Care Connect is building something ambitious — a strong, directly employed care workforce delivering personal care, domestic assistance and social support to people living at home across Australia.

As our Direct Care services continue to grow, we are seeking an experienced operational leader who can move beyond day-to-day management to help shape how Direct Care operates, performs and scales into the future.

This is a pivotal leadership role within Service Delivery.

About Care Connect

Care Connect is one of Australia’s leading not-for-profit home care specialists, supporting people to live happily at home for life. Since 1994, we’ve partnered with tens of thousands of Australians, delivering personalised supports that enable confidence, connection and purpose.

Our work is guided by our CARE values — Collaboration & Courage, Authenticity, Respect and Excellence — and a genuine commitment to putting clients first. This is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact in a sector undergoing significant transformation

We are evolving our service delivery model by strengthening our internal workforce alongside trusted external partners — creating a sustainable, high-quality national care model.

The Direct Care Lead will play a central role in advancing this vision.

About the Role

Reporting to the Head of Service Delivery, the Direct Care Lead is responsible for the performance, sustainability and future development of Care Connect’s directly employed support worker workforce.

You will lead a growing team of Care Workers delivering domestic assistance, personal care and social support services — while also stepping back to understand how the system operates as a whole.

This role is not just about managing operations.

It is about understanding what works, identifying inefficiencies and helping design a Direct Care program capable of sustainable growth and improved financial performance.

You will:

• Provide strong operational leadership across Direct Care delivery
• Develop a deep understanding of workforce utilisation, constraints and opportunities
• Identify operational blind spots and implement practical business improvements
• Strengthen workforce engagement, retention and capability
• Support the scaling of Direct Care services across programs and geographies
• Translate organisational strategy into operational reality
• Work in close partnership with the Clinical Lead to integrate operational and clinical leadership, ensuring Direct Care delivery remains safe, sustainable and clinically informed as services scale.

This role enables the organisation to grow Direct Care thoughtfully — balancing quality, workforce wellbeing and commercial sustainability.

What success looks like

Success in this role will include developing a deep understanding of Direct Care operations, improving workforce utilisation and engagement, strengthening operational performance, and helping position Direct Care as a sustainable and scalable service stream within Care Connect’s future model of care.

Why This Role Matters

Direct Care is a key strategic priority for Care Connect.

We are building a national workforce model that complements our partner network and strengthens internal capability.

The Direct Care Lead will help:

• Move Direct Care from rapid growth to operational maturity
• Improve efficiency, utilisation and performance
• Support the transition of services to internally delivered care
• Establish the foundations for future scale and profitability

You will play a significant role in shaping how Care Connect delivers services in the years ahead.

About You

You are an operational leader who enjoys understanding how systems really work.

You combine people leadership with a business improvement mindset and are comfortable working both strategically and practically.

You are likely someone who:

• Has led a community care, home care or service workforce
• Understands the realities of frontline support work
• Can quickly identify inefficiencies and improvement opportunities
• Thinks commercially while maintaining strong client outcomes
• Enjoys solving complex operational problems
• Builds strong relationships across teams and functions
• Thrives working collaboratively with lateral leaders, including clinical leadership

You are equally comfortable supporting frontline teams and contributing to enterprise-level thinking.

Key Capabilities

• Leadership of large or distributed service teams
• Experience managing or scaling a workforce delivering in-home services
• Strong operational and business improvement capability
• Understanding of workforce utilisation, rostering and service delivery efficiency
• Commercial awareness and financial literacy
• Change leadership and continuous improvement experience
• Ability to identify system risks, constraints and growth opportunities
• Collaborative leadership style with strong stakeholder engagement
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Management or Commerce or

Certificate IV in Leadership and Management (desirable)

• Tertiary qualifications in Health, Aged Care, Community Services, Nursing, Allied Health, or Business/Management and/or Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (or equivalent) highly regarded, particularly in relation to internal workforce capability development

Experience within aged care, disability or community services environments will be highly regarded.

To be considered for this role you must have full Australian working rights, current Police & Working with Children Checks – we can arrange police checks for successful candidates. Our selection process also includes psychometric assessment. 

What We Offer

• Opportunity to lead a strategically important service stream
• Genuine influence over how Direct Care evolves nationally
• Flexible working arrangements, including WFH / hybrid
• Not-for-profit salary packaging benefits
• Supportive and values-driven culture
• Professional growth within a senior leadership team
• Health & wellbeing supporting with an Employee Assistance program, discounted health insurance & wellbeing products and a free Flu vaccination program

Ready to Apply?

If you are passionate about improving how services operate — and want to lead the next phase of Direct Care growth at Care Connect — we would love to hear from you.

Click Apply Now & attach your current resume & a cover letter outlining how you meet the criteria for this role – we will keep you updated on the outcome of your application. If you have any questions, would like to request a position description or to arrange a confidential chat, please contact Karen Hemsley – Talent Acquisition Lead at: careers@careconnect.org.au.

We understand the benefits that a diverse workforce brings to our diverse community of clients. Care Connect is an inclusive, Equal Opportunity employer. We encourage applications from all members of the community including: First Nations peoples, people with culturally & linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTQI+, mature aged and people living with disability.