Job Head of Culture & Capability (Wooloowin), Canberra

Overview

Head of Capability & Culture

Brisbane Support Centre, Wilston (National Role) | Hybrid

$210,000 – $220,000 + Super

At Journey Early Learning, the strength of our workforce underpins the quality of outcomes we deliver for children and families. As we continue our national growth trajectory, the way we build capability, enable leaders and embed consistency across our network is critical to sustaining quality at scale.

We are seeking a Head of Capability & Culture to lead the design and execution of an enterprise-wide people, capability and culture strategy—ensuring our workforce, systems and operating model evolve to support disciplined, sustainable growth.

This is a pivotal leadership role responsible for building the organisational capability, leadership depth and cultural alignment required to deliver consistent, high-quality outcomes across every centre.

Why This Role Matters

Journey is entering a phase where success will be defined not only by growth, but by how effectively we scale quality, leadership and operational consistency.

While compliance is foundational in early childhood education, it is the capability, confidence and alignment of our people that ultimately determines outcomes.

This role is central to ensuring we:

• Scale with discipline, consistency and operational clarity
• Build leadership capability at all levels of the organisation
• Embed fit-for-purpose systems, structures and ways of working
• Foster a high-performance culture grounded in accountability and continuous improvement

Key Accountabilities

• Enterprise Capability & Culture
  • Lead the development and execution of a strategic capability and culture framework aligned to organisational priorities
  • Embed Journey’s values—Connection, Consideration and Communication—as observable leadership behaviours and decision-making principles
  • Enable leaders to build high-performing, engaged and inclusive teams at scale
• Learning Strategy & Journey Academy
  • Evolve Journey Academy into a scalable, central learning ecosystem
  • Ensure learning is operationally embedded, accessible and practice-led
  • Establish structured programs across induction, safeguarding, compliance and leadership development
  • Design transparent, progression-based career pathways to strengthen internal mobility and retention
• Workforce Strategy & Talent
  • Lead a national workforce strategy that ensures sustainable staffing and capability across the organisation
  • Build and maintain strategic talent pipelines for critical roles
  • Drive improvements in workforce stability, engagement and retention
• People Operations & Systems
  • Provide executive oversight of the end-to-end employee lifecycle
  • Redesign and simplify people systems, processes and governance to support scale
  • Ensure compliance frameworks are practical, embedded and consistently applied
• Industrial Relations & Governance
  • Provide strategic leadership across industrial relations within a regulated environment
  • Ensure alignment with awards, legislation and sector requirements
  • Partner with Governance and Safeguarding to operationalise compliance in everyday practice
• Leadership & Performance
  • Uplift capability across Centre Leadership Teams
  • Embed clear performance frameworks, expectations and accountability mechanisms
  • Align team and individual performance to quality outcomes and organisational standards
• Data, Insights & Continuous Improvement
  • Leverage workforce data and insights to inform strategic decision-making
  • Monitor and report on key metrics including engagement, retention and capability maturity
  • Drive a culture of evidence-based continuous improvement across people practices

Why Join Journey

Journey is growing with intent—focused on building the infrastructure, capability and culture required to sustain excellence at scale.

• Building consistent operational models across a national footprint
• Investing in leadership, systems and capability to support growth
• Committed to environments that are safe, secure and enriching for every child
• Focused on continuous improvement and sector leadership

This role offers the opportunity to:

• Shape the people and capability strategy of a scaling organisation
• Build the foundations for long-term organisational success
• Make a meaningful impact on teams, families and children nationally

About You

You are an experienced, enterprise-oriented People & Culture leader with a proven ability to operate at both strategic and operational levels within complex, multi-site environments.

You bring:

• Senior leadership experience across capability, workforce or people & culture functions
• Experience within early childhood, aged care, disability or related regulated sectors
• A strong understanding of the relationship between capability, compliance and quality outcomes
• Demonstrated success in scaling systems, improving operational consistency and uplifting leadership capability
• The ability to influence at all levels and drive alignment across a distributed workforce
• A pragmatic, execution-focused approach with a strong orientation to outcomes

Apply Now

If you are motivated to build capability at scale, strengthen leadership and shape the future of a growing organisation, we would welcome your application.

At Journey Early Learning, we are committed to creating environments that are safe, secure and inclusive —for children, families and our people. We believe diverse perspectives strengthen our teams, enhance our culture, and improve the outcomes we deliver.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, experiences and communities.

Child safety is our priority. All roles require relevant clearances, including a valid Working with Children Check and national background screening.

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