Australia's DTO hunts for top local talent

Australia's Digital Transformation Office has put out a call for the country's best technology talent, continuing an aggressive hiring spree that has so far seen the new organisation pilfer from the ranks of the UK government.

The DTO today said it was looking to bring on around 20 developers, designers, researchers and product managers to help "accelerate the pace of digital transformation" across the federal government.

It is open to recruiting both "exceptional" graduates and experienced professionals. A passion to deliver easy-to-use and simple online public services is a must, it said.

“Government services don’t face competition in the traditional sense but that doesn’t mean they should be immune from the disruptive technologies that are having an impact right across the economy," Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a statement.

“The DTO needs to adopt an agile, start-up-like culture so it’s important that we recruit people with the right mix of skills and attitude to speed up the transformation of government services."

The office will co-locate a small team within the University of Technology Sydney to help with its hiring spree, and interested parties can apply through the DTO website.

The office has been on an aggressive recruitment drive since its January launch, snagging a number of high-profile employees from the UK Government Digital Service, on which the DTO is modelled.

It managed to lure ‘boy wonder civil servant’ Jordan Hatch and head of user research Leisa Reichelt, alongside former GDS head Paul Shetler.

The DTO - housed within the Department of Communications - is responsible for customer-facing digital service delivery in the federal government.

Turnbull has previously signalled a headcount of around 100 for the office, dependent on its workload. 

The office's remit is to champion end-to-end digital service delivery by government.

Chief among its tasks will be to establishe a single “digital identity” that citizens can use to transact with any government agency, as well as a ‘tell-us-once’ capability for user information sharing across government agencies.