This is a visible, high profile role to be the new Head of the Office for the Early Years and lead innovative change.

 The Department for Education provides integrated, high-quality services to South Australian children and young people across early childhood, education and training. They support young South Australians from the day they are born, through their transition to adulthood, in all communities. The Office for the Early Years has been established as a new function within the Department for Education, to lead the universal early years system, with a mandate to increase the proportion of children developmentally on track when starting school. A new senior executive role has been created to lead the office, which will play a critical role in the delivery of a world-class early years system across government.
  
As a key member of the Senior Executive Group and reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the Head of the Office for the Early Years will be responsible for developing a new Whole of Government Early Years Strategy. Establishing and leading this new office, this mandate will ensure that agencies are in alignment to deliver an integrated and effective universal early years system. There will be a significant focus on developing an accountability framework and providing strategic leadership of early childhood development policy for South Australia including implementation of national early childhood initiatives. An immediate priority will be delivering the Governments $35.1million 2021-22 State Budget commitment to design and commission trials of service models to increase reach and frequency of early childhood development health checks. As a key advisor to Cabinet, you will establish direction and purpose, as well as providing recommendations on approaches to service delivery and assessing the performance of the universal early years system.
  
An executive level leader, you will have significant experience shaping the development and implementation of strategic policy and service-wide reform.With demonstrated success in driving strategic change through influence, you will have led large teams and built a culture of performance and continuous improvement, with a focus on service delivery and community outcomes. A natural and agile influencer, you will have experience in large and complex organisations, with strong stakeholder management skills, coupled with relevant tertiary qualifications, with knowledge of early years services and education policy preferred.
  
This is a visible, high profile role to be the new Head of the Office for the Early Years and lead innovative change through strategy, influence and whole of systems thinking. Join the pursuit of the department’s world class aspiration and build a new Office where you will lead the investment in the early years and contribute to every South Australian child’s education.
  
Applications should be forwarded to Nicole Underwood in Word format by Friday the 6th of August 2021. Confidential telephone enquiries are welcome to Nicole on 0409 149 419.

A client facing opportunity to build your consulting career in executive search and talent management.

Underwood Executive is an award winning executive search firm and is the only South Australian owned consultancy to be accredited with global membership with the AESC (Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants). A ‘relationship first’ philosophy and dedication to building ongoing relationships where clients and candidates are informed and communicated with on a regular basis, has enable our success where clients voted us Executive Recruiter of the Year.
  
Working in partnership with CEOs, Directors and executive leadership teams, you will be responsible for scoping new projects, taking assignment briefs, providing strategic talent solutions and recruiting executive talent across a range of disciplines and industries. Your project delivery skills will involve sourcing and researching, interviewing, assessing and providing recommendations on talent suitability and fit for executive level positions.  Building relationships with clients and talent is an essential part of the role including managing expectations, timeframes and outcomes.
  
A natural influencer, you will have strong intuition with the ability to read people. Confident in making assessments and recommendations, you will provide solutions and be a direct communicator. A strong corporate networker with exposure to a range of industries and experiences, we are seeking an experienced professional in the management consulting, HR or talent acquisition, who has the flexibility to source and recruit across a range of generalist executive roles.  Working with people day in day out, this is can be an emotional career that involves resilience, persistence, discipline and control. Your ability to develop client relationships, grow networks and assist in identifying and converting opportunities is essential, as is your understanding and passion for a career in consulting. An outcome focused high achiever; you will need to demonstrate your entrepreneurial spirit, an appetite for success and the ability to make sound decisions. 
  
Join our professional consulting team, where you will be given the autonomy, processes and systems to run your own assignments. A niche owner-led business means you will have high exposure, significant responsibility and candid transparency. This is an opportunity to drive your own career, to positively impact on individual career decisions and contribute to business success through introducing executive talent to your client base.