About Us

The Public Education Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to providing life-changing scholarships to students in public education and enhancing the value and visibility of public schooling in Australia. Our mission is to help break down the barriers to achievement by supporting students, teachers, and schools through a range of targeted support programs.

About the Role

The Operations & Finance Manager will play a pivotal role by working closely with our CEO to ensure the organisation is financially sustainable, operationally efficient, and compliant, while always supporting its mission and purpose. This is a high-impact opportunity for someone with extensive experience working with NFP organisations and experience in the public education system.

The core purpose of this role will be to translate the organisation's mission into sustainable day-to-day operations, ensuring funds are used responsibly, risks are managed, and the organisation can continue delivering services to its beneficiaries.

We are looking for someone who is detail-oriented and comfortable building impactful scalable systems.

The role will also oversee our outsourced human resources, financial processing and coordinating external auditor. You will oversee key operational functions such as governance, compliance, insurance, risk registers and fundraising licences.

The successful candidate will help us improve, integrate, and streamline how we work across multiple platforms.

The ideal candidate will bring strong operational, financial and technical capabilities demonstrating sound judgement and a hands-on, solutions-oriented approach.

The hybrid work arrangements are conditional on the business demands of the organisation and subject to the discretion of the CEO. It is our intention that initially (2 - 3 months), the successful candidate will be required to be in the office full-time and thereafter 2 days per week.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Management:

• Oversee relationships with outsourced financial providers, ensuring accurate bookkeeping, payroll, BAS, and month-end processing
• Lead the preparation of financial reports for the CEO and Board, including budget tracking, forecasts, and variance analysis
• Coordinate the annual audit process and liaise with auditors, external accountants, and internal stakeholders Monitor cash flow and manage payments, reimbursements, and fund allocations in a timely and transparent manner
• Understand and develop business reporting on the cost income of a complex funding model and look at ways to streamline it
• Ensure all MOUs and governance documents are accurate, up to date and can be invoiced appropriately

Governance and Compliance:

• Maintain compliance with regulatory requirements, including ACNC, ATO, ASIC, and state-based fundraising bodies
• Ensure insurance policies, contracts and organisational licences are up to date and aligned with risk needs
• Support the development and review of internal policies, procedures and delegations
• Manage the review of donations acceptance, invoicing and receipting gas well as bequests to meet compliance requirements
• Assist the CEO with the coordination of Board governance documents, registers and meeting materials
• Liaison with Company Secretary

Operations and Systems:

• Provide operational leadership across the organisation to support smooth delivery of programs and engagement
• Oversee day-to-day operational systems (finance, HR, IT, facilities)
• Bring a new technology approach to the organisation, which could include but is not limited to AI
• Work closely with internal coordinators and external vendors to support technology, systems and digital tools
• Support the design, rollout and continuous improvement of platforms such as HubSpot, PEF Apply, and internal workflows
• Identify and implement improvements to streamline operations, reduce risk and improve data integrity

Organisational Support:

• Contribute to cross-team planning and prioritisation to support strategic goals
• Ensure smooth onboarding processes and administrative support for the Foundation team
• Foster a values-led culture of accountability, equity and continuous improvement
• Uphold the Foundation's commitment to public education and community impact
• Support HR initiatives including outsourced HR support.

About You

• You are an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident
• Demonstrable experience in finance operations, including managing budgets, reports and audits
• Experience working with outsourced finance providers, human resources, auditors and accounting systems (e.g. Xero)
• Strong knowledge of governance, risk, and reporting requirements for NFPs or similar sectors
• Excellent organisational and time management skills, with the ability to juggle multiple priorities
• Strong systems thinking combined with a technical bent and ability to define workflows and related new system design and rollout, including AI
• Strong interpersonal and written communication skills, with the ability to work across teams
• A high level of integrity, discretion and attention to detail
• Commitment to the mission of public education and advancing equitable outcomes
• Sense of humour.