Purpose of specific work area and position

Rural Fire Service (RFS) Area Offices are responsible for providing tailored support to Rural Fire Brigades and volunteers. As the primary local contact point, Areas connect local needs with District, Regional, and State resources to enhance training, mitigation activities, asset management, and brigade operations. The main purpose of the Areas is to provide seamless and responsive support to volunteers to ensure the effectiveness of operational bushfire response.

Each Area encompasses a cluster of Local Government Areas and includes operational and non-operational staff, volunteers and Brigades who provide bushfire management, mitigation, and response services for rural and semi-rural communities, including some urban fringe areas across the state.

Reporting to the Executive Manager, District Coordination, you will be a member of the District Leadership team and work closely with volunteers and other Area, District, Regional and State stakeholders and manage bushfire preparedness and response for the Area, and will contribute to the planning, implementation and evaluation of area-wide programs and initiatives. You will be responsible for managing human and physical resources within the Area, in accordance with departmental policy and procedures, to provide high quality support to staff, volunteers and Rural Fire Brigades, and respond to large scale rural fires and other emergency incidents, providing on-site command and direct operations in accordance with QFES legislative requirements.

Mandatory requirements

• Must meet the mandatory requirements and attributes as outlined in the generic Rural Fire Service Inspector role description.

Highly desirable requirements

• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders from rural and remote communities.

Location

This is a state-wide process with multiple vacancies across Queensland. Vacancies could be available in the following locations:

• Charleville
• Warwick
• Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area
• Cooktown
• Charters Towers
• Toowoomba
• Gladstone
• Atherton
• Caboolture
• Emerald
• Mudgeeraba
• Townsville

During the recruitment process, you will be asked to provide your location preferences. Not all locations may be currently available. Please note, this recruitment process may be used to fill vacancies that emerge at these locations for the next 12 months.

Primary duties

In addition to the generic Inspector, Rural Fire Service role description, the primary duties of the Area Manager include but are not limited to:

• Lead the Area team in the execution of Regional strategic and operational plans, to ensure a high-level of service delivery to support brigades and volunteers in protecting the local community from bushfire and other emergency incidents.
• Manage organisational change programs through regular consultation and discussion with staff, volunteers, the community, and other stakeholders to ensure reform and uplift initiatives are embedded effectively.
• Undertake the role of Chief Fire Warden for the Area and work closely with the Manager Bushfire Mitigation to support the planning and execution of prescribed burns and the execution of the Permit to Light System.
• Work closely with the Regional Duty Manager to maintain operational awareness and oversight for the Area and, where required, respond to large scale rural fires and other emergency incidents to provide command leadership either on-site or in incident control centres.
• Manage human (such as staff, volunteers, and other stakeholders) and physical (such as fleet, equipment, and infrastructure) resources to ensure operational capacity and capability within the Area, as well as readiness to support activities across the District and Region.
• Support asset management by authorising planned and unplanned maintenance in accordance with delegations and asset management frameworks, to ensure operational readiness of equipment, fleet, and infrastructure.
• Attend Rural Fire Brigade and/or Group meetings to provide timely updates, expert advice, assist with early resolution of issues, and support brigade governance requirements.
• Facilitate and/or participate in forums and operational exercises, including Area Fire Management Groups and Local Disaster Management Groups, to support a collaborative approach to bushfire and emergency management.
• Lead activities in the Area to ensure that corporate systems are updated and maintained in accordance with RFS policies and procedures to enhance data quality and reporting accuracy.

Additional information

• Be able to meet the attributes of the generic Inspector, Rural Fire Service (RFS) role description.
• Rural Officer Two (RFSO2) or applicants with equivalent industry experience, appropriate skills, knowledge, are encouraged to apply.
• Volunteers and external parties with appropriate skills are highly encouraged to apply, noting that they may be asked to provide additional information to satisfy internal policies.
• Have a proven commitment to maintaining bushfire competencies and operating in a regional team environment.
• Incumbents may be required to travel and work within their area of responsibility and may also be required to undertake intrastate and/or interstate deployment and travel.
• This is a day work position yet may require flexible hours of work to meet functional demands, including working at night on weekends as part of the role.
• Incumbents appointed to this position will participate in a personal professional development programme developed in conjunction with their supervisor.
• Incumbents must have proven commitment to maintaining competencies and operating in a team environment.
• Those appointed to a role within the QDMA (Queensland Disaster Management Arrangements) framework will undertake appropriate regularly training, to maintain your role within RFS as a member of any QDMA appointed position.
• This Role Specification Statement (RSS) is linked to the generic role description, that provides the ‘key accountabilities’ and ‘capabilities’ to be addressed by the applicant. Applicants are strongly encouraged to review this RSS with the role description and consider the requirements when preparing their application.