ASD looks to bolster executive ranks as it begins new era

The Australian Signals Directorate is seeking to fill a collection of executive positions in its newly created Corporate Division as it enjoys its increased independence following its transformation into a statutory authority.

The organisation has begun seeking a first assistant director-general – corporate, who will be responsible for “governance, corporate management, business advice and service delivery that enable ASD to achieve its missions.”

The SES2 level role will be responsible for leading the ASD’s new Corporate Division as part of a “far-reaching transformation” of the organisation.

The ASD has also begun accepting applications for two SES1 roles: Assistant director-general finance and business management, and assistant director-general people, learning and development

Both positions will report to the head of the Corporate Division.

The ASD became a statutory authority on 1 July, following the passage earlier this year of the Intelligence Services Amendment (Establishment of the Australian Signals Directorate) Bill 2018.

The transformation of the organisation was a key recommendation of the 2017 L'estrange review of Australia’s intelligence community.

The review called for the expanded role of the ASD in combating cyber crime to be reflected in legislation.

A formal expansion of the ASD’s mandate would recognise “the increasing difficulty of delineating state and non-state actors in cyberspace as well as the need to be able to shift scarce operational cyber resources to areas of greatest need,” the review said.

The review argued that transformation of the ASD into a statutory authority reporting to the defence minister — removing the ASD from the Department of Defence’s employment framework — would make it easier to recruit and retain the specialist skills that it requires.

Last month the ASD released its first corporate plan, which argued it is now better placed to compete with the private sector for cyber security skills.

The corporate plan said that as part of its recruitment push the organisation was planning to “design new career pathways and employment opportunities that better reflect the kind of work that ASD does” in order to “better recruit, retain, train and develop its specialist staff.”

The ASD is accepting applications for the new executive positions until 19 August.