Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Portfolio Performance

Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Portfolio Performance

• Shape DGS's enterprise strategy and future direction
• Guide portfolio direction, prioritisation, sequencing and investment discipline
• Advise the Secretary and strengthen whole-of-department performance

About Department of Government Services

The Department of Government Services (DGS) was established on 1 January 2023 to improve how Victorians and businesses experience government. DGS brings together important day-to-day services and is focused on making government easier, more connected and more seamless.

Its diverse portfolio includes citizen-facing services, digital platforms, regulatory functions and enterprise services, including Service Victoria, Consumer Affairs Victoria, Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, Local Government Victoria, Public Record Office Victoria, cyber security, procurement and grants-related functions.

DGS plays a central role in shaping how government services are designed, delivered and experienced across Victoria. It is connecting and digitising systems and platforms across state and local government while strengthening corporate and procurement services across the Victorian Public Sector.

About the role

The Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Portfolio Performance is a key enterprise leadership role reporting to the Secretary. The role leads DGS's enterprise strategy and portfolio performance function and supports the Secretary and Executive Board to make coherent decisions about the department's portfolio direction, priorities, sequencing, performance and future direction.

Working in partnership with portfolio Deputy Secretaries as outcome owners, the role translates government, customer and departmental priorities into clear portfolio direction, prioritisation, sequencing and disciplined investment choices. It brings together enterprise strategy, service and product portfolio lifecycle stewardship, customer insight, integrated planning and performance.

The role will guide difficult choices about what DGS should accelerate, sequence, reshape, pause or stop, including how services and products should evolve over time as part of an interconnected portfolio. It will balance public value and customer outcomes with affordability, delivery capacity, technical considerations and benefits realisation. It will also strengthen the governance, assurance and performance disciplines that enable transparent decisions and timely course correction.

The Deputy Secretary also leads designated corporate stewardship functions, including legal, communications, ministerial and executive services, and will play an important role in shaping DGS's future operating model, building organisational capability and representing the department in whole-of-government strategy, reform and investment discussions.

About You

You are a highly credible enterprise executive who has helped a large, complex organisation determine its future direction and make difficult choices about priorities, sequencing, stewardship and performance. You bring more than functional expertise in strategy, digital, technology or transformation; you have operated across organisational boundaries and influenced decisions affecting multiple services, functions and stakeholder groups.

You have the judgement, presence and political acumen to become a trusted adviser to the Secretary and a respected peer to other Deputy Secretaries. You can bring clarity to ambiguity, frame genuine choices and constructively challenge established thinking while building trust and alignment across senior stakeholders.

You will bring meaningful experience setting portfolio direction and applying prioritisation, sequencing and investment discipline across services, products, programs or enterprise initiatives. You understand the distinction between delivering individual projects and stewarding an interconnected portfolio over time, including decisions about capacity, affordability and relative value.

You do not need to be a technologist, but you will be digitally literate and able to work credibly across product management, service delivery, operations, data and technology. Public sector experience and prior ministerial exposure is highly desirable. Above all, you will be an enterprise-minded, values-driven leader motivated by public value, integrity and responsible stewardship of public resources.



Hazel Executive & Boards is pleased to be partnering with the Department of Government Services on the search and appointment of the Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Portfolio Performance. All direct and third-party applications will be forwarded to Hazel.

Hazel acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live and work and pays respect to Elders past and present. Hazel is committed to equal opportunity and to championing diversity, inclusion, belonging, flexibility and accessibility in all executive appointments. If you require any adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please let us know so we can support you.

To download the Briefing Pack – Click on this link

Applications Close 11:59pm – Sunday 27th of September 2026

Applications can be made directly via the Hazel Executive & Boards website - www.hazelexecutive.com.au

For a confidential discussion, please contact Jarrod McLauchlan, Managing Partner on 0407 808 517 or Jodi Heath, Partner on 0459 997 007.