The Role

The Director, Reform leads Gayaa Dhuwi’s national reform and implementation work across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing, mental health and suicide prevention. The role carries senior leadership responsibility for the implementation of major national reform priorities, including the Gayaa Dhuwi Declaration Framework and Implementation Plan 2025–2035, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Strategy 2025–2035, and the National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Mental Health and Social and Emotional Wellbeing 2026–2036.

This is a strategic and operational leadership role as it requires the ability to translate broad reform directions into practical workplans, partnerships and deliverables. It builds the planning systems that give the organisation, the CEO, and external stakeholders genuine visibility over progress, risks and milestones across a ten-year implementation horizon.

The Director, Reform leads a team of three direct reports and is a member of the executive leadership team alongside the Director, Policy and the General Manager. The role works in close partnership with the Director, Policy to ensure reform implementation is connected to and guided by Gayaa Dhuwi’s policy positions and informed by evidence.

This role will suit a senior leader who brings deep subject matter knowledge, strong planning discipline, clear communication, and a genuine commitment to building the capability of the people they lead. They will be comfortable operating in a complex, fast-moving national policy environment and will understand that long-term reform work requires persistence, careful relationships, and the ability to maintain momentum.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the Reform stream, setting clear priorities, maintaining focus on agreed outcomes, and ensuring the team delivers work to a high standard.
• Build and maintain implementation planning systems, including workplans, progress tracking, and milestone and risk reporting that give the executive leadership team clear visibility over the reform program.
• Identify implementation risks and emerging priorities early, and provide timely, practical advice to the CEO.
• Represent Gayaa Dhuwi in reform and implementation forums with professionalism and cultural authority.
• Lead, supervise and develop the Reform stream team, providing clear expectations, regular guidance, constructive feedback and quality review of work.
• Actively build the policy and implementation capability of Reform stream staff, manage their outputs, but also identifying development needs, modelling high-quality practice, and supporting staff to grow into more complex work over time.
• Manage performance constructively and in accordance with organisational processes, addressing issues early and with clarity.
• Lead implementation of the Gayaa Dhuwi’s key strategies, frameworks and implementation plans, as well as other related reform priorities.
• Translate agreed reform priorities into practical project plans, deliverables and reporting processes, and oversee delivery across the Reform stream to ensure work progresses within agreed timeframes.
• Provide strategic oversight of Gayaa Dhuwi’s contribution to the Social and Emotional Wellbeing Policy Partnership.
• Work in active partnership with the Director, Policy to connect reform implementation with policy advice, ensuring both streams are mutually informed and organisationally coherent.
• Ensure reform work is informed by member priorities, councils and collaborative networks, lived experience, communities, and relevant evidence.
• Lead sector engagement and partnership activity connected to Gayaa Dhuwi’s reform priorities.
• Work with the executive leadership team to connect reform priorities with communications, organisational planning and operational delivery.
• Produce and review high-quality written materials, including briefs, reports, meeting papers, correspondence, presentations and internal advice.
• Undertake other duties as required.

Selection Criteria

1. Demonstrated ability to work respectfully within an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership organisations, including understanding the importance of culture, self-determination, community control, member informed priorities, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership.
2. Demonstrated understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing, mental health and suicide prevention, including the policy, service system, and reform context relevant to this work.
3. Demonstrated experience leading reform, implementation or strategic projects, including the ability to translate priorities into practical workplans, deliverables, reporting processes, and implementation activity.
4. Demonstrated ability to understand complex systems, identify risks, and opportunities, exercise sound judgement and provide clear advice in sensitive policy, cultural and organisational contexts.
5. Demonstrated ability to lead staff, manage competing priorities, review work, maintain momentum across a complex work program, and communicate clearly through high-quality written and verbal advice.

This Position is open to Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra based applicants.

About Gayaa Dhuwi

Gayaa Dhuwi is the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing, mental health, and suicide prevention. As a members based, community-controlled organisation, we are governed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experts and peak bodies.

Our vision is the highest attainable standard of social and emotional wellbeing, mental health, and suicide prevention outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Our role is to lead and advocate for systemic change that places the voices, strengths, and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples at the centre of national policies and reforms.

We work in a fast-paced national policy and reform environment where priorities can shift quickly in response to government processes, parliamentary inquiries, sector developments, member priorities, emerging evidence, and national reform opportunities. As a result, our team needs to be made up of individuals who can understand complex policy and service systems, work respectfully within an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership and organisations, and produce high-quality work across social and emotional wellbeing, mental health, and suicide prevention.

Gayaa Dhuwi’s work is long-term with progress often requiring sustained advocacy, careful relationships, strong evidence and the ability to keep work moving over time. People who thrive at Gayaa Dhuwi are steady, thoughtful, organised, respectful, clear in their communication and able to maintain perspective while working on issues that matter deeply to our peoples and communities.

Eligibility

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are encouraged to apply for this opportunity under section 51 of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984.
• Applicants must be an Australian citizen or have permanent residency status pending the granting of Australian citizenship. All successful applicants for the position will be asked to complete pre-engagement checks including national police check and a working with vulnerable people check.

A position description is attached.