Asset Strategy Lead

About the Organisation
Cairns Regional Council manages one of Queensland’s most diverse and climatically complex infrastructure portfolios, supporting a rapidly growing region with significant environmental, geographic and service challenges. The organisation plays a pivotal role in ensuring the long‑term sustainability, reliability and performance of essential public assets that underpin community wellbeing, economic development and service delivery.

Within this context, the Strategic Asset Management & Planning (SAMP) branch is responsible for the frameworks, systems and governance disciplines that guide how Council manages its multi‑billion‑dollar asset portfolio. The Tactical Asset Management unit delivers the operationalisation of these frameworks, strengthening maturity, embedding consistency, and ensuring that asset information and decision‑making practices support the organisation’s long‑term objectives.


About the Role
This role has been designed for an experienced technical leader capable of operating at system level, someone who brings extensive reliability or heavy‑asset experience along with the communication and influencing capability necessary to drive organisational change.

The role requires significant influence across a matrix organisation structure, engaging engineers, trades, operational leaders, executives and councillors to align decision‑making and uplift asset management capability.

Reporting to the Executive Manager, Strategic Asset Management & Planning, the Coordinator - Tactical Asset Management leads a team of engineers, advisors and technical officers and provides authority across Council’s maintenance, reliability, data and asset governance functions. The role is central to implementing Council’s asset management improvement journey and ensuring alignment between strategic intent, operational practice and portfolio‑wide asset performance.


Key responsibilities include:

• Leading the development, implementation and optimisation of asset management objectives, policies, the SAMP and AMPs.
• Implementing and supporting demand‑based outage management approaches to improve operational planning and service reliability.
• Driving Council’s five‑year asset management maturity roadmap and uplifting organisational capability through education and influence.
• Providing technical leadership across maintenance strategy, including asset criticality assessments, FMECA, PM optimisation, condition assessment frameworks, renewal planning and defect elimination.
• Establishing strong asset information governance and lifecycle costing practices to improve data quality, support revaluation activities and inform long‑term decision-making.
• Partnering across engineering, operational and executive groups to embed structured, data‑driven asset management practices.
• Supporting tactical engineering activities, enterprise work management practices, operational readiness processes and customer request responses.

Non‑Negotiables

• Permanent position: Contractors or consultants will not be considered.
• Based in Cairns, Qld: This is an on‑site leadership role; relocation assistance will be provided to the successful candidate.
• Full working rights: Applicants must hold unrestricted Australian working rights.

About You
You are an accomplished engineering leader with experience managing high‑criticality or large‑scale asset portfolios. You may come from mining, heavy industry, utilities, transport or similar environments, bringing both technical depth and the ability to influence complex stakeholder groups. You combine strong technical credibility with the ability to communicate complex concepts clearly, shaping understanding and influencing decision‑making across diverse stakeholder groups, including elected representatives.


You will demonstrate:

• Extensive experience in reliability engineering, maintenance strategy or asset management within complex, multidisciplinary organisations.
• Strong capability to influence and align diverse stakeholder groups.
• Strong knowledge of ISO 55000 and contemporary asset management frameworks.
• Proficiency in asset information governance, condition assessment, lifecycle costing and data‑supported decision‑making.
• Experience leading teams through organisational, process or systems change.
• Bachelor of Engineering (Civil or relevant discipline) with substantial asset management experience.

Benefits

• Permanent, full‑time role with a 9‑day fortnight work pattern.
• Competitive salary with locality allowance.
• 12% superannuation, with the option to salary sacrifice.
• Up to five weeks annual leave plus additional sick leave and leave loading.
• Relocation support to Cairns.
• Professional development opportunities.

How to Apply
Cairns Regional Council has appointed Chandler Macleod as its exclusive recruitment partner for this position.

Confidential enquiries to: Anna Dziopa, Principal Consultant
Phone: 07 3003 7787
Email: anna.dziopa@chandlermacleod.com

Applications close: Friday, 20th March


At Chandler Macleod, we are committed to fostering a diverse workforce where everyone is welcome. We encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, women, neurodiverse, people living with a disability and the LGBTIQA+ community.

You can read more about our commitment to diversity and inclusion at https://www.chandlermacleod.com/diversity-and-inclusion.