Who we are

In Melbourne, water is essential to our way of life. As caretakers of Melbourne’s water cycle and catchments, we care for water, life, and land across the city. From protecting storages and preparing for floods, to delivering infrastructure and supporting healthy waterways, our work shapes how Melbourne lives.

At the same time, we plan for the future, preparing for climate challenges in a growing city and making sure this essential system works for generations to come.

If you want your work to make a real difference, are willing to dive into complex challenges, and believe in doing what’s right, you’ll find your place here.

About the Role

We’re looking for an experienced Organisational Development leader to shape and elevate our enterprise OD system—creating the frameworks, standards and measurement that strengthen leadership, capability, talent, performance, culture, and engagement.

In this role, you’ll turn strategy and workforce insights into clear, value driven design roadmaps, lead human centred discovery and co design to ensure solutions are practical to implement and measurable in impact. You’ll lead a team of OD specialists and set the design “architecture” that enables our Capability and People Experience partners to deliver consistently high-quality experiences at scale.

• Lead, develop and guide a team of subject matter experts to deliver high-quality, evidence-based, human-centred solutions.
• Design and maintain an integrated enterprise OD architecture covering leadership, capability, talent, performance, culture, engagement aligned to strategy and user experience.
• Use workforce insights and business strategy to define priority problems and create the OD design roadmap.
• Define success metrics and evaluation methods to measure impact and drive continuous improvement.
• Integrate change readiness, behavioural insights, and adoption enablers into all OD designs to ensure successful implementation and impact.

For more information, please refer to the attached Role Mandate

Combine your strong organisational insight with your ability to design, tailor, and drive bespoke OD solutions that are fit‑for‑purpose for Melbourne Water —balancing evidence‑based practice with the specific needs, culture, and maturity of the business.

About you:

To be successful in this role you will have:

• Significant experience leading Organisation Development functions (leadership, talent, performance, engagement) and measuring impact.
• Experience connecting Organisation Development initiatives into a coherent, enterprise-wide system.
• Strong Collaboration/consultation experience in a partnership-based operating model
• Ability to bring clarity to complexity and understand and prioritise for meaningful impact.
• Experience aligning distinct initiatives and interventions from OD into a connected system to support business needs and user experience.
• Experience working in a medium-sized organisation or similar operating model that requires consultation and collaboration.
• Engaging People Leadership experience to drive a high performing team.
• Relevant tertiary degree Relevant tertiary degree in HR, Business, Psychology etc.

The ideal candidate is someone who invests deeply in understanding the unique dynamics, challenges, and aspirations of the organisation.   

They will bring curiosity, systems thinking and commercial acumen, enabling them to shape OD approaches that create meaningful impact and strengthen organisational capability now and into the future.

Why join us:

At Melbourne Water, we care deeply about water and the life it sustains. 

Our team is inspired by passion and purpose, with an unwavering commitment to safety. We are on a mission to protect every Melburnian’s way of life, one drop at a time.

We don’t just talk about flexible working - we live it. Our culture of purpose, safety, results, and learning flows through everything we do. We're dedicated to doing what's right, and this commitment extends to the meaningful work we do in a supportive and inclusive culture that encourages you to make the most of your talents.

Our long-standing commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging means that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, LGBTIQ+ individuals, Neurodivergent Individuals, people living with disability, mature age and young jobseekers from all cultures can apply with confidence knowing they are safe, affirmed, and celebrated.

If you’re curious, action-orientated, outcomes-focused, and passionate about public resources, community, and the environment, we'd love to receive your application and learn if you could be a great fit. 

How to Apply

Click the 'Apply Now' button below and complete our online application form.

Closing date: Monday 30^th March 2026 at 11:55pm AEST