Assistant Director, Compliance

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is an independent statutory authority established by the Australian Government to maintain an impartial and independent electoral system for eligible voters through active electoral roll management, efficient delivery of polling services, and targeted education and public awareness programs.

• The AEC's values and commitments

The AEC values and commitments are an essential component of our operating environment and frame how AEC staff work. The AEC's focus is on electoral integrity through the values of quality, agility and professionalism.

• The Team

The Disclosure and Compliance section sits within the Enabling and Regulation Division and supports the AEC through planned coordination of compliance reviews and investigations related to financial disclosures, ensuring high quality outputs that withstand external scrutiny.

The broader team is responsible for the management of financial returns of political parties, political actors, others with disclosure obligations, and all work associated with achieving accurate and timely lodgement including liaising with stakeholders, following up on non-lodgement and managing requests for amendments to disclosure returns.

The Disclosure and Compliance team administers Part XX of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (the Electoral Act). Primary responsibilities include :

• Provision of education and advice to those with disclosure obligations to facilitate compliance
• Performing compliance reviews on financial disclosure returns submitted by political parties and others with disclosure obligations to ensure their accuracy
• Conducting investigations where contraventions of the Electoral Act are suspected and taking appropriate enforcement action as required, and

The Assistant Director, Compliance reports to the Director, Disclosure & Compliance.

• The Opportunity

As an EL1 Compliance Officer you will lead a team to undertake reviews of financial disclosure returns of various actors in the political system, administer claims for election funding following an electoral event, and perform other investigations and projects as required to assess compliance with Part XX of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

You will manage, oversee, and undertake reviews of financial disclosure returns of various actors in the political system, claims for election funding following an electoral event and other investigations as required to assess compliance with Part XX of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

You will join the leadership team responsible for building technical capability and fostering career development of its people.

You will be required to effectively anticipate and be responsive to internal and external customer needs, building and sustaining mutually beneficial relationships to support the teams and the agency's strategic objectives

To excel you'll have :

• Knowledge of, or ability to, quickly gain knowledge of Australian electoral law and practice.
• Experience in building organisational capability and responsiveness, identifying opportunities for continuous improvement to achieve results.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills and demonstrated ability and experience leading and building capability in teams.
• Experience in conducting financial audits and overseeing junior team members.
• Experience in analysing complex information providing concise and accurate advice and support on compliance activities.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, along with high attention to detail and problem-solving abilities.
• A demonstrated ability to work autonomously and a strong commitment to working harmoniously within a team to achieve positive results and support the AEC's strategic direction.

Desirable

• Tertiary qualifications in accounting, and / or appropriate work experience in lieu of formal qualifications, and experience in a regulatory environment.
• Eligibility
• AEC employees must be Australian citizens.
• Any person who is, and seen to be active in political affairs, and intends to publicly carry on this activity, may compromise the strict neutrality of the AEC and cannot be considered.
• Applicants are required to consent to, undergo, obtain and maintain a character clearance.
• Applicants are required to consent to, undergo, obtain and maintain the security clearance required for this role.
• Applicants may be required to undertake psychometric testing as part of this recruitment process.