Chief of Staff Principal

As a Chief of Staff - Principal, you play a critical role in shaping and influencing the operating rhythm and meeting cadence of the senior leadership team to This role is a secondment until March 2027 (Maternity leave cover). As the facilitator of the NPT SLT, the Chief of Staff plays a critical role in enabling high‑quality decision‑making, performance management, and strategic planning. The role draws on deep experience in complex matrixed environments, strong commercial and technology acumen, and the ability to lean into ambiguity to drive clarity and outcomes.

Key Accountabilities

• Act as a strategic extension of the Group Executive, Network, Product and Technology, shaping direction, surfacing risks and opportunities, and ensuring alignment between strategy, priorities, and execution across the NPT portfolio.

• Ensure Network, Product and Technology shows up as a confident, credible, and values‑led leader, shaping whole‑of‑Telstra outcomes through strong executive presence, clear technology narratives, role‑modelled behaviours, and active contribution to enterprise priorities beyond NPT.

• Connect the dots across Telstra to identify systemic issues, dependencies, and performance constraints, and drive solutions. Orchestrate discussions to ensure NPT strategies are coherent, mutually reinforcing, and aligned to enterprise architecture, investment guardrails, and delivery capacity.

• Proactively identify and address complex delivery, performance, and capability challenges, working with leaders to unblock issues, resolve tensions, and course‑correct where outcomes are at risk.

• Champion transformation across Network, Product and Technology by embedding a strong product and engineering mindset, including the consistent adoption of modern software engineering practices, TRAM, and outcome‑based planning and measurement.

• Build and sustain a high‑performing Network, Product and Technology Senior Leadership Team, fostering strong collective ownership, trust, and effectiveness.

• Influence the conditions for high employee engagement (EES) across NPT driving sustained performance across NPT.

• Design and maintain a high‑impact operating rhythm for the NPT Senior Leadership Team that enables rigorous performance management, transparent decision‑making, and disciplined follow‑through.

• Lead priority strategic initiatives on behalf of the Group Executive, Network, Product and Technology, ensuring benefits are realised and sustained, not just delivered.

• Provide clear, compelling executive narratives that synthesise complex information into insights, decisions, and actions for senior leaders, the Board, and enterprise stakeholders.

The Ideal Experience

• Proven experience in a senior strategic role, preferably within a large, complex organization.

• High comfort operating in ambiguity and navigating complex stakeholder environments.

• Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with the ability to influence and engage at all levels of the organization.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, coupled with a keen attention to detail.

• A track record of successfully managing and executing large-scale projects and initiatives.