The NSW Health Associate Director of Strategic Recruitment is a senior leadership opportunity within the NSW Ministry of Health. Based in St Leonards, this role is responsible for shaping the future of talent acquisition across one of Australia’s largest health workforces. With an emphasis on policy reform, stakeholder engagement, and data-led strategy, the successful candidate will lead a state-wide agenda to improve how NSW Health attracts and retains top talent.
If you’re an experienced recruitment leader ready to influence public sector hiring at scale, this is your moment. This post includes a tailored example cover letter and practical advice to help you submit a standout application.
If you’re new to public sector recruitment, check out this unofficial guide to NSW Public Sector recruitment for more insider tips and context.
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NSW Health Associate Director Salary and Overview
| Position Title | Associate Director, Strategic Recruitment |
| Organisation/Entity | NSW Ministry of Health |
| Job Location | St Leonards, Sydney |
| Work Type | Ongoing Full-Time |
| Base Pay | $166,678 – $186,448 + Super |
| Closing Date | 11:59pm, Monday 26 May 2025 |
About the NSW Health Associate Director Strategic Recruitment Role
The Associate Director, Strategic Recruitment leads a high-impact team responsible for shaping and delivering recruitment and talent acquisition strategies across the NSW Health system. This senior leadership role is pivotal in driving contemporary, inclusive, and data-driven recruitment practices that align with NSW Health’s strategic goals and workforce planning priorities.
With a focus on innovation, the role oversees the development and implementation of modern recruitment policies, technologies, and initiatives to attract, engage, and retain top talent in a competitive market. The Associate Director provides expert advice on best practice recruitment, diversity and inclusion, employer branding, and enhancing both candidate and hiring manager experience.
The position also plays a key governance role in overseeing the state-wide recruitment of junior medical officers and is central to ensuring consistent, high-quality recruitment processes across NSW Health. Through strong stakeholder engagement and leadership, the Associate Director ensures recruitment functions are effective, future-focused, and positioned to support a diverse, capable, and agile health workforce.
Key Challenges in the NSW Health Associate Director Role
The successful candidate will face a variety of strategic and operational challenges:
- Coordinating complex recruitment reforms across a large, decentralised system
- Integrating policy, technology, and workforce planning objectives
- Using data to drive decision-making and measure recruitment effectiveness
- Managing a high-performing team while delivering continuous improvement
- Aligning with broader NSW Public Sector recruitment expectations and capability frameworks
This is a senior role that requires strong communication, foresight, and the ability to lead through influence.
Why Apply for the Associate Director, Strategic Recruitment Role
This position offers:
- A senior leadership platform to influence public sector recruitment policy across NSW Health
- Direct exposure to executive stakeholders and high-impact decision making
- Flexible working arrangements with a hybrid model based in St Leonards
NSW Health is one of Australia’s most significant public sector employers. The impact you have here can affect millions of people.
Application Requirements for NSW Health Associate Director
How to Apply for Associate Director Strategic Recruitment
To apply, you must submit:
- A resume (up to five pages)
- A cover letter (max 2 pages) outlining your interest and suitability
There are no target questions listed for this role. Applicants are expected to demonstrate alignment to the responsibilities and criteria in their cover letter.
For those unfamiliar with NSW Government applications, a cover letter must do more than summarise your CV. It should be clearly tailored to the role, drawing on your relevant experience and demonstrating how you meet the expectations outlined in the role description.
Selection Criteria For NSW Health Associate Director Strategic Recruitment
NSW Health continues to use selection criteria in its recruitment processes. If you’re passionate about modernising public sector recruitment—and want to help NSW Health align with other government agencies that have moved away from traditional selection criteria—this role could be your opportunity to lead that change.
But before you can influence the system, you’ll need to clearly demonstrate you meet the following requirements to secure the role:
- Extensive leadership experience leading Talent teams
- Relevant tertiary qualifications in human resources, people and culture, public policy or related field and/or relevant industry experience in talent acquisition
- Track record in driving a reform agenda in a variety of settings, including policy and technology
- Superior communication skills, including strong oral and written skills and excellent stakeholder skills
- High level policy development skills and proven track record of managing multiple priorities and delivering projects on time
- Understanding of recruitment compliance and regulation obligations
- Advanced experience in managing the development and implementation of ICT systems, including eliciting and developing business requirements from multiple lay and expert stakeholders.
What to Include in Your NSW Health Associate Director Cover Letter
You will need to address the selection criteria clearly. Use STAR method examples that match the role requirements above. Focus on outcomes achieved in recruitment strategy, policy implementation, and team leadership. Your letter must show how you meet the selection criteria outlined in the role description.
To get started quickly with your cover letter, download a free, proven, effective template. Download a free NSW Government cover letter template here, and get your draft reviewed by a government hiring manager for just \$29 here.
NSW Health Associate Director Application Checklist
| ✅ | Review the role description and confirm you meet the essential requirements |
| ✅ | Write a strong cover letter (1–2 pages) |
| ✅ | Use the free NSW government cover letter template |
| ✅ | Get your cover letter reviewed (only $29 here) |
| ✅ | Submit your application via the NSW Health career portal |
Ideal Candidate Profile for NSW Health Associate Director
Natalie is a senior HR leader with over 12 years’ experience in the non-profit sector, specialising in recruitment, workforce planning, and organisational development. In her current role at a national not-for-profit organisation, she led the design and rollout of a new graduate recruitment program and implemented an organisation-wide hiring dashboard that significantly reduced time-to-hire.
Natalie is now seeking to bring her values-driven approach and strategic expertise to NSW Health, where she hopes to contribute to inclusive, data-informed recruitment practices at a state-wide level.
Example Cover Letter for NSW Health Associate Director Strategic Recruitment
Click here to download a free public sector cover letter template
Dear Hiring Manager,
I am excited to apply for the Associate Director, Strategic Recruitment role at NSW Health.
With over 12 years of senior HR leadership experience in the not-for-profit sector, I bring deep expertise in workforce planning, recruitment reform, and the implementation of contemporary talent strategies across complex and regulated environments. I am particularly drawn to the opportunity to influence system-wide recruitment policy and practice that supports inclusive, agile, and future-ready healthcare services.
In my current role as National Manager, Talent and Capability for a large not-for-profit organisation, I lead a distributed team of 14 across talent acquisition, onboarding, and early careers. When onboarding delays were causing increased attrition and line manager dissatisfaction, I restructured the team into specialised function streams, introduced weekly hiring sprints, and developed a service-level dashboard to monitor time-to-offer metrics. These changes improved our time-to-hire by 23% in under six months and helped reposition Talent as a trusted strategic partner.
I hold tertiary qualifications in Human Resource Management and have consistently driven large-scale reform agendas that integrate policy, people, and technology. For example, following a period of rapid organisational growth, I led the design and implementation of a national graduate intake strategy aligned to future workforce needs. This involved co-developing policy frameworks, designing behavioural capability assessments, and managing cross-sector consultation. The program attracted over 1,200 applicants in its first year and was rolled out nationally with full executive support.
I have strong policy development experience and a proven track record of delivering complex projects within tight timeframes. When tasked with improving recruitment compliance and audit readiness, I conducted a full review of existing recruitment practices, engaging with internal legal teams, external auditors, and operational managers. I developed new process controls, updated policy documents to reflect Fair Work and Privacy Act requirements, and introduced mandatory compliance checkpoints within our ATS workflow. These actions resulted in a 100% pass rate in the subsequent internal audit cycle and improved hiring manager confidence in recruitment governance.
My leadership style is collaborative and outcomes-focused. I engage confidently with stakeholders at all levels, from board members to operational teams. I’ve delivered countless briefings, policy papers, and business cases, and am often sought out to present at workforce forums and sector roundtables. Most recently, I partnered with our CIO to modernise our hiring technology stack. I led the business case, defined technical and user requirements across multiple teams, and ensured the new system integrated with payroll and compliance reporting systems. The implementation was delivered on time and under budget, with system usage rates exceeding 90% within the first quarter.
The Associate Director role at NSW Health aligns perfectly with my career aspirations and the impact I want to make. I’m energised by the opportunity to scale strategic recruitment reforms across a high-impact system, and I am confident that my leadership experience, policy acumen, and stakeholder skills position me to succeed in this role.
Thank you for considering my application.
Yours sincerely,
Natalie
Using the STAR Method with NSW Health
NSW Health, like many public sector organisations, uses capability-based recruitment. This means your application and interview responses should demonstrate how you’ve used specific skills in real-world situations. The best way to do this is by using the STAR method:
- S – Situation: Briefly describe the context or background.
- T – Task: Explain your responsibility or goal in that situation.
- A – Action: Detail the steps you took to address the task or challenge.
- R – Result: Share the outcome, including any measurable results or lessons learned.
When writing your cover letter, structure your responses around STAR examples that align to the job’s key requirements. Each example should show how you’ve developed experience that aligns with the selection criteria. NSW Health panels are looking for clear, concise evidence of your impact, not just general claims.
For senior roles like Associate Director, your STAR stories should also reflect leadership, strategic thinking, and cross-agency influence.
Preparing for Your NSW Health Interview
NSW Health interviews are structured and assess how well you demonstrate the NSW Health Selection Criteria listed in the role description. These criteria are often linked to real-world capabilities like strategic leadership, policy development, stakeholder engagement, and innovation in recruitment.
To prepare effectively:
- Review the NSW Health Selection Criteria
Carefully read the role description to understand what each criterion is asking. Look for keywords like “strategic recruitment leadership” or “technology reform” to guide your preparation. - Brainstorm STAR Examples
Identify several strong examples from your past experience that show how you’ve demonstrated those capabilities in action. Choose situations that are recent, high-impact, and relevant to recruitment reform, leadership, or system improvements. - Match to Expected Outcomes
Think about what outcomes your examples demonstrate. For example:
– Did you influence senior stakeholders?
– Did you lead system-wide improvements?
– Did your actions improve efficiency, compliance, or experience? - Structure Your Answers Using STAR
For each example, clearly outline:
– Situation: the context or challenge
– Task: your responsibility
– Action: the steps you took
– Result: the outcome or benefit to the organisation - Practise and Prepare Notes
If notes are permitted, bring brief prompts to keep you on track. If not, rehearse your examples until you can recall and explain them fluently and confidently.
Three Likely Interview Questions
- Describe a time you led a policy or process change in recruitment.
- How have you used data to inform recruitment decisions?
- Tell us about a time you improved the experience for candidates or hiring managers.
Example STAR Talking Point
“In my previous role, I identified delays in our medical recruitment approvals. I brought together stakeholders from workforce, medical administration, and legal to map the current-state process. After identifying bottlenecks, I designed a new workflow with clearer decision points and faster escalation protocols. I implemented a digital dashboard to track approvals in real-time, which reduced average processing time by 40% over three months.”
This type of structured, outcome-focused response is exactly what NSW Health panels are looking for.
For more help preparing for a NSW Government Job Interview, you can download our government interview question and answer workbooks. For this role, you would need to prepare at the ADVANCED focus capability level, so download the Advanced Workbook.
Ready to Apply for NSW Health Associate Director Strategic Recruitment?
If this sounds like a job for you, I’ve got all the resources you need to transition into government at a senior level.
✅ Apply now via NSW Health – Don’t miss your chance to lead strategic recruitment across the state.
📄 Grab your free public sector cover letter template – Built specifically for senior NSW Government roles.
📝 Get expert feedback on your cover letter – only $29 – Reviewed by a real government hiring manager.
🎤 Practise for your interview with realistic, tailored questions – Includes coaching, workbooks, and live feedback.
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