About the role

Are you a leader who loves bringing teams together? Do you get energy from turning big ideas into great experiences – and from backing others to do their best work?

UQ Union are looking for a Head of Student Engagement & Activities (SEA) to lead UQU’s core student experience portfolio – clubs and societies, events, campus life, satellite campuses, student engagement, and Student Advocacy & Support (SAS).

Working closely with the student executive leadership, you’ll help shape and lead delivery of an integrated SEA strategy that turns student leaders’ vision into well-run services and engagement. You’ll be a key point of triage for the student executive and represent SEA in forums and working groups across the University.

You’ll lead a team of five function leaders – the Senior C&S Coordinator, Gatton Student Engagement Manager, Senior Events Coordinator, Student Engagement & Communications Coordinator and SAS Manager – setting goals, managing performance and building their capability to lead their own teams well, while staying close enough to the work to provide genuine, hands-on support.

Behind the scenes, you’ll design and embed fit-for-purpose risk and compliance frameworks, provide data, analysis and business cases to help student leaders make informed decisions, and support the phased rollout of SAS’s Future State Service Model.

You’ll be successful in this role if you’re strategically minded but hands-on, calm and steady under pressure, and genuinely believe that a well-led team is what allows students to be heard, supported and set up to thrive.

This is a fixed term contract opportunity until December 2027.

About you

• Extensive senior leadership experience (8+ years) in student engagement, tertiary education or a related field, including budget management and leading multiple teams
• Experience designing and embedding risk and compliance frameworks across multiple functions
• Strong strategic and program management skills, with the ability to turn strategy into practical delivery
• Experience leading or partnering on service transformation, ideally including welfare, advocacy or specialist support services
• Trauma-informed capability, with sound judgement in supporting staff and students through sensitive situations
• Skilled at building trust and influence across a wide range of stakeholders, including elected student leaders
• A tertiary qualification in Business, Event Management, Community Development or a related discipline, and/or equivalent experience (postgraduate qualifications highly regarded)
• Experience working in a university, student union or not-for-profit setting (highly regarded)
• Current open driver’s licence and a current Blue Card (or the ability to obtain one)

About the University of Queensland Union (UQU) 

UQU has been the heart of student life since their founding, led by students, for students. What began as a collective of passionate individuals has grown into a dynamic organisation representing more than 60,000 students across UQ’s campuses.

They are the spark behind campus’s most unforgettable moments, festivals, advocacy campaigns, clubs and societies, and are there when students need us most, through free meals and Student Advocacy & Support services that look after their wellbeing.

Every club they support, every voice they amplify, every event they bring to life, they do it to empower students to get the most from their university journey.