Municipal Building Surveyor | Hobsons Bay City Council

About Hobsons Bay City Council

Hobsons Bay City Council serves a diverse and established municipality in Melbourne’s inner west, encompassing residential neighbourhoods, established activity centres, industrial precincts and a range of community and Council assets.

Council’s building services function plays an important role in protecting community safety, responding to illegal building work and ensuring statutory obligations under the Building Act and Regulations are effectively delivered.

The service has recently undergone a realignment that has introduced clearer leadership across its two operational streams. A Deputy Municipal Building Surveyor now leads the building surveying function, while a Senior Building Surveyor oversees building site compliance and associated local laws activity.
This provides the incoming Municipal Building Surveyor with an experienced and stable team, a capable leadership structure and a strong platform from which to consolidate recent improvements and guide the future direction of the service.

Hobsons Bay is a values-led organisation committed to providing practical, responsive and community-focused services.

About the Role

The Municipal Building Surveyor is responsible for administering Council’s statutory building functions and providing leadership, technical oversight and strategic direction to an established team of approximately 11 staff.

The team operates across two complementary streams. The building surveying function includes the Deputy Municipal Building Surveyor, building surveyors, inspection, technical and administrative support. The building site compliance function is led by a Senior Building Surveyor and includes officers responsible for site safety and relevant local laws provisions.

The service undertakes a relatively small volume of municipal building permit work, with its primary focus sitting across enforcement, illegal building work, building safety and Council’s broader statutory responsibilities.

The incoming MBS will be supported by experienced practitioners who understand the municipality and service well. The team has good continuity, including several long-standing employees, and the recently appointed Deputy MBS provides capable day-to-day leadership across the building surveying function.

A recent review of the service identified a range of opportunities to strengthen processes, systems and operational practices. Many of these actions have already been progressed, with the new MBS responsible for ensuring improvements are fully embedded and that the service remains organised, responsive and transparent in reporting its workload, risks and priorities.
The role will also provide advice on emerging compliance matters, including swimming pool and spa safety obligations, while considering how Council can best support affected property owners and the wider community.

Over time, there is also scope to explore the future service model, including whether Council should broaden elements of its permit or inspection offering. Any future direction will need to be carefully considered against statutory responsibilities, organisational risk, insurance requirements and community benefit.

About You

You are an experienced building surveyor with Unlimited registration in Victoria and the technical capability required to perform the statutory responsibilities of a Municipal Building Surveyor.

You bring strong knowledge of building legislation, enforcement, compliance and regulatory decision-making, ideally developed across local government, private building surveying or a combination of both environments.
You are a practical and engaged leader who can provide clear technical direction while empowering an established Deputy MBS and senior practitioners to manage their respective areas effectively.

This is not a role requiring wholesale change. You will take the time to understand what is working, establish visibility over the team’s workload and priorities, and ensure recent improvements to systems and processes are sustained.

You are comfortable making considered statutory decisions, managing complex or sensitive enforcement matters and providing clear advice to senior leaders. You also bring the curiosity and commercial awareness to consider how the service could evolve while maintaining an appropriate focus on risk, community safety and Council’s legislative obligations.
Most importantly, you will bring energy, sound judgement and a collaborative leadership style to a team with strong technical knowledge and a genuine commitment to the Hobsons Bay community.

Application Process

Public Sector People is partnering with Hobsons Bay City Council to recruit this important statutory leadership position.

For a confidential discussion or to request a copy of the position description, please contact Marcel Lafontaine at Public Sector People.

To apply, please submit your CV and a brief cover letter via the link. Applications close at October 15th at 5PM