Introduction
The Project Manager role at the NSW Rural Fire Service supports the Red Fleet Ownership and Maintenance Transfer Program. This enterprise reform prepares the RFS to take ownership, maintenance responsibility, accounting control and lifecycle accountability for the fleet from local councils from 1 July 2027. The role provides senior project leadership, delivery coordination and program controls across the transition.
To organise how to apply for Project Manager, prepare a PDF cover letter, a PDF resume and answers to two targeted questions, each with a maximum of 500 words. One answer examines a complex project you have led, while the other asks how you would establish discipline and reporting for this transition. Keep the cover letter focused on your suitability and essential requirements, and use the responses to develop the detailed delivery evidence.
Operational readiness and service continuity matter in a volunteer-based emergency service. Your application should show how you manage interdependent workstreams, governance and assurance while working with councils, suppliers, members and senior leaders. Check the full essential requirements in the role description and use original examples that you can discuss through the assessment process.
View the official job ad and keep its application instructions open while you plan.
Project Manager role snapshot
| Role | Project Manager |
| Organisation | NSW Rural Fire Service |
| Location | Sydney Olympic Park, flexible working arrangements considered |
| Employment | Temporary full-time to 30 June 2029, 35 hours per week, RFS Level 10/11 |
| Salary or remuneration | $135,149 to $148,929 per annum plus 12% superannuation |
| Job ID | 603478 |
| Closing date | 11:55 pm, Sunday 18 October 2026 |
NSW Government application requirements
Give the hiring team the documents and written responses it requests, within the stated limits. Check the application form before drafting so the final submission follows the required format.
Application requirements for Project Manager
- Cover letter in PDF format addressing the essential requirements, suitability and interest in the opportunity
- Resume in PDF format
- Responses to two targeted questions in the online application, maximum 500 words each
No cover-letter page limit is specified, so prepare a focused two-page letter unless the form directs otherwise. Include two current or recent professional referees, with email addresses and contact numbers, in the resume. Write the targeted responses independently so they accurately reflect your experience and reasoning.
Role conditions and qualifications
- Meet the minimum essential requirements in the linked role description; check the complete requirements before applying
- Successful applicants are subject to referee checks and criminal history checks
Application question 1
Describe a time when you led a complex project or program involving multiple stakeholders, competing priorities and significant delivery dependencies. How did you structure the work, maintain project control and support delivery of outcomes?
Response limit: Maximum 500 words
Choose a project you personally led with genuine stakeholder and dependency complexity. Explain how you structured workstreams, responsibilities and milestones, then show the reporting, risk, dependency and escalation controls you used. Describe a consequential decision and finish with the outcomes your approach supported.
Application question 2
The Red Fleet Reform Program includes multiple workstreams, governance forums, transfer readiness requirements, risks, issues, dependencies and assurance activities. How would you establish project management discipline and reporting across this type of enterprise transition program?
Response limit: Maximum 500 words
Set out a practical transition approach: clear workstream ownership, an integrated plan, decision and escalation paths, and consistent risk, issue and dependency records. Explain how governance reporting would highlight exceptions, readiness evidence and assurance findings so leaders can make informed transfer decisions. Connect those controls to operational continuity and the 1 July 2027 ownership and maintenance transition, drawing on your experience to justify the approach.
Candidate evidence for Project Manager
Provide project leadership and program controls for the Red Fleet enterprise transition, coordinating governance, workstreams, risks, dependencies, readiness and stakeholder delivery. The evidence areas below help you choose examples for that work.
| Requirement or evidence area | How to demonstrate it |
|---|---|
| Complex enterprise transformation and reform | Describe a large-scale project you led, the business change involved and how your decisions supported delivery and organisational outcomes. |
| Agile and Waterfall approaches | Explain how you applied or combined the methodologies to suit a project’s objectives, dependencies and delivery environment. |
| Governance, controls and assurance | Show how you maintained plans, schedules, reports, risks and dependencies, and how assurance informed a delivery or readiness decision. |
| Stakeholder influence and competing priorities | Describe how you worked with multiple stakeholder groups, negotiated a conflict and kept attention on shared outcomes. |
| Strategy, performance and business improvement | Explain how reporting or improvement work strengthened organisational performance, with attention to a volunteer-based community service setting. |
| Transfer readiness and service continuity | For the second question, explain how you would connect workstream milestones, readiness evidence and escalation decisions to a safe, controlled enterprise transition. |
Example application structure for Project Manager
The application requires a PDF cover letter, a PDF resume and two online targeted-question responses with a maximum of 500 words each. We recommend a two-page cover letter where no letter limit is stated, subject to the form’s instructions. The outline below keeps the letter focused on suitability and uses the question guidance for detailed project control and transition planning.
| Application section | What to include |
|---|---|
| Opening and reform experience | Introduce your enterprise project leadership and interest in the Red Fleet transition. |
| Methods, governance and assurance | Explain your Agile and Waterfall experience and how you used governance and assurance to support delivery. |
| Stakeholder influence and business improvement | Show your work across competing interests and connect performance or improvement results to organisational needs. |
| Essential requirements and closing | Address the complete role-description requirements and explain the relevance of your experience to an emergency service with a large volunteer base. |
| Separate online responses | Answer each targeted question within 500 words, using a past project for the first and a reasoned Red Fleet transition approach for the second. |
Before you submit
Open both PDFs and confirm that the letter addresses the full role-description requirements and that the resume includes two current or recent professional referees with contact details. Count each targeted answer separately, keep it within 500 words and check that your examples and proposed approach are your own. Apply through RFS Careers by 11:55 pm on Sunday 18 October.
Return to the official vacancy for the final document and deadline check.
Help with your Project Manager application
If you want help organising your own evidence and preparing the written documents, request application support from Team 3Thirty. Bring the vacancy and your current CV so the application can address the work you have actually done.