Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support

is now recruiting for

Senior Executive Director

Commissioning, Investment and Innovation

Apply Now

Applications close midnight, Wednesday 24th of September 2025

Overview

About Youth Justice

Our role in the youth justice system

The Queensland Government is focused on keeping our communities safe by addressing the drivers of youth crime and better supporting young people on the transition to adulthood so they can avoid becoming entrenched in the criminal justice system. We also provide young people with alternative pathways that create better lives.

We expect young people to be law abiding and respectful. Stronger consequences for young offenders and a commitment to break the cycle of violence are backed by initiatives designed to create a brighter future.

Our programs and services aim to:

keep communities safe
support victims of crime
tackle the complex causes of youth crime
target serious repeat offenders.

These services are evidence based and appropriately targeted.

Providing services to the youth justice system

We have primary responsibility for providing services to young people in the youth justice system and broader community. This involves advising young people at court and supervising young people sentenced by the court. As part of our role, we:

detain high risk young people in custody pending court outcomes. While detained, the department provides the services required to ensure the young person's needs are met
detain high risk young people when they've been sentenced to detention. Once in detention, we may provide services to the young person aimed at rehabilitation and improving life outcomes
supervised orders given by the court including probation and community service orders. This also includes providing services that help the young person to meet their requirements of their order and address the factors which have contributed to their offending.
hold young people to account for failing to comply with court orders by returning them to court.

Funding early intervention and prevention services

We fund non-government organisations (NGOs) to provide early intervention and prevention services to complement early childhood development, health services and educational services. Some of the services we provide under this model include:

family wellbeing services
adolescent sexual offending services
On Country program
bail support services
young offender support services
legal advocacy services.

Our vision and purpose

The department is responsible for supporting the Minister for Youth Justice and Victim Support. In supporting our minister, the department maintains high-quality services, focusing on implementing the government's objectives for the community and its government commitments.

Vision

A safer community with fewer victims of crime by restoring consequences for action and reducing reoffending through effective and early intervention and empowering youth offenders to turn their lives around.

Purpose

Keep Queenslanders safe by delivering stronger laws and fewer victims of crime, providing meaningful support to victims of crime through victim support services.

About the Role

About the role

The position requires exceptional leadership and managerial capabilities. The role requires a very strong ability to lead the development of investment options and outcome frameworks for the delivery of department’s more than $400 million out-sourced service delivery programs; lead the innovative management of system performance; to ensure timely outcomes for clients. The Senior Executive Director is to provide high level leadership particularly by working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders.

The role requires exceptional expertise by strategically aligning investment initiatives with government priorities, ensuring robust compliance and risk management, and fostering strong stakeholder relationships. The Senior Executive Director is required to have superior financial oversight, and ability to drive performance improvements, and lead transformative change. The role will be required to develop and implement innovative policies and use adept communication skills to effectively represent the department at high-level forums. The role requires ethical leadership and commitment to fostering a positive workplace culture to further enhance their capability to deliver sustainable, impactful services.

The Senior Executive Director, Commissioning, Investment and Innovation in a government department exemplifies accountability by ensuring transparent, responsible management of resources and adherence to statutory obligations. They set clear performance expectations, monitor progress, and take ownership of outcomes, fostering a culture of integrity and trust. Their commitment to ethical practices and effective communication ensures that all actions align with government priorities and departmental goals. This high level of accountability enables them to deliver reliable, impactful public services while maintaining the confidence of stakeholders and the community.

As an executive your performance will be assessed according to four key accountability perspectives: financial, stakeholder and outcome, internal business, and learning and growth.

Key responsibilities

Financial

Strategically align investment initiatives with government priorities, ensuring robust compliance and risk management, and fostering strong stakeholder relationships.
Exemplify accountability by ensuring transparent, responsible and effective management and monitoring of the business areas budget and establishment in accordance with statutory responsibilities, government priorities and departmental policies and procedures.
Effectively oversight the more than $400 million investment in departmental programs in accordance with statutory responsibilities, whole of government guidelines and departmental policies and procedures.
Partner with Non-Government Organisations (NGO), to significantly grow and develop services across the state to support vulnerable children, young people and families.

Stakeholder and outcome

Lead the review and evaluation of departmental programs in consultation with stakeholders.
Lead the development of investment planning for delivery of departmental strategies in accordance with the Queensland Procurement Policy and whole-of-Government policies and processes.
Oversight the implementation of departmental child, family and young people NGO reform activities and initiatives through strategic partnerships and relationships with key stakeholders; and liaise and negotiate with other agencies on a range of departmental and whole of government reform initiatives.
Provide high level advice to the Deputy Director-General, the Director-General and Minister, senior departmental officers and other key stakeholders in relation to the agency’s strategic investment, commissioning and performance.
Represent the department at significant national, state-wide and other forums, and support the involvement of the Minister, Director-General and Deputy Director-General by ensuring effective advice on issues relevant to program areas.
Lead cross-departmental NGO reform to achieve improved contract management, procurement and performance management and grow the capability of the NGO sector to deliver the required services.

Internal business

Provide ethical leadership and commitment to fostering a positive workplace culture further enhance their capability to deliver sustainable, impactful public services.
Set clear performance expectations, monitor progress, and take ownership of outcomes, fostering a culture of integrity and trust.
Provide strategic oversight, direction and leadership to the Branch.
Lead staff and the NGO sector through a period of significant renewal and change, ensuring effective change management and engagement.
Contribute effectively to the Government’s and department’s priorities and reform agenda.
Actively contribute to the strategic management of the business area as leader of the Senior Leadership Team and participate on the Director-General’s Executive Leadership Team, Board of Management and other key governance groups as required.

Learning and growth

Contribute to the building and maintenance of the culture of the business area to support the vision and values of the Department and to achieve agency objectives.
Plan, organise and manage the business areas responsibilities, including fostering a professional environment to encourage commitment, ethical behaviour, staff wellbeing, skills development, professional growth and continuous improvement.

What we are looking for

- Leads Strategically- Thinks critically and acts on the broader purpose of the system.
- Stimulates ideas and innovation- Gathers insights and embraces new ideas and innovation to inform future practice.
- Leads change in complex environments- Embraces change and leads with focus and optimism in an environment of complexity and ambiguity.
- Makes insightful decisions- Makes considered, ethical and courageous decisions based on insight into the broader context.
- Develops and mobilises talent- Strengthens and mobilises the unique talents and capabilities of the workforce.
- Builds enduring relationships- Builds and sustains relationships to enable the collaborative delivery of customer-focused outcomes.
- Inspires others- Inspires others by driving clarity, engagement and a sense of purpose.
- Drives accountability and outcomes- Demonstrates accountability for the execution and quality of results through professionalism, persistence and transparency.
- Fosters healthy and inclusive workplaces- Fosters an inclusive workplace where health, safety and wellbeing is promoted and prioritised.
- Pursues continuous growth- Pursues opportunities for growth through agile learning, and development of self-awareness.
- Demonstrates sound governance- Maintains a high standard of practice through governance and risk management.
- You understand the impacts of historical and contemporary policy and practices upon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. You have a demonstrated ability to engage and communicate with humility and effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
- You will have a record of success as a leader in a large and complex organisation with outstanding leadership ability. You will have extensive experience across the public, private and/or not-for-profit sectors and you will have a strong background in strategy and policy implementation, service delivery, and customer service. You will have a proven track record as an agent of change in challenging environments and in fostering a confident and capable workforce.

Position Description

To learn of the requirements and attributes of our ideal candidate for this position, we invite you to please download the full position description below.

Download the PD

How to Apply

Requirements

To be considered, please provide the following information in your online application, for the assessment of your suitability:

A short (no more than two pages) statement focusing on how you align with the core accountabilities outlined in the position description.
Your current CV highlighting your relevant experience, qualifications, and achievements.

We value diversity and cultural capability, and the department is an equal opportunity employer which supports a healthy working environment that is free from all forms of harassment, workplace bullying, discrimination, and violence.

All applicants are encouraged to advise the panel of any additional support or reasonable adjustments required throughout the recruitment process; this could include building access, interpreter services and so on. In doing so, we can ensure you have the best opportunity to demonstrate your ability to meet the inherent requirements of the role.

If you need assistance with your application please reach out to us.

Download Position Description