Office for Early Childhood Development
Job reference: 843467
Location: 5000 - ADELAIDE
Job status: Long Term Contract
Eligibility: Open to Everyone

Why work with us: 

The Office for Early Childhood Development was created to champion change and to help build a system that gives all South Australian children a flying start to life.

Guided by the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care, the Office for Early Childhood Development is the steward of the early childhood development system in South Australia.

The Office is tasked with a significant responsibility: bringing together a holistic, connected system for early childhood development across South Australia, with the goal of reducing the rate of children entering school developmental vulnerable. Critical to this is the roll-out of universal 3-year-old preschool from 2026, giving every child access to 2 years of teacher-led, play-based early learning before school by 2032.

About this role: 

The Senior Implementation Partner, Early Childhood is responsible for advising and supporting early childhood services in the implementation of early childhood reforms across the state, including the roll-out of universal 3-year-old preschool.

Reporting the Regional Manager, Early Childhood Partnerships, this role requires, experience in change management, building partnerships, tailoring audience messaging, project management skills to actively seek to provide high quality opportunities for early childhood professionals to work and learn together, using data to identify and reflect on local challenges, developing solutions that will lead to improved outcomes for children.

The Senior Implementation Partner, Early Childhood will consult, liaise with and influence key stakeholders, find innovative solutions to resolve stakeholder issues and capture opportunities.

 Your Key Responsibilities: 

• Oversee the partnership arrangements and establish strong working relationships with early childhood services across the region, implementing and overseeing appropriate reporting measures to ensure reform initiatives are of high quality and delivered in line with partnership requirements.
• Review and identify service needs and gaps across the region, leading strategies for program and service growth and innovation, and driving continuous improvement in program delivery through engagement, communication, and collaboration.
• Foster and facilitate system-level coordination of early childhood and related services across the region, building strong networks and fostering the development of networks, communities of practice and collaborative relationships widely in the community.
• Provide support, tools and advice including oversight of project plans and reporting used to monitor early childhood service providers to assist them to develop plans in response to identified challenges and in implementing initiatives related to early childhood reforms.
• Lead broad stakeholder engagement with community, cross-government and other relevant stakeholders, including developing and leading communication and collaboration activities to support the implementation and embedment of the early childhood reforms across the region.

About you:

You will bring communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders and build effective partnerships across the early childhood sector. The role requires proven project and improvement planning expertise, strong analytical and problem‑solving ability, and the capacity to use data and evidence to inform strategies and improve outcomes

To be successful in this role, we are looking for someone who brings:

• High‑level interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence, advise and build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including early childhood providers.
• Demonstrated project, change and program management skills.
• Being able to identify, collecting and analysing intelligence from multiple data sources of data to develop and implement data-driven strategies that lead to improved outcomes.
• Experience in planning and managing business improvement operations.
• Understanding of the early childhood education sector.

Role Benefits: 

• Opportunities for professional development and career growth within the public sector
• Be part of an agency with a clear mission to improve the lives of South Australia’s children and families.
• Access to valuable salary sacrifice benefits like car leases, portable electronic devices, mobile phones, airline lounge memberships, self-education expenses, and more. Ask us about how you can make your salary go further working at the OECD.
• Access to flexible working arrangements to get that work life balance.

  

Application Instructions and Information:

Applications should be made through the IWorkForSA website.

Applicants must submit a CV, Pre-employment Declaration, and a cover letter outlining their suitability against the attached position description.

Remuneration:

ASO7 - $112,163 - $121,246 (1.0 FTE) per annum, plus 12% superannuation.

Additional Note:

This is a full-time 2-year long term contract role (1.0 FTE) with potential to be made ongoing.

Enquiries:

Enquiries can be directed to OECD.PandC@sa.gov.au

Special Conditions:

For all other special conditions please refer to the attached position description.

Applications close: 17/05/2026 11:45 PM

Attachments:
- Positon Description - ASO7 - Senior Implementation Partner.pdf
- Pre-employment Declaration.pdf

Flexibility Statement
The South Australian public sector promotes diversity and flexible ways of working including part-time. Applicants are encouraged to discuss the flexible working arrangements for this role.