Program Officer – Wellbeing

The Centre for Policy Development (CPD) is looking to hire a proactive and creative Program Officer to contribute to our work with a focus on our Wellbeing Government Focus Area. In this role, you will help us improve the Wellbeing of current and future generations in Australia. This position will also work collaboratively with CPD’s Social Services focus area.

CPD promotes policy approaches that meet the needs of people and communities, that are values-driven, holistic and preventative. Reporting to the Wellbeing Policy Director, you will work on projects that view policy through a wellbeing lens, ensuring decisions reflect community values, respect environmental boundaries, and use resources more effectively for the common good.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of an organisation dedicated to embedding wellbeing at the heart of Australian policymaking in a way that will lead to effective and systemic change. Our team enjoys frequent interaction with policymakers in government, media, and the wider policy world. You’ll be joining a close-knit team that delivers real impact at senior levels of policymaking.

We believe our people are our key asset and we are committed to recruiting and retaining talented and committed individuals. The successful candidate will be based in CPD’s Sydney office. We support flexible work and will consider either full-time or part-time work for the right candidate. Flexible work on a hybrid model is a standard practice.

Diversity and Equal Employment Opportunity

We invite First Nations people, people of colour, people with lived experience of forced migration, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQI+ community, and people without a family history of tertiary education to apply for this role.

Salary

Starting at $68,000 + 11.5% superannuation, with higher salary available depending on experience, skills, and fairness and equity across the team.

Location

This position is based in the Sydney office.

Some Additional Benefits

• Hybrid work
• Flexible hours
• Annual Salary Increase: 7% increase to the employee’s base salary on 1st of January each year (after one year of service)
• In addition to the 4 weeks of annual leave entitlement, you will be granted an extra 5 days of annual leave after 3 years of employment
• End of year leave: CPD gives as additional leave the days between Christmas and New Year
• Study Leave: Up to 5 days of paid study leave per year
• Sabbatical Leave: 12 weeks paid leave after 5 years of employment
• Wellbeing Leave: Additional day/time off to rest and recharge after peak periods or high-demand projects
• Wellbeing Payment: Up to $300 per year to support employees’ physical and mental health.
• Parental leave: 14 weeks’ paid parental leave (after one year of service at the expected due date + 12 months of unpaid parental leave)
• Birthday Leave
• Birthday Gift Book Voucher
• Floating Public Holidays
• Annual Retreat: 4-day event each year where all three locations come together to collaborate in person
• Collaborative culture that will foster your skills, build your career and broaden your horizons

Here’s a taste of what you’ll do:

• Reporting to the Wellbeing Program Director, you will oversee project management for our Wellbeing Government Focus Area and work collaboratively across our Social Services Focus Area: coordinating across teams, tracking progress, ensuring planned projects are delivered on time
• Organise major policy engagement activities within the Wellbeing Government and Social Services Focus Areas, such as roundtables and other convening events, including sending invitations, developing agendas, setting up virtual platforms
• Support our Wellbeing Government and Social Services teams and contribute to wider project planning and strategy across the team.
• Help prepare outputs for publication – working with the comms team, designers, typesetters and others.
• Support the Policy Directors in managing the portfolios of work, including by scheduling internal and external meetings, and writing grant applications, impact statements, funder reports, and other program-level documentation.

About you

This would be the perfect role for someone early in their career, or a new graduate looking for a breadth of experiences in policymaking.

You’ll be the right person for the job if:

• You have studied in a relevant discipline to the role, or you have lived experience of the issues we are working on
• You are well-organised and can coordinate projects with several moving parts
• You work well with people from diverse backgrounds
• You can communicate clearly and convincingly with colleagues and external stakeholders (both written and verbal communication)
• You have the ability to take the initiative when faced with a blank page; developing new projects, methodologies, and ideas.
• You work well in a dynamic and evolving environment that can be uncertain at times
• You are enthusiastic about creating positive impact on long-term policy issues

About CPD

The Centre for Policy Development (CPD) is an independent, not-for-profit policy institute with staff in Sydney, Melbourne, and Jakarta. Our vision is a fair, sustainable society and wellbeing economy that serves current and future generations in Australia and Southeast Asia.

Our mission is to help create transformative systems change through practical solutions to complex policy challenges. We tackle the hard questions, working towards change that is systemic and long-term.

Through our work, we aim to contribute to governments that are coordinated, collaborative, and effective, with an eye to both the near and longer term. We strive to build a social services system that helps people and communities to thrive now and in the future, and drive shifts in policy making practice with a focus on wellbeing and sustainability rather than primarily economic growth.

CPD uses a distinctive Create-Connect-Convince method to influence government policy making.

We acknowledge and celebrate Australia’s First Peoples.

To learn more about our work check out our latest Impact Report.

How to Apply

Candidates are invited to apply via the Google Form, via the Apply Now link.

If you have any questions, please contact Luana Viana on [email protected], using the subject line: Program Officer – Wellbeing enquiry via EthicalJobs.

For more information on CPD please visit cpd.org.au.

How we Shortlist

We will ask you to answer three questions (< 250 words) as part of your application, and to submit your CV. The initial shortlist will be based on the panel’s assessment of your three answers. Your CV will be reviewed only if you progress beyond this first stage.

We are reviewing applications and shortlisting candidates on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

We welcome talented individuals from all backgrounds to apply and be a part of our mission to make a positive impact on public policies.

Please note:

• To be considered for this role, you must have the right to live and work in Australia.
• Only Sydney Based applicants will be considered.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. We aim to reach out to all shortlisted candidates by 17 October. (Please be aware that while we are working to stick to this timeline, recruitment can be unpredictable and changes might occur).

We look forward to receiving your application!