About Why work with us?

APS staff told us: "The legacy of Geoscience Australia’s science and work continues. We are part of something bigger than a day at work."

APS staff told us: "There are things you can do at Geoscience Australia that you can’t do anywhere else in Australia."

When you work at Geoscience Australia, you’ll be part of a community contributing to tangible outcomes that improve life for everyday Australians. Did you know that if a nuclear or seismic event takes place anywhere in the world Geoscience Australia is the first part of the Australian government apparatus to know?

Our people are empowered to innovate and make an impact through meaningful science. We are committed to the pursuit of science excellence and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. We strive to continue to enhance and expand our knowledge of all of Earth’s systems – geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere.

We also contribute significantly to the nation's economy, with industry use of our data and analysis supporting $76 billion of added value and 80,000 jobs in 2021-22 alone.

Our scientific engagement and collaboration span national and international organisations, First Nations peoples, and communities. At Geoscience Australia, you will contribute to a mission that is aligned with and informed by national and global science priorities. Our scientific endeavours are guided by the national interest and community priorities rather than commercial imperatives.

APS staff told us: "What we do here is just incredibly cool. Where else do you get to work on satellites, or ancient environments, or earthquakes? All while being an Australian Public Servant!"

Learn more about what we do:

Strategic Priorities

• Strategy 2028
• People and Culture Strategy: Coming soon

Read about our Southern Positioning Augmentation Network (SouthPAN), a collaborative effort by the Australian and New Zealand Governments to deploy Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) services across the Southern Hemisphere.

Discover Exploring for the Future (EFTF) – our work to realise the full potential of Australia's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources, especially as we move towards a sustainable, low-emissions future.

Learn about our National Earthquakes Alerts Centre (NEAC) which operates around the clock to provide rapid alerts of significant earthquakes with the potential to cause damage, injury, widespread alarm, or tsunami in Australia and overseas.

The breadth of our work covers this unique island continent, our extensive marine jurisdictions and includes our frozen territories in the Antarctic. We deliver this wide-ranging scope of operations through the following impact areas:

Building Australia’s resources wealth
Maximising the value to society from our abundant mineral and energy resources through mapping and exploration, stimulating domestic investment and advancing clean energy technologies.

Supporting Australia’s Community Safety
Strengthening our resilience to natural hazards by advancing our understanding of Australia’s natural hazards and their impact on the built environment, including real-time monitoring, analysis, and advice.

Securing Australia’s Water Resources
Optimising and sustaining our water use by developing and delivering data, knowledge and advice on surface water and groundwater to inform decision making and creating the new technologies and geoscience to enable this.

Managing Australia’s marine jurisdictions
Supporting the sustainable use of our marine environment and jurisdiction via collaboration across government, industry, and academia to map and characterise Australia’s seabed and to deliver coastal landform data that helps to build resilience to the impacts of a changing climate.

Creating a location-enabled Australia
Enabling location-based decisions and actions through best practice digital mapping, Earth observations and precise positioning. This includes growing the Australian space industry by operating satellites that monitor lands and coasts and delivering a satellite data platform.

Enabling an informed Australia
Curating and presenting our vast data holdings to equip government, communities and industry with geoscience data and information for informed decisions. We provide geoscientific leadership on both the national and international stage.

Ensuring a high performing organisation
Fostering a positive organisational culture and continuing to develop a diverse and inclusive workplace is vital to our performance. Through investing in and celebrating our people, we enable the delivering of information and knowledge that will help drive Australia’s success.

APS staff told us: "We walk the talk and seek continuous improvement."

APS staff told us: "The more diversity we have as an organisation, the better positioned we are to provide positive impacts on delivering to communities."

We are proud of our culture where people are encouraged to reach their full potential and bring their most authentic selves to work. We know that diversity of thought, skills, perspectives backgrounds and experience lead to stronger solutions to the increasingly complex problems our world faces. Many of our people contribute to a large and growing number of staff-led networks to progress initiatives for the interests of women, men, and other genders; parents and carers; LGBTQIA+, people with disability, First Nations peoples, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Since 2021, 50% of senior leadership positions have been held by women, and we also have a balance of genders on our committees and selection panels. We are committed to balancing high performance while normalising genuine flexibility, and while some teams need to be on site, our ICT environment and people policies are optimised to support effective flexible working arrangements.

To date, we have been awarded three out of five Cygnet Awards from Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) in recognition of our commitment to embed genuine and sustainable gender equity, and a diverse and inclusive culture. Our first Cygnet Award recognised the efforts to foster an inclusive culture, our second was in recognition of initiatives to combat everyday sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace, and our third acknowledges the work we have done to advance our flexible work conditions and access to better leave arrangements.

Our 2023 Employee Census results show our staff believe this organisation is genuinely inclusive, flexible and are proud to work here:

APS staff told us: "We get to work on longer term projects – you can get stuck into something – other APS organisations have quite heavy demands on their time trying to achieve many different things, here you might be on multiple projects, but you can focus, achieve and progress something from beginning to end."

Our highly educated and skilled workforce includes a range of specialisations. Here you’ll be supported with professional development options and opportunities for career progression, be eligible for study assistance, and get to work on exciting projects that benefit the Australian community.

Source: 2023 APS Census data

You’ll find a wide range of scientific, professional, and technical roles at Geoscience Australia as well as opportunity to grow your management experience.

With us, you could work on a range of exciting initiatives, as well as build deep expertise through long-term projects. Our professional development opportunities include supported attendance to relevant conferences, internal programs, and a wide range of courses available through the Australian Public Service (APS) Academy. Geoscience Australia also offers scholarships and development grants to support our staff to continue to grow and learn.

You will also have opportunities to progress to more senior roles as you develop your capability to manage people, projects, and complexity. As an APS employer, we offer career pathways that support both scientific and technical expertise, and management and leadership experience for those who aspire to executive roles, including access to The APS Commission’s talent mobility streams.

APS staff told us: "There’s a comfort from knowing that as technology changes, our work will continue to be relevant. It’s good to know in the future I won’t always be working on the same problems, because as a society we’ll have different problems to be working on."

Learn more about Geoscience Australia careers:

• Look closer at what we do: Geoscience Australia YouTube channel
• Hear Dr Verity Normington discuss her pathway and experiences with a career in Geology
• Search current vacancies

• Competitive salaries, negotiable commensurate to skills and experience.
• 15.4% superannuation.
• Free onsite parking (save up to $4,800 a year after tax!).
• Paid parental leave plus superannuation contributions while on parental leave.
• Four weeks annual leave plus additional paid leave during the Christmas and New Year period.

Source: 2023 APS Census data

We are committed to our people’s wellbeing:

• Genuine flexibility including part time work, flexible and compressed hours, working from home, job sharing and reasonable work adjustments.
• Option to purchase up to 8 weeks additional annual leave per year.
• Free onsite gym, available 24/7.
• Childcare available on our Canberra site.
• Private family room available which is Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace accredited.
• Paid cultural and community days.
• Accruable 18 days personal/carers leave, both paid and unpaid, for purposes such as family and domestic violence, menopause or gender affirmation.
• Covered bicycle parking and six charging outlets for E-bikes and E-scooters.
• Private prayer room available for use by all faiths

Investing in your growth is key to our success:

• Paid study time and financial support with course fees and materials.
• Relocation assistance for new employees to move to Canberra.
• Be recognised through access to our reward and recognition programs.
• Browse one of the most comprehensive collections of geoscientific information in the Southern Hemisphere at the N.H. (Doc) Fisher Geoscience Library.

Read our Enterprise Agreement to learn more.