Overview

Airservices Australia is a Commonwealth-owned organisation responsible for managing 11% of the world's airspace and providing air navigation and aviation rescue firefighting services across the country. Each year, they manage more than four million aircraft movements carrying over 156 million passengers. We are undergoing a once-in-a-century transformation to meet the needs of emerging airspace users, new aerodromes, and cutting-edge aviation technologies. At the heart of our mission is the safety of Australia's skies - balanced with environmental, regulatory, and social responsibilities.

Job Description

Airservices is seeking a highly capable and self-directed Senior Legal Counsel (Privacy & Regulatory) to lead our privacy function and contribute to broader regulatory matters. This is a senior, standalone role reporting directly to the Principal Legal Counsel and operating as the organisation's privacy subject matter expert.

You will not have direct reports, but you will be the go-to authority on privacy across the organisation - advising the CEO, Executive Team, and business units, and shaping our privacy culture and compliance posture.

This role offers a rare opportunity to own and uplift the privacy function while expanding into diverse regulatory areas, including aviation and environmental law.

Lead the privacy function end-to-end, including:

• Responding to privacy queries,
• Conducting Privacy Threshold Assessments (PTAs) and Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs),
• Managing privacy incidents and breach responses,
• Review and enhance Airservices' privacy framework, policies, and procedures,
• Provide strategic and operational privacy advice to senior leadership and business units,
• Design and deliver training and awareness initiatives to build a culture of privacy compliance,
• Maintain strong relationships with regulators, including the OAIC,
• Oversee organisational privacy reporting and compliance obligations,
• Support broader regulatory and environmental legal matters (approximately 30% of the role once embedded),
• Manage the legal team's triage process (drop box) to allocate and prioritise incoming matters,

The Successful Applicant

• Approximately 10+ years' post-admission experience, with deep expertise in privacy law,
• Current Australian practising certificate,
• Proven experience leading a privacy function and managing complex incidents,
• Skilled in developing and implementing privacy policies, procedures, and training,
• Comfortable advising executive leadership and influencing outcomes,
• High levels of independence, resilience, and sound judgment,
• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills - pragmatic, commercial, and collaborative,
• Willingness to expand into new regulatory areas (aviation experience not required),
• Canberra location strongly preferred (other locations considered),
• Australian citizen or permanent resident (security clearance not required at appointment).

What’s on Offer

• Senior appointment in a nationally significant organisation with a high public profile,
• Opportunity to lead and shape the privacy function while broadening your legal practice,
• Hybrid working arrangement (3 days in office / 2 days from home),
• Competitive total fixed remuneration of $230,000 including 12% superannuation,
• Recognition of prior Commonwealth service (long service and recreation leave),
• Be part of a forward-thinking organisation at the forefront of aviation transformation.