NSW Government Jobs by Grade: What 15,652 Ads Show

The middle of the market had the most opportunity

One of the clearest patterns was where the volume of jobs sat.

Opportunity did not simply fall away as salaries increased.

There were 1,854 advertisements around Grade 5/6 pay, but that increased sharply to 2,662 around Grade 7/8 and then 2,798 around Grade 9/10.

It was only after that point that the market became significantly smaller, with 948 advertisements around Grade 11/12 salaries.

For experienced professional job seekers, that matters. The data suggests there is a particularly deep part of the NSW Government employment market between roughly $117,000 and $147,000.

That does not mean everyone should target those salaries. Your level still needs to match the work you can demonstrate. But applicants with the right experience should not assume that moving into a higher-paying government role automatically means searching within a tiny pool of vacancies.

The job titles change noticeably as the salary goes up

The data also gives us a useful picture of how the language of government jobs changes as responsibility increases.

At entry level, recurring general job titles included Administrative Assistant, Registry Officer, Client Service Officer, Customer Service Representative and Field Officer.

Around Grade 5/6, the market starts to shift towards coordination, project support and more independent service delivery. Assistant Project Officer was a particularly common general-government title, alongside executive support, operations and service-delivery positions.

At Grade 7/8, Project Officer becomes much more prominent. Policy, business analysis, executive support and operational roles also appear regularly.

By Grade 9/10, the word Senior starts appearing much more often. Common titles outside the large Health and Education professional workforces included Senior Project Officer, Senior Policy Officer, Senior Business Analyst, Senior Legal Officer and Senior Data Analyst.

At Grade 11/12, the language becomes less consistent again. Titles such as Principal, Lead, Manager, Associate Director and senior project titles can all appear around similar salary levels.

That changing language matters when you set up job alerts. A person who searches only for the title they already know can miss roles requiring very similar experience under a different title.

Project work shows one of the clearest career progressions

Project roles were one of the most visible general-government job families in the dataset.

You can see a broad progression through titles such as:

Assistant Project Officer → Project Officer → Senior Project Officer → Principal / Lead / Manager

This is not a formal career ladder and agencies do not use every title consistently. But it is useful for understanding how the market changes.

An applicant coming from the private sector may search for “Project Manager” because that is their current title. In government, however, some highly relevant roles may be advertised as Project Officer or Senior Project Officer instead.

The better question is not simply, “What is the government equivalent of my current job title?”

It is: “What level of work can I demonstrate?”

Look at the complexity of the projects you have delivered, the stakeholders you have managed, the decisions you have made, your independence and the scale of the outcomes. Those factors are often much more useful for deciding where you fit than the title on your current business card.

Grade 9/10 was the biggest part of the market we analysed

The Grade 9/10 salary range contained 2,798 advertisements, making it the largest of the five main groups.

Health contributed significantly to this number through medical trainee and other professional classifications. But the result was not simply being driven by Health and Education. We still found 675 advertisements outside those two sectors.

For experienced professional applicants, that broader market included recurring opportunities across projects, policy, business analysis, legal and data work.

It means an applicant with strong professional experience may have considerably more options around the $133,000 to $147,000 range than they realise.

But the search strategy matters.

If you only search “Grade 9/10”, you may miss a role where the grade is expressed differently or where another award applies. Search the work as well: projects, policy, data, analysis, governance, operations, regulation, transformation or whatever function aligns with your experience.

Grade 7/8 had a particularly broad project and professional market

There were 2,662 advertisements around Grade 7/8 salary levels.

Health and Education again accounted for a large proportion through their own professional workforces, but another 520 roles came from other agencies.

Project Officer was one of the clearest recurring titles in that group, alongside roles in policy, business analysis, executive support and operations.

This can be an especially important part of the market for applicants moving into NSW Government from private business, local government, universities, charities or other sectors.

Previous NSW Government experience is not automatically required. What matters is whether you can demonstrate the level of work the role needs: independent judgement, stakeholder management, problem solving, delivery and accountability for outcomes.

Regional applicants have more choice at lower and middle levels

Location produced another useful pattern.

At the combined Grade 1/2 and Grade 3/4 salary levels, about 52 per cent of the broader entry-level group was outside Greater Sydney.

And these were not simply office administration jobs.

Regional advertisements included registry services, justice operations, customer service, corrections, ranger and field work. Health also created a substantial range of administration, nursing, allied health and technical opportunities across NSW.

Around Grade 5/6, the general-government market remained relatively balanced. Among the 436 roles outside Health and Education, Greater Sydney and other NSW locations were almost evenly represented.

That gives regional applicants a reasonably broad search at lower and middle levels, particularly across administration, customer service, project support, operations, casework, field work and service delivery.

Senior jobs became increasingly concentrated in Sydney

The location picture changes as salaries and seniority increase.

About two-thirds of the other-agency Grade 7/8 group was in Greater Sydney.

That rose to more than 70 per cent around Grade 9/10 and more than 75 per cent around Grade 11/12.

Regional senior jobs absolutely still exist. But there are fewer of them, which means applicants outside Sydney may need a different search strategy.

It is worth watching for statewide, flexible and multi-location advertisements, particularly at Grade 9/10. Do not necessarily dismiss an advertisement based on the location shown in the search result either. The full advertisement may list several office locations or more flexible arrangements.

For someone trying to progress without relocating, broadening the search terms can therefore be just as important as broadening the job titles.

The market becomes much smaller above Grade 9/10

Another important finding is what happens once you move beyond Grade 9/10.

The dataset contained 2,798 advertisements around Grade 9/10 pay, but only 948 around Grade 11/12.

That is a substantial reduction in the number of opportunities available.

Outside Health and Education, we identified 358 Grade 11/12-level roles across other agencies. Common language included Principal, Lead, Manager, Associate Director and senior project titles.

This is where reading the actual role becomes increasingly important.

Two positions with “Manager” in the title may involve completely different levels of authority. A Principal role may have more organisational influence than another role called Director. A Senior Project Officer in one part of government may manage work of similar complexity to a differently titled role elsewhere.

At this level, look beyond the title and assess:

• the size and complexity of the work;
• the decisions the role can make;
• the seniority of the stakeholders it influences;
• whether it leads people, programs or major initiatives;
• the reporting line; and
• the organisational or community outcomes it is accountable for.

Your application examples then need to demonstrate work at that same scale.

“Director” does not tell you the level of the job

The Director titles in the dataset reinforce this point.

We found 221 advertisements with Director in the title. Health accounted for 99 of them.

Among the 167 Director advertisements where there was usable salary information, 80 paid above the normal Grade 11/12 range, while 57 sat relatively close to it.

Director was used across medical, nursing, operational, policy, governance, people and finance roles.

So two Director vacancies are not necessarily comparable jobs.

For senior applicants, the practical lesson is simple: do not use the title as the main indicator of whether a position is above, below or equal to your current level.

Compare the salary, mandate, reporting line, decision-making authority and scale of responsibility first.

A $100,000+ government job may not sound “senior” from the title

This is particularly relevant for people coming from outside government.

Private-sector applicants can sometimes underestimate government roles because titles such as Project Officer, Policy Officer, Program Officer or Executive Officer sound less senior than the titles used in their current organisation.

But the salary data shows why title alone can be misleading.

A Grade 5/6 role sits around $103,000 to $114,000. Grade 7/8 is around $117,000 to $129,000. Grade 9/10 sits around $133,000 to $147,000.

The title may sound relatively plain, while the role itself expects significant judgement, stakeholder management, technical expertise or responsibility for substantial pieces of work.

If you are moving into government, comparing the scope of the role and salary can therefore give you a much better starting point than trying to translate your private-sector title word for word.

Salary filters can also hide relevant jobs

One of the more interesting findings came from the jobs that did not fit neatly into the comparison.

There were 2,430 advertisements that we could not confidently place into one of the salary groups. Some used hourly rates, professional bands or classifications that did not translate cleanly into an annual Clerk Grade comparison.

Transport alone accounted for 1,325 of these advertisements, followed by Education with 450 and Health with 294.

For a job seeker, the important point is not the classification issue. It is that relying too heavily on a salary or grade filter can cause you to miss jobs.

A stronger search combines several signals:

• your likely salary or responsibility level;
• the type of work you want to perform;
• several related job titles;
• your realistic locations; and
• agencies or sectors where your experience could transfer.

The biggest job-search lesson from 15,652 advertisements

After working through this dataset, the biggest lesson is probably that NSW Government job searching is broader than most applicants realise.

There is rarely one perfect government job title that matches your background.

Instead, start with the level of work you can credibly demonstrate, then build a wider search around it.

For example:

• If you have strong administration and customer-facing experience, look beyond Administration Officer into registry, client service, operations and service-delivery roles.
• If you have coordination experience, search Assistant Project Officer, project support, program support, executive support and operational coordination roles.
• If you independently manage projects, stakeholders or complex work, investigate Project Officer and other Grade 7/8-level professional roles.
• If you lead substantial projects, policy, analysis or specialist work, Senior Project Officer, Senior Policy Officer, Senior Business Analyst and related Grade 9/10 positions may be relevant.
• If you are targeting Grade 11/12 or Director-level work, search less by title and more by mandate, scale, accountability and leadership responsibility.

The aim is not to apply to more jobs indiscriminately.

It is to understand where your experience gives you a realistic case, and then make sure your search is broad enough to actually find those opportunities.

See current NSW Government jobs by level

The current role pages below can help you see how these patterns look in live advertisements:

• Entry-level jobs, Grades 1/2 and 3/4
• Current Grade 5/6 jobs
• Current Grade 7/8 jobs
• Current Grade 9/10 jobs
• Current Grade 11/12 jobs
• Current Director roles

About the dataset

We reviewed 15,652 NSW Government job advertisements published between 1 June and 31 August 2026.

NSW Government does not use one universal grading system across every agency and profession. Health, Education, Transport and specialist workforces use their own awards and classifications.

For this analysis, advertised annual salaries were used to compare roles sitting around similar pay levels. The wider salary analysis allowed 13,222 advertisements to be compared, and we kept 10,716 roles where the match was clear enough to support the grade-by-grade insights above.

This is a job-search comparison rather than an official reclassification. A nurse, engineer, lawyer, teacher or other specialist professional can earn a similar salary to a Clerk Grade employee while doing fundamentally different work and following a completely different career structure.

Questions about the NSW Government job market