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Senior Planning Officer - Water & Wastewater (50826)

at Southern Downs Regional Council

Full Time

Posted: 20/01/2025

Closing Date: 11/02/2025

Job Type: Permanent - Full-time

Location: Warwick Qld

Job Category: Water & Wastewater - Other

Southern Downs Regional Council – A Great Place to Work

What we do at SDRC is more than just a job to us. Whether it’s maintaining our clean water supply, keeping our parks and gardens beautiful, servicing our plant and vehicles, providing contemporary library services, responding to natural disasters or showcasing our region’s immense natural beauty and economic strength, every Council employee strives to make a real difference for our local community.

Few employers combine so many diverse disciplines (eg engineers, childcare workers, trades such as mechanics and plumbers, safety specialists, project managers, plant operators, finance experts, IT specialists and urban planners to name a few) in one organisation. At SDRC, we work together towards the same goal. By integrating a multi-disciplined workplace with collective ideas and skillsets, we provide unique opportunities for our people to develop and grow within their chosen career.

We are passionate about aligning business, community and government to achieve social, economic and environmental outcomes. We believe this is best realised when people are invested in the long-term outcomes of where they live and work. If this sounds like you too, then working in local government at SDRC may be right for you.

Our Values

SDRC recognises our people as our strength, and our five values guide how we work with each other, our actions, our decision making and how we serve our community. Our values bring us all together and contribute to our employees having a meaningful and rewarding career, with opportunities to grow and thrive. To learn more about Council's Values, please click on the link in the "Further Information" section of this advertisement, or visit our website.

Job Description

About the Department

The Water and Wastewater Department works within the Infrastructure Directorate and reports directly to the Director Infrastructure with the directive to deliver on the water and wastewater obligations of Council, whilst providing a high level of customer service to the community.

Council’s Water Team delivers the essential services of water and wastewater (sewerage) to the Southern Downs community. Water services starts at the source including the treatment and pumping of water, maintaining the network and providing water metering services.

Wastewater services start with the property connection and includes maintaining the sewer network, managing pump stations and delivering wastewater treatment services at facilities across the region.

Your Opportunity

In this pivotal role, you will develop and maintain water and wastewater modelling and scenarios, proactive maintenance programs & water & wastewater strategies for each town. You will work collaboratively with statutory authorities, government departments, and industry bodies to develop strategies to facilitate compliance and promote best practice. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in water & wastewater strategic and asset planning, lifecycle management and development of strategies, processes and procedures, alongside strong leadership, analytical, and communication skills.

Term: Full-time

Hours of Work: 72.5 hours per fortnight

Pay Level: $3,324.54 to $3,455.97 per fortnight (Level 5), plus superannuation and annual leave loading

In accordance with Council's Enterprise Agreement and the relevant Award. Pay rate dependant on relevant skills and experience.

Employment Base: Warwick, Queensland

What You Will Do

For full details of this position, please ensure you download the Position Description below.

(Note: For applicants viewing this job vacancy through SEEK.com, you will be able to access the Position Description by clicking on the "Apply" button, or by visiting the job advertisement on our website at www.https://www.sdrc.qld.gov.au/council/careers-at-council/current-job-vacancies).

The complete Key Responsibilities of this role can be found in the Position Description. These include (but are not limited to):

In collaboration with the Manager Water and Capital Delivery Principal Engineer, develop long term infrastructure plans for water and wastewater treatment, distribution, transfer, collection, and disposal.
Develop, update and maintain proactive maintenance programs for all water and wastewater assets such as dams, treatment plants, pump stations, reservoirs and distribution systems.
Provide specialist and consultative advice on complex water and wastewater matters.
Liaise with other government departments, statutory authorities, industry bodies and other organisations to facilitate compliance and promote best practice.

What We Offer

To view comprehensive details of our employee value offering, please click HERE. (Note: For applicants viewing this job vacancy through SEEK.com, you will be able to access this link once by clicking on the "Apply" button, or by visiting the job advertisement on our website at www.https://www.sdrc.qld.gov.au/council/careers-at-council/current-job-vacancies)

At Southern Downs Regional Council, we know that that our people are our strength. With this front of mind, we provide a wide range of benefits and a holistic approach to supporting our employees, including:

Competitive wages, conditions and allowances
Improved work-life balance opportunities, such as a 9-day work fortnight and consideration of other flexible work options
Generous leave provisions and annual leave loading
Access to a wide range of health and wellness initiatives, including comprehensive, professional and free Employee Assistance Program for staff and their families (24/7 access)
Opportunities for on and off the job personal and professional development

Desired Skills and Experience

What You Will Need

To be successful in this role, you will need to be able to demonstrate your competence in relation to all of the Selection Criteria as detailed in the Position Description. This includes (but is not limited to):

Demonstrated experience in water and wastewater strategic and asset planning, lifecycle management and development of strategies, processes and procedures.
Demonstrated experience in project and program development, justification, prioritisation, monitoring and reporting to ensure expected outcomes, deliverables and standards are met.
Demonstrated experience in planning and development of long term capital, renewals and maintenance plans and programs.
Proven ability to lead, develop and mentor staff and to establish and monitor team outcomes in order to achieve work objectives, and to effectively manage consultants and contractors.
Well developed organisation and time management skills, with the proven ability to set project priorities, plan and organise own work and that of subordinate employees.

Further Information

For further information about this role and working for Southern Downs Regional Council, please refer to the documents below:

(Note: where viewing this advertisement on SEEK.com, the links to information below will only be available once you click on the "Apply" button. Alternatively, you can access them via the job advertisement on our website at https://www.sdrc.qld.gov.au/council/careers-at-council/current-job-vacancies).

Position Description
Join Southern Downs Regional Council (detailed employment information, including employee benefits)
Our Values
Living on the Southern Downs

If you have any additional enquiries in relation to this position, please contact Paul Quinlan, Capital Delivery Principal Engineer on 07 4661 6207.

Apply Now!

At SDRC, we believe that diversity enriches our workplace, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes. We welcome applications from qualified people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, genders and abilities, who have applicable working rights in Australia.

To apply for this opportunity, you will be asked to complete an online application form and provide:

A written response (maximum 2 pages, dot points acceptable) on how your experience, abilities, knowledge and personal qualities would enable you to achieve the Key Responsibilities and meet all of the Selection Criteria of this role (as outlined in the Position Description); and
Your current CV or Resume.

When you are ready to begin your application, please click on the "Apply" button below to be taken to our online application portal. Please ensure you provide all of the information requested and that your application is lodged by the closing date (as shown above). Should you have any difficulty lodging your application online, please contact our People & Culture team on ph 1300 697 372 for assistance.

We look forward to receiving your application.

Pre-Employment Check Information

As part of our recruitment process, external preferred candidates will be required to undertake pre-employment checks in most instances, including:

Right to work in Australia check
National Criminal History Check
Pathology drug and alcohol screening
Reference Checks - we will request that preferred candidates nominate two referees who have knowledge of their capabilities, work performance and conduct within the previous two years (where possible). It is preferable to include current, immediate or past supervisors.

Preferred candidates may also be subject to further checks prior to appointment, such as a functional capacity/fitness for work assessment, a formal qualifications check, Blue Card Working with Children Check, licence disqualification/traffic history checks and/or any other check that is reasonably required by SDRC to assess the candidate's ability to perform the inherent requirements of the role.