_{03rd September, 2026}

Chief Operating Officer Red Nose Australia Melbourne (Hawthorn, hybrid) | Full-time | Executive leadership role reporting to the CEO

Save little lives. Support grieving families. Lead the corporate engine that makes it all possible.

For close to fifty years, Red Nose has stood alongside Australian families through pregnancy, baby and child loss, while leading national baby safe sleep and safer pregnancy education, helping reduce sudden infant death by more than 85 per cent since the 1980s. Today Red Nose supports thousands of families each year through 24/7 grief and bereavement services, prevention and education while funding and translating world-class research, and raising awareness through the much-loved Red Nose Day. Following its merger with Sands Australia, Red Nose is now the national voice for families experiencing pregnancy loss, stillbirth, and the death of a baby or child.

Under strong and collaborative Executive leadership, Red Nose has entered its next chapter, with a refreshed strategy, a stronger financial platform and accreditation to National Safety & Quality Health Standards. With a warm, values-led team culture, Red Nose is now looking for a new Chief Operating Officer to build on this foundation and drive the organisation forward.

The role

Reporting directly to the CEO, and working closely with the Board, key Committees, and the Executive leadership team, the COO is Red Nose's senior leader for corporate operations and a key enterprise partner to the CEO.  This is a broad, hands-on executive role, combining strategic leadership with direct responsibility for the corporate functions that underpin Red Nose’s work, including financial performance, operationalising strategy, risk, legal and compliance, IT, facilities, contracts, grants and commercial arrangements, and quality and safety. You will be a genuine 2IC partner to the CEO, a trusted peer to the Executive team, and a visible cultural leader across a nationally distributed workforce of over 100 people, supported by a significant volunteer community.

You will:

• Partner with the Board, CEO and Executive on Red Nose’s forward strategic direction and operationalise strategy across the workforce
• Lead operational performance and continuous improvement across Red Nose, working across teams to simplify systems and processes, solve operational issues and strengthen the way the organisation works
• Contribute a commercial lens to revenue diversification, including further developing Red Nose's social enterprise activity 
• Lead the development, monitoring and oversight of financial performance, planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting - stewarding cash flow, reserves, investment and long-term financial sustainability
• Take confident carriage of governance and Board reporting across finance, risk, compliance and operations
• Strengthen and embed the organisation-wide risk management framework - legal, regulatory, WHS, privacy, child safety and cyber security
• Oversee contracts, grants, leases, commercial partnerships and funder relationships, ensuring every dollar is stewarded well and obligations met
• Lead technology strategy, digital enablement and thoughtful adoption of AI to lift efficiency and reach
• Champion a values-based, high-trust culture, one that reads the room, holds the harder conversations well, and pairs heart with operational rigour

What you'll bring

• CA or CPA qualification, with senior leadership experience in finance, compliance and operations (genuine equivalent finance leadership experience will be considered for an exceptional candidate)
• Deep understanding of organisational risk, governance and regulatory frameworks — including ACNC, ASIC, ATO, WHS, privacy, child safety and funding-body compliance
• Demonstrated experience in contracts, grants and funder-reporting environments
• Strategic and operational leadership capability, with the willingness and ability to remain hands-on, equally comfortable advising the CEO and Board, leading the team and getting into the detail when required
• Advanced governance and Board reporting skills, and the credibility to sit alongside a skills-based Board
• A commercially savvy, systems-minded approach to simplification, continuous improvement and organisational change
• The warmth, self-awareness and emotional intelligence to lead well in an organisation whose people carry significant lived experience of pregnancy, baby and child loss

Not-for-profit sector experience is highly regarded but not essential. Candidates from commercial or government backgrounds are warmly welcomed, provided you arrive clear-eyed about the pace, resource constraints and cultural sensitivity of the not-for-profit environment.

Who will thrive here

The person who will do this role well is strategically minded, commercially astute and financially disciplined — but leads with heart. They read the room. They are comfortable working across the organisation as a genuine 2IC leader. They know when to accelerate and when to hold. They enjoy building sustainable systems, empowering their team, and finding better ways of doing things. And they see this role for what it is – a long game, with the stamina, humility and commitment to see the work through.

What's on offer

• Competitive not-for-profit executive remuneration, plus superannuation and salary packaging (a tax-effective benefit that meaningfully lifts take-home pay for eligible charity employees)
• A genuine executive leadership role with direct Board exposure and a real 2IC partnership with the CEO
• Warm, values-led culture with a collaborative, empowering Executive team
• Hawthorn-based head office with a Wednesday team day and hybrid rhythm
• The opportunity to bring commercial rigour and operational lift to a much-loved national charity at an exciting moment in its story, as Red Nose prepares to mark its 50th anniversary of serving the Australian community

How to apply

This search is being managed exclusively by Brooker Consulting on behalf of Red Nose Australia. Applications close Sunday 27 September 2026 at 11:59 pm AEST.

If you have any specific questions after reading the full Candidate Information Pack, please TEXT Rebecca Perrone to book a time to chat on 0429 381 277

Applications should include a cover letter addressing the role and a current CV, submitted online or directly to Brooker Consulting.

Red Nose and Brooker Consulting are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, and welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds — including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with disability, people of all ages and genders, and LGBTIQA+ people.

If you or someone you know needs support, Red Nose is here for you — 24/7 Grief & Bereavement Support Line 1300 308 307 | Safe Sleep Advice Line 1300 998 698 | rednose.org.au

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