ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS

• Tertiary qualifications in a relevant discipline or demonstrated equivalent relevant professional experience.
• A valid Working with Children Check (WWCC) clearance for paid employment (prior to commencement, not required at application)
  Download the role description.

ABOUT US

At the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) we work with the NSW community to drive improvements in student achievement.
We achieve this by supporting all school sectors with high-quality syllabuses, assessment (including managing the HSC and NAPLAN), teaching standards (e.g., accrediting teachers) and school environments (including setting and monitoring school standards).
To find out more about the important work we do for NSW visit our website.

Looking for your next big challenge?
NESA is hiring for multiple roles in our newly established Cybersecurity, Information Assurance, and Data Protection team, and we are looking for passionate professionals to join us.
This is an exciting opportunity to take the lead on data governance and protection at the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA).
This is your opportunity to shape how NESA manages, safeguards, and leverages data ensuring integrity, security, and trust across the organisation.
You’ll be at the forefront of embedding best practice, influencing strategy, and building strong data governance foundations that support both our compliance obligations and future ambitions.

On a day-to-day basis you will be responsible for:

• Designing and rolling out a governance framework, policies and standards that aligns with business, compliance, and risk objectives.
• Leading enterprise-wide practices for metadata management, data lineage, classification standards, and stewardship.
• Driving improvements in data quality and managing the full lifecycle of information assets.
• Partnering with security and privacy teams to deliver robust data protection measures.
• Supporting the implementation of technical safeguards including DLP, encryption, and data masking.
• Guiding and educating teams on data governance principles and supporting audits.
• Ensure compliance with NSW privacy and data protection legislation.
• Measuring governance effectiveness through clear KPIs and reporting.
• Keeping NESA ahead of the curve on evolving governance, privacy, and security trends.
• Chair or coordinate data governance forums and working groups.

Our ideal candidate will have:

• Proven ability to design data governance frameworks and driving adoption across complex organisations.
• Experience applying data protection principles, including privacy by design, data minimisation, and regulatory compliance.
• Experience in building audit-ready data lifecycle processes and lifting data quality while reducing duplication.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with confidence in guiding, negotiating, and building relationships at all levels.
• Leadership capability to inspire and coach a small team while working collaboratively across NESA.