Position Description

Collaborative Solutions Lead

Role Specifics

Direct reports | 1

Reports to | Director, Collaborative Solutions

FTE | 1.0 (Full-Time)

Location | Flexible - PLACE functions as a remote/hybrid workforce

PLACE Level | 3

Salary Range | $110,000 - $130,000 + superannuation

Role Summary

The Collaborative Solutions Lead plays a critical role in convening stakeholders, place-based initiatives, and subject matter experts to identify shared challenges and co-design strategic solutions. Focused on driving system-level change, the role works to align government funding, data-sharing practices, and commissioning frameworks with the needs and priorities of place-based initiatives.

This outward-facing role is central to PLACE’s mission, ensuring ongoing engagement with community-led initiatives to deeply understand their contexts and develop practical, scalable solutions. Drawing on the expertise of PLACE’s Learn and Share, Enable, and Strengthen Data teams, the Collaborative Solutions Lead builds a strong case for reform and helps shape the conditions for long-term systems change that values and supports place-based work.

Who We Are

Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) is a not-for-profit organisation, committed to collaborative, community-driven approaches to create impactful and lasting change.

It is our vision to enable communities and governments to jointly decide on matters that are most important to our lives. We lead national initiatives to develop workforce strategies, enhance place-based practices and improve data monitoring and evaluation.

At PLACE, we are dedicated to creating lasting change through understanding, action and empowered governance.

Areas of Responsibility

1. Systemic Barriers and Enablers

  • Work with stakeholders and PLACE colleagues to identify systemic challenges that hinder place-based work.

  • Analyse root causes and propose solutions to address structural barriers.

  • Explore and support reforms in funding, commissioning, data-sharing and policy to create enabling conditions for place-based approaches.

  • Incorporate insights from place-based initiatives to ensure proposed solutions are informed by lived experience and demonstrate potential for adaptation and scalability across diverse contexts.

2. Stakeholder Engagement

  • Convene and facilitate conversations between government, community organisations and subject-matter experts to co-design responses to shared challenges.

  • Build strong, trust-based relationships with place-based initiatives to understand local priorities and context.

  • Represent PLACE in external engagements, ensuring consistent, values-aligned communication.

  • Translate local insights into systems-level strategies and advice.

3. Data and Evidence Use

  • Collaborate with PLACE’s internal teams to support ethical, transparent data-sharing across stakeholders.

  • Promote the use of service-level and outcomes data to guide planning and decision-making.

  • Translate data insights into practical messages for community and policy audiences.

  • Contribute to building an evidence base that supports the case for reform.

4. Policy and Funding

  • Identify ways existing funding and commissioning mechanisms could better support place-based initiatives.

  • Contribute to the development of policy advice and proposals that embed place-based thinking in system settings.

  • Support advocacy efforts to influence funding models and policy settings that reflect local needs and aspirations.

5. Learning and Impact

  • Support the development and use of learning and evaluation tools that track progress and capture outcomes.

  • Ensure feedback loops from initiatives inform continuous improvement and adaptation.

  • Help share lessons and insights across PLACE’s networks and with key decision-makers.

6. Leadership and Collaboration

  • Provide leadership and guidance to staff and project teams.

  • Foster a collaborative and inclusive work environment.

  • Ensure projects are delivered on time and within scope.