AGD joins Canberra's great CIO hunt

The Attorney-General’s Department has become the latest federal agency to take advantage of the end of a two-year hiring freeze and advertise for a new CIO to head its $18 million-a-year IT division.

iTnews understands the department is looking to make a permanent appointment to the role, which has been held by Joann Corcoran for two years in an acting capacity. AGD has declined to comment on matters pertaining to individual employees.

The federal public service is currently engaged in a frenzy of executive reshuffling after the May budget revealed a defacto hiring freeze imposed by the Abbott government would lift, allowing agencies to recruit from outside the APS for the first time in two years.

The AGD joins the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and overseas spy agency ASIS in the hunt for new heads of IT.

The Immigration department is similarly looking for a new CIO after Matt Yannopoulos joined the Department of Health in the same position, as is the Crime Commission, which will replace Maria Milosavljevic following her departure to AUSTRAC.

Joann Corcoran had been in charge of IT for the AGD since 2013 as a result of the departure of former CIO Jane Bailey.

The AGD’s information division employs 80 staff and recently grew its remit with the merger of the Australian Government Solicitor into the department.

The CIO job ad flags that “maximising synergies between the existing AGD ICT platform and the incoming AGS ICT platform” will be one of the new IT chief's first priorities.

The division is also responsible for the IT needs of the AGD shared services centre, which will take on the back office functions of six Canberra arts agencies and the National Archives under the government’s ‘smaller government’ campaign.

AGD is looking for candidates with a “track record of leading a significant and complex business or government technology related organisation through innovative change and reform".