Senior Workers' Compensation Advisor

About the Department

The department provides a wide range of learning and development support and services.

The department provides policy leadership, plans for the future of education in Victoria and leads key cross-sector collaboration. The department plays an important system steward role by providing support, guidance, oversight and assurance across early childhood and school education systems, as well as directly providing school education and 50 new early learning centres.

About the Division

The Employee Safety and Wellbeing Division (ESW Division) is committed to the Department's vision to create safe, healthy, respectful and inclusive working environments for Department employees to thrive and succeed.

About the Role

The HR Advisor - Senior Workers Compensation Advisor provides authoritative advice and support to Return to Work Coordinators (RTWCs) to enable safe, timely and sustainable return to work outcomes for department employees injured at work. The role contributes specialist expertise to service delivery, stakeholder engagement and continuous improvement across workers compensation and injury management services, while operating with a high level of autonomy within an established team structure. The incumbent works closely with Return to Work Coordinators, the department's insurance agent and occupational rehabilitation providers to ensure appropriate supports are in place for injured employees and their workplaces, and reports to a Team Leader, with oversight through to the Manager. The purpose of this role is to:

• engage and build strong relationships, and maintain ongoing communication with department workplace managers, school principals, Return to Work Coordinators, the department's insurance agent, occupational rehabilitation providers, and other internal and external stakeholders as required
• provide authoritative guidance, support and mentoring to Return to Work Coordinators within workplaces, drawing on specialist knowledge and professional judgement
• promote sound and effective workers compensation management practices across the department, with a focus on improving the performance and capability of workplaces in injury management. This includes delivering training, technical and legislative advice, claims and return to work guidance, and strategies aligned to department policies and procedures
• write reports, analyse data and trends, report to management on regional, portfolio and workplace performance, and identify and escalate issues and risks as required
• contribute to the ongoing development, improvement and training of workers compensation management policies, practices and strategies to strengthen employee health and wellbeing outcomes, and participate in projects designed to improve injury management practices and service delivery
• drive continuous improvement in workers compensation performance, employee health and wellbeing, and workplace culture through informed advice, stakeholder engagement and consistent service delivery.

About you:

The successful candidate will have highly developed relationship-building and customer service skills, and the ability to understand the underlying needs and context of employees, schools and workplaces. The successful candidate will build trust and credibility through consistent actions, sound judgement and effective communication, and will influence and gain support for ideas and proposals to achieve high-quality outcomes within a collaborative team environment.

Desirable Qualifications and Experience

Relevant experience in workers compensation, injury management or return to work advisory services, including experience providing specialist advice in a complex service environment.

Further Information

For more details regarding this position please see attached position description for the capabilities to address in application.

The department values diversity and inclusion in all forms - gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. For more information about our work, working for the Department, diversity and inclusion, and our employment conditions visit the Department website and our Diversity and Inclusion page

Applicants requiring adjustments can contact the nominated contact person.

Information about the Department of Education's operations and employment conditions can be located at www.education.vic.gov.au.

For further information pertaining to the role, please contact Tom Evans, Manager Workers Compensation Team via (03) •••• •979 or tom.evans@education.vic.gov.au.   

Preferred applicants may be required to complete a police check and may be subject to other pre-employment checks. Information provided to the Department of Education will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Please contact Tom via phone or email if you require any adjustments to ensure your full participation in the recruitment process or if you need the ad or any attachments in an accessible format (e.g large print) due to any viewing difficulties or other accessibility requirements.

Applications close 11:59pm on Wednesday 2 September 2026