emerging hazards and disasters. NSR positions are designated shift work roles and the occupants are required to perform duties on a 24/7 rotational roster, including days, nights, weekends and public holidays, and are remunerated in line with these shift work requirements. Staff may be required to perform higher duties to fill operational vacancies.

All NSR Officers will be assigned across both ‘Operational Support’ and ‘National Security Hotline’ skill sets.

Our ideal candidate:

You will have demonstrated resilience, problem solving and coordination skills to deliver to tight timeframes in a fast-paced environment. Have developed leadership skills and role model a positive, collaborative and inclusive team culture and background or experience in emergency management. Whilst this is ideal, it is not essential. We are seeking highly motivated, curious, critical thinkers who enjoy working in a rapidly evolving environment. You will have a high standard of oral and written communication with a developed ability to liaise with, coordinate and support multiple internal and external stakeholders.

Working in the NSR is often high-pressured and unpredictable and is best suited to team players who are flexible, resilient and able to quickly grasp new concepts. A high level of computer literacy will support your work across several online systems including utilising open source media platforms and search terms, databases and incident management systems. An interest in emergency management and natural disasters will drive your ability to learn across a broad scope of subject content.

We encourage applications from First Nations people, people with disability, LGBTQIA+ people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, mature age people and people from other diverse backgrounds. We are committed to providing a working environment that values diversity and inclusion and supports staff to reach their full potential.

Specific duties/responsibilities:

• Support the Director of NSR Operations to manage the 24/7 NSR Operations Shift Floor including the National Security Hotline
• Lead and manage a team to monitor and review information sources, coordination processes and communication channels for Australian Government, State and Territory Government and non-government organisation stakeholders
• Coordinate and clear daily cross-portfolio input to various Information Reports and products for distribution to senior executive and Portfolio Ministers
• Deliver high-level projects related to the NSR

• Coordinate and oversee Australian Government Crisis and Recovery Committee meetings, when called

• Ensure the ongoing development, maintenance, correct implementation and review of standard operating procedures to ensure consistency and efficiency within the NSR
• Supervise the personal and professional development of the team
• Develop, foster and maintain mutually beneficial and productive working relationships with key stakeholders (internal/external), state and territory governments, Australian Government and International Partners
• Demonstrate sound decision making and judgement to provide high level advice and briefing to Senior Executive and Ministers, including the Prime Minister, during a crisis
• Ability to process content which may be confronting, challenging and or triggering including terrorism, natural disasters, child sexual abuse material, domestic violence and mental health issues.

Role requirements/qualifications:

• Must hold or ability to obtain an AGSVA Negative Vetting 1 security clearance and must have the ability to satisfy AFP building access requirements
• Ability to lead a high performing team in high pressure situations, with rapidly changing priorities
• Availability to work full time shift work 24/7 (current rotation is 2 x 12hr days, 2 x 12hr nights, 4 RDO’s)
• Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to apply critical thinking to problem solving
• Demonstrated ability to navigate information technology applications such as online databases, geospatial products and social media platforms
• Ability to process content which may be confronting, challenging and or triggering including terrorism, natural disasters, child sexual abuse material, domestic violence and mental health issues.

Applicant response:

As part of your application, you will be required to prepare a one page response document (minimum 11pt font in MSWord or PDF format), which you will upload in the next section.

Please ensure you read the instructions carefully, noting failure to address identified requirements may lead to your application being deemed ineligible.

Please prepare a one-page Applicant Response in relation to the advertised role, outlining:

• how your skills, knowledge and experience will be relevant to this role
• why you are interested in the role and what you can offer us
• any specific examples or achievements that demonstrate your ability to perform the role.

How to apply:

As part of your application, you will need to provide:

• Your CV
• Your Applicant Response document
• Details of two referees
• Include your full name and the Requisition Number - 131662 in the footer of any documents being uploaded.

Eligibility and Specific Conditions of Employment

To be eligible to work with the NEMA you must:

• Be an Australian Citizen
• Fulfil the Agency’s minimum requirements by satisfactorily answering all screening questions during the application process
• Obtain and maintain the required AGSVA clearance
• Satisfy a probation period
• Undergo a health assessment (if applicable).

Technical Assistance

Notes

Remuneration: The Agency offers an attractive remuneration package, including salary, superannuation benefits and flexible working conditions appropriate to the level of the position.