Office for Early Childhood Development
Job reference: 843544
Location: 5540 - PORT PIRIE, 5554 - KADINA, 5600 - WHYALLA, 5606 - PORT LINCOLN, 5700 - PORT AUGUSTA
Job status: Short 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 Change and Local Partnerships directorate comprises a statewide network of Local Teams guiding the implementation of early childhood reforms across the state, including the roll-out of universal 3-year-old preschool.

The Local Teams provide advice and support to the early childhood sector, including local service providers, community groups and representatives and government agencies.

The Implementation Partner, Early Childhood, will take the lead in guiding and supporting early childhood and care services to develop and implement annual plans to access and deliver supports which improve the enrolment, learning outcomes and attendance of children to help meet their developmental needs.

 

Your Key Responsibilities: 

• Support partnership arrangements with early childhood services across the region, fostering collaborative networks and relationships to support implementation and uptake of key OECD programs and approaches by the sector and ensure reform initiatives are of high quality.
• Work with services to formulate, develop and implement high-quality, evidence-based plans which enable access to, and delivery of evidence informed supports to drive outcomes for children, families and communities.
• Support services to understand, interpret, and leverage relevant data, including from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), evidence, and engagement across the early childhood sector, including community, to inform local planning, expected outcomes and development of strategies to increase access to supports.
• Foster strong working relationships with early childhood and related services, cross-government and other relevant stakeholders to promote, build and strengthen sector supports and referral pathways, and to understand local needs, strengths and opportunities.
• Work collaboratively with and provide advice to Executives and colleagues across the OECD, including the production of documents, reports, briefings, recommendations, and correspondence to influence and guide decision-making processes.
• Implement effective processes and systems to support services in the delivery of annual plans and associated partnership activities and obligations.

 

About you:

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

• Ability to coordinate and deliver complex plans and projects that require the use of high-level research, analytical skills, and application of appropriate project management methodologies for effective project design implementation, documentation and reporting on outcomes.
• Experience in managing and proactively addressing complex issues in an environment of change, with the ability to analyse and provide practical and timely solutions while considering diverse perspectives.
• Able to work under limited direction and exercise original thinking, creativity and independent judgement, manage complex workloads and set priorities to meet defined project deadlines with competing priorities and expectations.
• Capability in identifying, collecting, and analysing intelligence from multiple data sources to create impactful reports and documents, inform planning, reporting, and decision making.
• Understanding of the early childhood education sector and early years pedagogy and data sources.

 

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:

ASO6 - $102,171 - $108,071 (1.0 FTE) per annum, plus superannuation.

Additional Note:

This is a full-time short term backfill contract role (1.0 FTE).

Location: Whyalla, Kadina, Pt Pirie, Pt Augusta and Pt Lincoln,

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:
- Position Description - ASO6 Implementation Partner - C&E.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.