Committees Officer

Every research project involving people at Queensland University of Technology starts in front of a committee. The University Human Research Ethics Committee meets monthly, working through applications, variations, progress reports, complaints and adverse events against the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2023. Next to it sit the University Animal Ethics Committee and the University Biosafety Committee, each with its own statutory obligations and approval cycle. None of them run themselves, which is why QUT has opened an ongoing, full-time Committees Officer position (reference number 26514) in its Office of Research Ethics and Integrity.

The role is based at the Kelvin Grove campus with a hybrid option, and applications close at 11.30pm on 30 October 2026. It's advertised at Higher Education Worker Level 7, which most Australian university staff would recognise by its acronym HEW7. The total package runs from $122,852 to $134,385 a year; that figure includes a base salary of $103,811 to $113,557, 17 per cent superannuation and 17.5 per cent recreation leave loading.

What the Committees Officer actually does

The formal duty is secretarial services. In practice, the officer drives the agenda and minutes for four streams: the University Biosafety Committee, the University Animal Ethics Committee, the University Human Research Ethics Committee, and the Vice-Chancellor and President management committees served by OREI. The job description is blunt about the demands — agendas, submissions, minutes and correspondence prepared to specified standards and to strict deadlines; briefing notes compiled for chairpersons; committee business coordinated across senior officers and academic staff; and past decisions and current policy retrieved and explained to anyone who asks. On paper, the role reports to the Manager, Research Ethics and Integrity within OREI, which sits inside QUT's Research Portfolio. OREI's broader remit is education, guidance, process and advice for research ethics, biosafety and responsible research practice — the unit that tells researchers how to get approved, rather than only whether they're approved. The officer is one of the people who turns that remit into functioning meetings.

The base rate for all of this is rhythm. A monthly committee has a closed agenda, a set document deadline and a meeting date that doesn't move. Review bodies run on fixed cycles; the exception is an urgent item that qualifies for a decision between meetings under Council Procedure 1. A colleague — call her Dr. M — watched a biosafety variation for genetically modified material sit unprocessed for the better part of three weeks because the paperwork landed a day after the packet for the next meeting closed. She didn't need a policy change. She needed a committees officer who could tell her, on the first phone call, which pathway the variation qualified for and what the chair would want to see. That judgement — which item goes to the full committee, which can proceed out of session — is a large part of what this role is for.

What QUT is asking for

The selection criteria are more specific than the usual administrative list, which tells you something about where the work sits. QUT wants education, training or experience equivalent to a degree plus relevant work experience; not just a qualification, but evidence that the candidate has actually drafted complex correspondence, reports, meeting agendas and minutes with a high degree of accuracy.

• Demonstrated experience servicing committees, drafting policy and procedures, and preparing briefing papers at a senior level, with an understanding of the governance context committees operate in.
• Advanced written communication skills and an eye for accurate records — minutes are the official record of a committee's decisions.
• Highly developed interpersonal skills for working with senior officers while maintaining confidentiality.
• The ability to absorb short-notice demands and unexpected challenges, work under pressure with minimal supervision, and still produce accurate work.
• A demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity and Indigenous Australian engagement.

Experience supporting university ethics, animal ethics, biosafety or similar committees is highly regarded. It isn't a gate, though. Candidates with strong committee secretariat, governance or administrative support backgrounds are encouraged to apply, including those who can show how they'd improve processes with emerging tools such as artificial intelligence.

Why the governance context is the hard part

QUT's review bodies sit inside a layered compliance stack. The University's Monitoring of Approved Research Policy says the University Review Bodies must operate consistently with the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research 2018, the National Statement, the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes 2013 (updated 2021) and the Gene Technology Act 2000. A committees officer isn't a lawyer, but the role's value comes from knowing which of those instruments governs a given submission before it goes anywhere.

The National Statement was revised in July 2023 and took effect on 1 January 2024, according to the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care notice. The update reshaped Chapter 2.1, moving risk assessment from a three-level model — greater than low risk, low risk, negligible risk — to a continuum from high to minimal, split into higher and lower risk categories. Section 5 followed with new review pathways, clearer guidance on exemption from ethics review and updated requirements for HREC membership diversity. For QUT, that means the University Human Research Ethics Committee Charter now specifies a minimum of eight members, at least a third of whom are external, including lay members, a lawyer, a pastoral care role and a requirement for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander expertise where Indigenous studies are reviewed.

What the officer tracks is quorum, composition, documentation and confidentiality — a meeting with the wrong mix of members cannot properly transact business. Minutes must record enough of the discussion to document reasons for a decision. Under QUT's Committee Governance Policy, committee records are high-value records, and the secretary of each committee is responsible for registering and retaining them in the corporate records system. None of it is glamorous. It is the condition on which researchers get approval to start.

Pay, conditions and where it sits in the market

At HEW7, the base band of $103,811 to $113,557 puts this role in the professional-staff middle, above typical HEW5 coordinator work and below senior manager classifications. Western Sydney University advertises a governance officer at HEW5 with a base of $85,778 to $97,006; QUT's HEW7 sits two levels above that. At the top of the queue, ANU lists a University Executive Committee Secretary at Senior Manager 1 with a package of $141,637 to $148,403 plus 17 per cent super — a step up in classification and scope, not a lateral move.

QUT's package includes 17 per cent superannuation, 17.5 per cent recreation leave loading, primary carer parental leave of up to 26 weeks, a purchased leave scheme of up to eight extra weeks, salary packaging, Fitness Passport and private health insurance discounts. The appointment is ongoing and full-time at Kelvin Grove, with hybrid arrangements available. The full position description is published by QUT.

What this means for your application

QUT asks for a current resume and encourages a written response to the selection criteria. At HEW7, assessors usually score each criterion against specifics, so a claim without an example does less work than a plain sentence. For the written communication criterion, don't write "I've taken minutes." Name the committee, the number of papers per cycle, the turnaround time and who you briefed. For the confidentiality criterion, give the scenario — a member declaring a conflict before an item, or an excluded member waiting outside while a matter was discussed — that shows you know the difference between discretion and process.

If you're coming from outside a university, translate your committee work into QUT's terms. Does your current role service a board, a safety committee, a clinical governance group or a compliance panel? Make the agenda, the minutes and the decision register visible — they are the portable evidence. QUT is explicit that it wants someone who can respond quickly to short-notice demands. That means giving a concrete example of when you re-sequenced a committee's business under pressure and what the outcome was.

The contact for the position is Dr Sarah Van-Eyk, Manager, Research Ethics and Integrity, on (07) 3138 0704. Human Resources is on (07) 3138 5000 for working-at-QUT queries, and the position description is attached to the vacancy.

Before you draft anything, call Dr Van-Eyk and ask two questions: which committee has the busiest meeting cycle right now, and what a typical packet looks like in the busiest month. The answers tell you what your first six weeks will look like. Then submit through qut.edu.au/careers using reference number 26514 before 11.30pm on 30 October 2026. Leave enough time for the QUT online application system to accept your documents, because the close is firm.