General Manager Infrastructure and Environmental Services

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) is one of the largest volunteer-based emergency services organisations in the world, with over 54,000 volunteers protecting lives and property across Victoria. CFA operates across 1,200 buildings, a fleet of 2,360 plus fire appliances, and a logistics and equipment network that underpins the operational readiness of brigades from metropolitan fringe to remote rural Victoria.

Following significant fire service reform and a recent $148 million government investment commitment, CFA is in a period of genuine renewal – modernising its infrastructure, accelerating fleet replacement, and embedding environmental sustainability across its asset base. This is an organisation with deep community roots, a powerful brand, and a mandate to become more contemporary in how it plans, manages, and renews the assets its volunteers depend on.

Reporting to the CEO, the General Manager Infrastructure and Environmental Services will lead one of CFA's most consequential portfolios – spanning fleet, land and buildings, protective equipment and clothing, state logistics, and environmental services. With a capital program exceeding $60 million per annum and a significant pipeline of new fire stations, truck procurement, and environmental remediation, this is a role of genuine strategic weight.

The General Manager will refresh CFA's whole-of-life asset plans, drive investment cases to government, and scale the fleet renewal program. Across a property portfolio of 14 stations under construction and a further 10 in planning, as well as sustainability programs spanning 1,200 buildings, the scope is substantial.

The General Manager will also lead statutory consultation with Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria, engage with key government agencies, and provide executive-level intelligence to the CEO and Board – including in a politically active environment ahead of a state election. Leading a large team, this role demands credibility across the full spectrum of the organisation – from ministerial briefings to workshop floor.

You are a senior infrastructure leader with deep experience in either fleet management or built infrastructure – ideally with meaningful exposure to both. Your background may span emergency services, utilities, defence, local government, or another large-scale asset-intensive environment. Critically, you understand how to operate in, or alongside, government: you are politically literate, comfortable providing ministerial briefings at short notice, and attuned to the reputational sensitivities that come with a high-profile public agency.

You are as comfortable engaging mechanics in a regional workshop as you are presenting to a board or a minister's adviser – and your credibility at both ends of that spectrum is genuine, not performative. You lead through relationships. You bring the strategic capability to shape long-term asset investment plans and the operational discipline to deliver complex procurement programs under real constraints. Please note the successful candidate will be required to hold a valid Employee Working with Childrens Check (WWCC).

For more information prior to application you can view the position description or please contact Evan Willen at SHK via email on evan.willen@shk.com.au, quoting reference 3607781. Direct and third-party applications will be forwarded to SHK.