NEMA National Situation Room Shift Leader (shift and non-shift)

Job Req ID

NEMA - 141332

Location

ACT 

 Employment Type

Ongoing, Full-time 

Classification

Executive Level 1 - $125,935.00 and $143,531.00 plus 15.4% super (part time pro-rata)

Contact Officer

Kristy Hobbs at kristy.hobbs@nema.gov.au on 02 6275 6363  

Office Arrangements

Onsite  
 

Applications close on 16/04/2026 at 11:59pm AEDT (midnight) - Late applications will not be accepted.

About our opportunity

This recruitment round is for the purpose of creating a merit pool for future vacancies. Applicants found suitable may be placed in a merit list or pool to fill similar vacancies for up to 18 months anywhere in ACT; NSW; NT; QLD; SA; TAS; VIC; WA.
 

About the National Emergency Management Agency:

The National Emergency Management Agency's work has a real impact on the lives of Australians, particularly those living in rural and regional areas.

The National Emergency Management Agency's guiding principle is “Locally led, locally understood and locally implemented” and we bring together local communities, government, non-government and key industry representatives to support disaster recovery and resilience across the country.

Your work will help people who are recovering from natural disasters and prepare them for the future.

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
• 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.

For further information on NEMA’s purpose, vision and values, please see the NEMA website.
 
Overview of the branch and section:
The Australian Government National Situation Room (NSR) is part of the National Crisis Operation Branch (NCOB) within NEMA’s Emergency Management Response Group (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’s 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 an NSR Shift Leader position.
 
The NSR will have a 24/7 National Messaging System (NMS) capability in the near future. This will include facilitating the sending of Commonwealth originating messages, sending jurisdictional messages on behalf of jurisdictional agencies in limited circumstances, and being a 24/7 contact point for non-technical user enquiries. The position supports shift teams and watch-officers in the use of the NMS, including through training and team exercises.

Roles and duties may vary depending on the position and may include duties associated with the NSH, NSR or NMS. Roles will be either 24/7 shift positions or standard hours. Employees in non-shift positions may be requested to participate in on-call roster rotations.
 
About the role:
The NSR can escalate rapidly from steady state monitoring to coordination of reporting across current and emerging hazards and disasters. Some 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. There are also designated non-shift roles, and the occupants of these positions may be required to participate in shift rosters. 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.
 
At times staff within NEMA may be required to work outside of standard business hours, particularly during the high-risk weather season.
 
Please note: This recruitment process is intended to create a merit pool to fill future vacancies in the National Situation Room.
 
Our ideal candidate:
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:
A shift leader in NSR manages a six-person shift team operating in a 24/7 Operational Centre to 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 role provides strategic direction and advice, communicates with influence to high level stakeholders, and coordinates and clears the suite of routine, incident briefing and notification products. The position is also responsible for delivering high-level projects and initiatives apart from the daily shift operations.
 
Shift leaders are expected to exercise a significant degree of independence and operate under the broad direction of the Director, NSR Operations. Shift leaders may report directly to senior executives across the Australian Government, state and territory agencies, law enforcement and intelligence communities regarding unfolding incidents out of hours.
 
Shift leaders in the NSR may undertake the following operational, NSH, NMS and management and supervisory duties:

• 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 governments and non-government organisation stakeholders
• Coordinate and clear daily cross-portfolio input to various information reports and products for distribution to senior executives and portfolio ministers
• Participate in Crisis Coordination Teams and internal briefings during an incident when required
• Deliver high-level projects related to the NSR
• Ensure the ongoing 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
• Identify, coordinate and deliver on shift training and upskilling of the team, in collaboration with the NSR Training Coordinator
• Develop, foster and maintain mutually beneficial and productive working relationships with key stakeholders (internal and 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 executives 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
• Contribute to other NMS-related work including (but not limited to) briefings, data collection, exercising and reviewing procedures where appropriate
• If in a non-shift position, participate in an on-call rotation to provide contingency and subject matter expertise for the 24/7 shift teams
• Lead NMS exercises
• Behaviours to align with the APS Code of Conduct, NEMA Values and NEMA Behaviours
• Ensure compliance with Workplace Health and Safety Legislation.
   

Role requirements/qualifications:

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
• Demonstrated experience in:
  
  • Building and maintaining effective relationships whilst leading a team to deliver quality outcomes
  • Managing priorities and delivering outcomes
  • Developing policies, procedures and guidance material
  • Quality assurance of incident management
  • Control and continual improvement within a regulatory service delivery environment
• Skills in comprehensive research, interpretation and critical analysis
• Excellent organisational and time management skills and the ability to manage competing priorities
• The ability to:
  
  • Undertake performance management of a small team and individuals
  • Lead with influence to make decisions while exercising sound judgement
  • Take responsibility for managing work projects and deliverables with a focus on quality and timeliness
  • Be responsive and adaptive to changing priorities in a dynamic environment
  • Conduct risk assessments and implement a range of controls to support assurance activities
  • Lead a small, focused team to achieve outcomes
  • Develop the team and build a business administration capability. 
• Critical thinking and problem-solving skills to analyse issues and provide suitable solutions
• Obtain and maintain the required AGSVA security clearance and must have the ability to satisfy AFP building access requirements.
   

Assessment process:
The recruitment selection process for this round may include one or more of the following:

• Applicant response
• Interview
• Work sample assessment
• Psychometric testing
• Reference checks
   

Applicant response:
As part of your application, you will be required to prepare a one-page response document (minimum 11pt font in Microsoft Word 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:

Prior to preparing your response it is recommended you review the Work Level Standards relevant to the classification you are applying to. It may also be useful to refer to the Integrated Leadership System information relevant to the classification. You are required to submit your application in the online recruitment system (ourPeople).

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 - 141332 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 and successfully undergo a National Police Check
• Obtain and maintain a Negative Vetting Level 1 (AGSVA) security clearance
• Satisfy a probation period (if applicable)
• Undergo a health assessment (if applicable).
   

Technical Assistance

If you are experiencing problems submitting your application online, please email the nature of the issues you are experiencing to Recruitment (recruitment@homeaffairs.gov.au) including screen captures if necessary. A response will be sent during business hours.

Notes

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

If you have identified as having a disability, please indicate whether you require any support throughout the selection process. For further information please contact Recruitment: recruitment@homeaffairs.gov.au.