The Digital Transformation Agency has turned its attention to rebuilding its leadership team after losing two of its most senior executives in the final weeks of 2021.
The government’s digital advisory agency on Thursday began searching for several senior executive service (SES) roles to fill its ranks, including a chief technology officer.
The recruitment drive coincides with the release of a new logo designed to differentiate the agency from its earlier iterations as a disruptor and digital delivery lead.
As reported by iTnews, deputy chief Peter Alexander and discovery and sourcing general manager Johnathon Thorpe left the agency in December, leaving the DTA with half its leadership team.
Alexander was one of the DTA’s longest serving members, joining from Treasury in October 2016, while Thorpe spent just under three years at the agency.
Both departures followed a significant restructure of the agency’s remit, which saw it cede its digital delivery responsibilities to Services Australia and the ATO.
In the process, it also assumed whole-of-government responsibility for the ICT investment approval process from the Department of Finance.
The restructure was prompted by a machinery of government change in April that saw the DTA shift back to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
With its new role focusing on strategic advice, oversight and assurance to government, the agency is calling for a new investment, advice and contestability general manager.
The SES band three executive will take charge of the “DTA’s role in the budget process, investment approval conditions, and delivery assurance across government on digital proposals”.
This includes overseeing and drawing linkages across the DTA, particularly at two key points in the investment cycle: the contestability function and assurance function.
All IT proposals now require an assurance plan to be signed off by the agency as part of the government’s new digital and ICT oversight framework.
“This is a critical role in enhancing the digital capability and capacity of the Commonwealth,” the agency added.
The DTA is also recruiting a separate branch manager to oversee contestability and assurance matters, alongside the general manager.
A new CTO will provide strategic advice to the DTA on cyber security and digital systems, as well as contributing to the government’s architecture, assurance and digital sourcing abilities.
Reporting directly to CEO Chris Fechner, the CTO will work with stakeholders to ensure emerging technology is “evaluated” and mature technology “easily adopted to create value solutions”.
Three other roles are also being offered at the branch manager level, with the SES level one executives to provide advice to Fechner in the areas of:
- Digital strategy, policy and architecture, which involves overseeing the development and annual update of a whole-of-government digital strategy and architecture;
- Digital investment prioritisation, a function responsible for developing and managing the whole-of-government digital and ICT investment framework; and
- Digital initiatives discovery, which involves developing and incubating new digital and IT initiatives that align with the government’s digital strategy.
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