Senior Solution Architect

The Technical Advisor/Lead will provide overall delivery leadership and strategic oversight across the program of work, ensuring coordinated delivery of business design, implementation planning, data and digital initiatives, and future-state operating model development. The role will lead cross-functional activities spanning policy, operations, grants, digital and data workstreams and support the development of business and technical requirements to inform implementation and future investment decisions. The role will also lead the development of investment strategies and associated documentation to support investment planning, government decision-making and implementation.

Key duties and responsibilities

• maintain integrated delivery plans and documentation (across policy, operations, legal, digital, data and comms/change) to guide efficient and successful delivery

• deliver key project artefacts and project/governance reporting to support integrated critical path and governance oversight, including risks, issues and mitigations

• maintain strong working relationships with internal stakeholders across data, digital, policy, grants operations and corporate areas

• facilitate structured knowledge transfer to APS staff to build internal delivery capability and reduce reliance on external resources.

• Technical Advisor/Lead specific:

• ensure effective management of project risks, issues, dependencies and implementation activities

• deliver high-quality business design, implementation and governance artefacts

• provide strategic advice and lead the development of investment strategies and associated documentation to support future investment and implementation decisions

About the team

The department is seeking an external delivery team with expertise and demonstrated capability in business design, project delivery, business architecture, technical advisory services, implementation planning and data analytics to support rapid delivery of government reform. These specialist skills are outside existing departmental capability and are required to support time-limited and intensive delivery activities across policy, grants administration, community sector reform, data and digital functions.

About the project

The Department of Social Services (department) is progressing a range of community sector reform activities aimed at strengthening evidence, improving outcomes, supporting workforce sustainability and informing future investment decisions.   Government has committed to the implementation of relational contracting through the new Children and Family Support Program, establishing the foundations for future scaling across the Department of Social Services (department) programs and potential adoption at whole-of-Commonwealth level. Relational contracting is an approach to managing Commonwealth grant funding that prioritises long‑term partnerships and shared outcomes over short‑term compliance. This enables structured collaboration, adaptive delivery, shared decision‑making with a greater focus on outcomes. This shift aligns with the Minister for Social Services announcement about the intent to trial this approach through Families and Children (FaC) reform and in response to strong and consistent signals from the community sector, emerging evidence on effective commissioning, and broader Commonwealth reform directions.   The department is progressing a range of community sector reform activities, including implementation of relational contracting, business design and operating model development, future service delivery arrangements and broader commissioning reform priorities. As part of this work, the department is also strengthening the evidence base available to support policy, funding and commissioning decisions through improved understanding of workforce, organisational and service-level information requirements across the community sector.