Position Details
Evaluation Manager (EL1)
Child and Family Evidence and Evaluation
Ongoing/Non-ongoing - Full-time/Part-time
Based in Melbourne, VIC
We are seeking a highly motivated individual with demonstrated skills and experience in leading evaluation projects. If you have experience in conducting evaluations, capability building, design and delivery, this might be the role for you.
About us
The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS, or ‘the Institute’) is the Australian Government's key research body in the area of family wellbeing. It is an independent statutory authority established in 1980 under the Family Law Act 1975. It is also home to the Australian Gambling Research Centre (AGRC), established under the Gambling Measures Act 2012 which builds the evidence base on gambling-related harm. The Institute is an agency within the portfolio of the Department of Social Services (DSS).
Our mission is to conduct high-quality, impartial research into the wellbeing of Australian families, to inform government policy and promote evidence-based practice in the family services sector. We conduct research, provide independent advice and communicate findings to government policymakers, service providers, researchers and the community about factors affecting family wellbeing. Through our research, we contribute to developing policy and practice to promote the wellbeing of families in Australia.
Our team
The Child and Family Evidence program at AIFS synthesises and translates evidence for decision-making in service settings about what works for children and families and supports practitioners to build their individual and organisational capability to use evidence in practice and undertake program and service evaluations.
The Evidence and Evaluation Support (EES) team leads on a range of evaluation functions within AIFS. These include:
- Working with Families and Children Activity providers to build their capability to use evidence in their practice
- Working with child and family services to build evaluation readiness and to design and implement monitoring and evaluation activities
- Working with other commonwealth or state and territory government agencies to deliver program, system and service evaluations and reviews.
Position Requirements
The Evaluation Manager in the EES team will contribute to a variety of evaluation capability building, research and/or evaluation tasks. These include:
- Evaluation capacity building and stakeholder engagement: supporting child and family service providers to use evidence and evaluation in their program delivery and undertaking high-quality research and evaluation projects focusing on a range of issues relevant to child and family wellbeing and/or policy design and delivery.
- Program evaluation: leading the design, implementation, and management of evaluation frameworks and processes across projects and programs
- Knowledge translation tasks including literature searches, synthesising existing research and the writing and preparation of publications, reports, short articles, webinars and other materials.
This role requires skills and experience in evaluation methods and evaluation capability building. Subject matter experience in one or more topic areas relevant to AIFS projects (for example child and family services, community development, domestic and family violence, family policy) is also preferred.
Position duties
Under the direction of the Senior Manager, Child and Family Evidence this role involves a lead contribution to several elements of the work delivered by the EES team, including:
· Leading evaluation projects, including maintaining project management, maintaining project records, drafting reports and overseeing updates to website and newsletter content.
· Developing theory of change and program logics, evaluation frameworks, data collection instruments, ethics applications and other monitoring and evaluation materials as needed.
· Undertaking research data collection and analysis
· Developing high quality evaluation reports and other deliverables
· Leading high-quality research synthesises and communicating the findings through the writing and preparation of publications, reports, short articles and other materials.
· Providing support to child and family services to encourage good evaluation practice and the use of evidence-informed programs and practices.
· Developing tools, resources and other capability building activities to assist sector professionals to build their capability to undertake evaluation and/or develop and implement evidence-informed programs and practices.
· Building and maintaining productive stakeholder relationships and contributing to other core research and dissemination functions at the Institute.
· Collaborating with the AIFS Privacy Team to incorporate privacy practices into work undertaken within the team.
Key to this role is a sound understanding of both the needs of the child and family sector and demonstrated experience in evaluation capability building, design and delivery.
Key Selection Criteria
· Professional expertise
· Delivering on objectives and achieving results
· Stakeholder management
· Communication skills
· Leadership and management
· Values and understanding our organisation
For a comprehensive overview of the selection criteria, please see the Position Description for more information.
Position Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible for engagement, applicants must be Australian citizens unless special approval is provided in exceptional circumstances. For example, applicants with permanent resident status who have applied for Australian citizenship may be considered for engagement.
Conditions of engagement including probation, health and character clearances (including police records check, Working with Children Check and security clearance) may apply to this position.
Terms
The Evaluation Manager position may be offered as a full-time or part-time, ongoing or non-ongoing role at the EL1 level. This will be with a salary range of between $116,973 to $129,176 depending on the skills and experience of the successful candidate, plus 15.4% superannuation. Our salaries and conditions of employment are set out in our Enterprise Agreement.
Position notes
AIFS is committed to providing an inclusive and diverse workplace. We encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disability, mature age people, those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, and people with parenting and/or caring responsibilities.
We provide a collaborative and family-friendly work environment that supports the wellbeing and professional development of our diverse workforce. Benefits include workplace health and wellbeing initiatives and events, a hybrid flexible work arrangement policy, a good health promotion allowance and Christmas closedown period with no deduction from leave credits.
Contact: Human Resources
Contact Phone: 03 9214 7888
Contact Email:
Details of how to apply:
Application information
Please visit: https://aifs.gov.au/main/work-with-us for full application requirements.
For your application to be considered, please:
1. Complete the Application Form.
2. Submit your resume and a cover letter (maximum 2 pages) addressing the selection criteria as outlined on the Position Description.
Applications for this position close at 11.59 PM on 10 November 2025.
Deadline: 10 November 2025