General Manager, Community Living

General Manager, Community Living

Type: Full-time, senior leadership appointment

Remuneration: Negotiable and commensurate with skills and experience (SCHADS Award)

Location: Nunawading, with regular presence across all Community Living sites

Reports to: Chief Operations Officer

Three mergers in fifteen months. A ten-year ambition to reshape how people with disability live, learn, work and play across Melbourne’s east and north. And a Community Living portfolio that needs a leader who can build it, not just run it.

This is not a caretaker role. cape group is in the biggest growth and transformation phase in its history, and Community Living sits at the centre of it.

We are looking for someone exceptional.

About cape

cape group is a not-for-profit registered NDIS provider supporting people with disability across Melbourne’s eastern and northern suburbs. We were formed in April 2025 through the merger of Nadrasca and Brite, bringing together more than 120 years of combined experience. Nepean Centre joined us in June 2026. Monkami Centre joined in July 2026.

That pace is deliberate. We are building an organisation with the scale, capability and ambition to change what disability services look like: better homes, smarter use of technology, stronger pathways, and supports built around each person rather than around programs. Our measure of success is simple. Everyone we support has their best day, every day.

The role

You will hold end-to-end accountability for the Community Living portfolio: Supported Independent Living and outreach support across Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and children’s respite in Melbourne’s south. Strategy, performance, quality, safety and growth. All of it.

You will report directly to the Chief Operations Officer and sit on the senior leadership team, with a genuine seat at the table as we integrate new services, redesign our operating model and set the direction for the next decade of disability housing and support.

The mandate is clear: set the standard of practice, build a leadership team that can carry it, make the hard calls well, and ensure every home we run is safe, well-led and genuinely person-centred.

What you will do

• Set and drive the strategic direction of the Community Living portfolio, aligned to cape’s strategic plan and ten-year ambition.
• Lead safe, high-quality, person-centred services across Supported Independent Living, outreach and children’s respite.
• Own clinical governance, safeguarding and quality across the portfolio.
• Build and develop a high-performing leadership team and set the bar for practice across every site.
• Make sound, timely and defensible decisions on complex matters involving participant safety, risk, human rights, families, staff, regulators and reputation.
• Strengthen relationships with residents, families, guardians, regulators, SDA providers, clinicians and sector partners.
• Own portfolio financial performance: budgets, revenue integrity, rosters of care, claiming, cost control and sustainability.
• Lead workforce planning, capability, attraction, retention and performance across the portfolio.
• Ensure compliance with NDIS Practice Standards, Quality and Safeguards Commission requirements, WHS obligations and audit readiness.
• Contribute to whole-of-organisation leadership, transformation and merger integration as a member of the senior leadership team.
• Provide senior on-call leadership as part of after-hours arrangements.

Who we are looking for

We will be honest: this role is demanding. It needs someone with the judgement, presence and resilience to lead complex 24/7 services through a period of significant change, and the ambition to see that as the attraction rather than the risk.

• Substantial senior leadership experience in disability accommodation, Supported Independent Living or comparable complex 24/7 human services, including large-scale multi-site leadership.
• Proven experience leading services for people with complex health, behavioural and communication support needs.
• Demonstrated capability in clinical governance, positive behaviour support, restrictive practice obligations and financial management.
• Experience leading growth, transformation, merger integration or service redesign.
• Relevant tertiary qualifications in disability, health, human services, business or a related field. Postgraduate qualifications highly regarded.
• Outstanding judgement and the courage to make sound, timely decisions on sensitive matters.
• A genuine commitment to the rights, safety, wellbeing and quality of life of people with disability, underpinned by cape’s values of trust, respect, inclusion and teamwork.

Why this role

• Real mandate. Direct line to the COO, full portfolio accountability and a seat on the senior leadership team.
• Build, not maintain. You will shape the portfolio through integration and growth, not inherit a finished product.
• An organisation on the move. Three mergers in fifteen months and a clear ten-year direction.
• Salary packaging to increase your take-home pay, flexible work arrangements, EAP and free on-site parking.

Employment requirements

• Current NDIS Worker Screening Clearance and a Working with Children Check prior to employment.
• Current full Victorian Driver’s Licence.
• International Police Check may be required if applicable.
• Evidence of unrestricted Australian residential and working rights.
• Willingness to undertake a medical assessment to determine fitness for the inherent duties of the position.

How to apply

We are inclusive in our thinking and open to candidates who may not meet every criterion but believe they are the right fit.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, including people with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, LGBTQIA+ people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

If this sounds like your kind of challenge, apply now.

Shortlisting and interviews will commence immediately.