About the role
The Chief Strategy & Performance Officer plays a key role in shaping the future of the City of Greater Geelong by leading the development and delivery of the City’s strategic direction. Focused on creating value for the community, the role promotes a customer-first mindset and ensures priorities reflect community needs. It leads critical functions including Strategy and Effectiveness, Organisational Planning and Performance, Change, and the Corporate Program Management Office. The role drives innovation, improvement, and joined-up planning across the organisation. As a trusted advisor to the executive leadership team and a key collaborator with senior leaders, the Chief Strategy & Performance Officer ensures alignment across people, processes, and technology to improve organisational performance and deliver positive outcomes for the community.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading the strategic direction of the department by developing a compelling vision, setting clear goals, and ensuring alignment with the City's broader strategic and community priorities.
• Building and leading a high-performing leadership team, fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and customer-focused culture that lives the City’s values and drives continuous improvement.
• Strengthening departmental capability and culture by coaching leaders, holding them accountable for team performance.
• Overseeing strategic workforce planning to ensure the department has the resourcing, skills and readiness required to deliver current and future strategic initiatives.
• Driving excellence in strategic and operational planning, including leading enterprise-wide processes such as annual business planning, service reviews, and strategic alignment of programs and projects.
• Developing, governing and continuously improving service delivery models and the City’s Strategy & Performance service catalogue, supported by KPIs, SLAs.
• Leading the development of enterprise-wide strategy, change and transformation capabilities, overseeing the Corporate PMO, embedding a centre of excellence for project and change maturity, and ensuring delivery of strategically aligned outcomes.
• Acting as a trusted advisor and advocate, providing strategic insight to the CEO, ELT and Council, drawing on best practice, sector intelligence and performance data to shape decisions and influence organisational outcomes.
• Fostering a culture of integrated governance, accountability and innovation by collaborating across the executive, maintaining strong relationships with key leaders and stakeholders, and overseeing risk, budget, and performance frameworks that deliver sustainable value to the community.
  
  

About you
To be successful in this role, you will have a tertiary qualification in Public Administration, Business Administration, Management, Commerce, Human Resources or a related discipline, along with extensive senior leadership experience in managing a Strategy and Performance function in a similarly complex organisation.

Essential Experience:

• Demonstrated senior leadership experience in managing high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams and fostering a positive, values-aligned culture.
• Proven strategic thinking and problem-solving capability with a track record of delivering innovative, long-term organisational outcomes.
• Extensive experience in leading and delivering business transformation, organisational change, and strategic improvement initiatives in complex environments.
• Strong internal consulting capability with expertise across corporate strategy, business planning, change management, and program/project delivery.
• Proven ability to manage strategic business planning, budgets, financial resources, and complex reporting aligned to organisational KPIs and priorities.
• Demonstrated proficiency in applying structured project and change methodologies to deliver enterprise-wide outcomes on time and within budget.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including negotiation, consultation, and presentation, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and secure support for strategic initiatives.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills, with the ability to build strategic partnerships and navigate competing priorities.
• Experience operating in fast-paced, politically aware environments, with the ability to lead through ambiguity and drive innovation and future-focused strategies.

If this sounds like the role for you, then click apply now! 

A career with us
We’d love for you to continue your career with the City and set the benchmark for a sustainable, inclusive and culturally safe workplace.  With a range of benefits, flexible working options, learning and development opportunities, support services and the opportunity to give back to the community, the City has so much to offer!

Click https://www.geelongaustralia.com.au/employment/article/item/8d1155a0d84344d.aspx to view all the benefits to you working at the City.

We support accessibility and encourage discussions about any adjustments or support you may need during the recruitment process.

Applications and Enquiries
Click the Position Description link to view more information about this position.

Enquiries: Sonia Cheema | Coordinator, Talent Acquisition | sonia.cheema@geelongcity.vic.gov.au 

Click the Apply button to submit your application or find out more about this opportunity. If we can assist you with any reasonable adjustments in order to submit your application for this role, please contact the Talent Acquisition team via email at careers@geelongcity.vic.gov.au noting your preferred method of communication and contact details and a member of the team will be in touch.

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