MANAGER SERVICE PERFORMANCE AND INNOVATION

About Brisbane City Council

Brisbane City Council is Australia's largest local government by population, managing assets exceeding $44 billion and an annual budget of over $4.1 billion. The city is entering a pivotal period shaped by accelerating growth, rising public service expectations, and the approaching 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. These forces are sharpening the focus on how Brisbane plans, performs, and improves for decades to come. In response, Brisbane City Council is evolving how it operates to remain a high-performing organisation that delivers lasting value. This role sits at the centre of that effort.

The opportunity

Reporting to the Group Executive, the Manager, Service Performance and Innovation will lead how a complex service portfolio defines success, measures it, and improves over time.

It is not a functional leadership role in isolation. It is a connecting role, bringing together strategy, performance insight, operational reality and transformation activity to create a coherent, forward‑looking service environment.

You will work across a diverse set of services, helping the organisation move to a more deliberate, integrated and valuable performance view.

That includes:

• establishing clear line of sight between strategy, programs and outcomes
• strengthening how performance is measured, interpreted and acted upon
• prioritising effort across competing demands
• lifting consistency in how services are planned, governed and improved

Alongside this, you will lead innovation and transformation initiatives, focused less on abstract reform and more on practical improvements that make services simpler, more responsive and more sustainable over time.

What you will be responsible for:

• Leading service portfolio planning and performance alignment to Council priorities
• Shaping performance frameworks and providing clear, decision‑ready insights to executives
• Driving continuous improvement and targeted transformation initiatives
• Acting as a central point of integration across functions, programs and teams
• Overseeing budget alignment and program performance with disciplined governance
• Building a capable, accountable and engaged team
• Influencing across a complex stakeholder environment to align outcomes and resolve trade‑offs
• Ensuring strong risk, safety and assurance practices are consistently applied

The profile

This role will suit an executive who is comfortable operating in the space between strategy and delivery, where clarity is often imperfect, priorities compete, and influence matters more than authority.

As someone who combines innovation with influence, and collaboration with a customer-led focus, you will bring:

• Experience shaping performance and improvement agendas in a complex, service‑driven organisation
• The ability to translate data and activity into meaningful, decision‑useful insight
• A track record of aligning distinct functions toward shared outcomes
• Sound commercial and operational judgement, particularly in resource‑constrained environments
• Experience leading change in a way that brings people with you, rather than working around them
• Highly developed stakeholder skills, including the ability to challenge constructively
• Equally important is your style – measured, credible, and focused on outcomes rather than activity.

Why this role

Roles like this are sometimes described as “strategic”, but the reality is more practical, and more meaningful.

This is about improving how things actually work.

You will contribute to how Brisbane plans, measures and delivers services at a time when the city’s trajectory is very much in view. The work will not always be visible externally, but its impact will be.

Brisbane City Council offers a genuinely purpose‑driven environment, where the connection between good decisions, service performance and community outcomes is both direct and understood.

This is an opportunity to shape capability, lift performance, and leave the organisation stronger than you found it.

For further information and to apply: www.luminarypartners.com.au/bcc

General inquiries to: luminary@luminarypartners.com.au

Confidential inquiries to:

Kerry Larkin, Senior Associate, Luminary, on 0404 095 421

Applications close: Midnight, Sunday 12th July 2026

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