Life at Mission Australia

When you join the team at Mission Australia, you become part of a community who are determined to end homelessness and ensure people in need can thrive. United by our Christian purpose and values, we advocate for a fairer Australia, to meet the growing needs of people across the country. Together we’re building hope and possibility for all.

Find out more about us and our purpose.

Your Opportunity

Mission Australia Housing is seeking a commercially astute and purpose-driven professional to lead and advise on the commercial aspects of major housing procurement projects. This newly created role will strengthen our commercial capability at a time of significant expansion within housing growth projects and will see you working across complex, large-scale developments, from early-stage structuring and negotiation through to contract close and operational transition, helping us achieve strong, values-aligned outcomes.

You’ll engage with a range of stakeholders, including government, developers, builders, financiers, and advisors, navigating project finance arrangements to secure outcomes that are commercially sound and socially impactful. This includes assessing financial models, commercial structures and risk allocations across multi‑party transactions.

When not embedded in major project delivery, you’ll play an important role within our Housing Growth team, helping to build commercial capability across the organisation. This includes providing expert guidance on business‑as‑usual activities, supporting project leads, developing contract management tools, improving processes, and contributing to innovation across our commercial and procurement functions. If you thrive at the intersection of social purpose and commercial acumen, this is your opportunity to make a real difference.

Your key responsibilities will be to:

• Lead or support commercial negotiations for major housing procurement projects, ensuring Mission Australia Housing’s objectives and preferred risk allocations are achieved.
• Act as the commercial lead post-contract close, guiding projects through financial close and into operational delivery.
• Review and interpret financial models, commercial structures and feasibility assessments to support decision‑making.
• Work with internal legal teams and external lawyers to translate commercial terms into robust and compliant contract documentation.
• Engage and manage relationships with key external stakeholders, including government agencies, developers, financiers, and advisors.
• Provide expert commercial advice to project and operational teams, supporting both major projects and business-as-usual activities.
• Develop and implement commercial tools, training and processes, helping uplift contract and commercial capability across the business.
• Escalate and resolve complex commercial issues through appropriate project governance and decision-making frameworks.
• Support project planning and tracking, ensuring commercial deliverables align with key procurement and financial close milestones.

Requirements for success

• 10 years + experience in a similar role
• Proven experience in commercial negotiation and project structuring, ideally within housing, infrastructure, or large-scale procurement environments.
• Strong understanding of project finance and risk allocation, particularly in multi-party projects involving government, developers, and financiers.
• Experience working with financial models, commercial analysis and feasibility assessments.
• Ability to work collaboratively with legal teams and external advisors to ensure commercial terms are clearly articulated and contractually sound.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills, with the ability to influence and build trust across diverse partners.
• Sound knowledge of procurement, contracting, and legal principles, including familiarity with governance frameworks and escalation processes.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to interpret complex information and provide clear, commercially grounded advice.
• Demonstrated ability to lead or contribute to project delivery, managing milestones and commercial outcomes across multiple workstreams.
• A proactive, self‑driven mindset with the ability to operate independently and bring fresh, innovative thinking to complex commercial challenges.

Before starting work with us, you will need to undertake a national police history check, qualifications, and referee checks, and have a clearance to work with children/vulnerable people.

Your benefits

To ensure our employees feel valued, empowered, and celebrated, we provide a range of employee benefits including:

• Rewarding work – every day you know you’re making a real difference
• Not-for-profit salary packaging, reducing your tax (details via Access Pay)
• Free external, confidential counselling and access to chaplaincy support
• Volunteering opportunities
• Opportunity to purchase additional annual leave.
• Extra leave including: Mission Australia Thank You Day & Work Anniversary Day off

• Lead or support commercial negotiations for major housing procurement projects, ensuring Mission Australia Housing’s objectives and preferred risk allocations are achieved.
• Act as the commercial lead post-contract close, guiding projects through financial close and into operational delivery.
• Review and interpret financial models, commercial structures and feasibility assessments to support decision‑making.
• Work with internal legal teams and external lawyers to translate commercial terms into robust and compliant contract documentation.
• Engage and manage relationships with key external stakeholders, including government agencies, developers, financiers, and advisors.
• Provide expert commercial advice to project and operational teams, supporting both major projects and business-as-usual activities.
• Develop and implement commercial tools, training and processes, helping uplift contract and commercial capability across the business.
• Escalate and resolve complex commercial issues through appropriate project governance and decision-making frameworks.
• Support project planning and tracking, ensuring commercial deliverables align with key procurement and financial close milestones.

• Proven experience in commercial negotiation and project structuring, ideally within housing, infrastructure, or large-scale procurement environments.
• Strong understanding of project finance and risk allocation, particularly in multi-party projects involving government, developers, and financiers.
• Experience working with financial models, commercial analysis and feasibility assessments.
• Ability to work collaboratively with legal teams and external advisors to ensure commercial terms are clearly articulated and contractually sound.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills, with the ability to influence and build trust across diverse partners.
• Sound knowledge of procurement, contracting, and legal principles, including familiarity with governance frameworks and escalation processes.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to interpret complex information and provide clear, commercially grounded advice.
• Demonstrated ability to lead or contribute to project delivery, managing milestones and commercial outcomes across multiple workstreams.
• A proactive, self‑driven mindset with the ability to operate independently and bring fresh, innovative thinking to complex commercial challenges.

• 10 years + experience in a similar role