National Lead - Animal Nutrition & Feeding Systems

About the role

At Dairy Australia, we’re passionate about driving innovation in herd and feed management. Through research and insights, we help farmers make informed decisions about feeding and farm systems. As our National Lead – Animal Nutrition and Feeding Systems, you’ll play a key role in guiding the industry’s research and development priorities to ensure they are relevant and meeting the evolving industry and farmer needs.

This is a leadership role within our Research and Innovation team, where you’ll bring global thinking and build strong networks with experts across Australia and internationally. You’ll keep your finger on the pulse of emerging innovations and help translate them into practical outcomes for the dairy industry.

You’ll also lead the strategic direction of our investments in Animal Nutrition and Feeding Systems R&D and oversee the development of services and resources that support farmers in building profitable and sustainable businesses.

What you’ll be doing

• Develop and maintain a clear strategy for our Animal Nutrition and Feeding Systems domain, including an investment roadmap.
• Keep up to date with industry trends, challenges, and opportunities—and help connect the dots.
• Collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders, from family farms to large corporates, government, researchers, and service providers.
• Work alongside a high-performing team of National Leads, supported by deep expertise and a collaborative culture.
• Lead a virtual domain team within Dairy Australia that is comprised of people from different functions across development, extension (service delivery), sustainability and project management
• Lead and evaluate cross-functional projects to ensure we’re delivering on our strategic goals.

About you

You’re a strategic thinker with a growth mindset—someone who sees challenges as opportunities. You’re curious, open to new ideas, and committed to helping the dairy industry thrive.

You bring commercial and strategic insight, and you know how to align research priorities with what matters most to farmers. You’re a natural leader who puts industry needs first and is ready to be a trusted voice in the evolution of animal nutrition and feeding systems.

You have a deep understanding of Animal Nutrition and Feeding Systems to enable you to not only understand industry needs but translate them into actionable research.

About Dairy Australia:

Dairy Australia’s role is to provide services that benefit and advance dairy farm businesses and the industry. These services deliver value by enhancing farm business management, supporting farm employment needs, driving herd and feed innovation, managing climate and environment, promoting Australian dairy and commitment to sustainability, supporting policy development, growing international markets and responding to critical issues and events such as floods and bushfires.

Our Vision and Values:

At Dairy Australia, our vision is simple, to be leaders in shaping a profitable and sustainable dairy industry. Our passionate and talented people share this vision and make an impact each day through their commitment to our values of:

• Farmer First - Farmer needs guide our purpose
• One Team - We work together to achieve great things
• Innovative Thinking - We embrace new ideas and learning as we go
• Decisive Action - We make informed decisions and move quickly to implement

About your work life with us:

We aim to provide benefits that promote the overall wellbeing of our employees. In joining our team, you will be rewarded with:

• A flexible working environment – work from our newly renovated office in Southbank CBD, your home office, on the road visiting stakeholders, as well as connecting with your colleagues and stakeholders virtually
• Being a key member in our supportive and high performing team of experts in their field
• A caring, values driven and innovative culture - we are open to each other’s ideas, we love to innovate, we act with integrity and are driven to find the best solutions for our employees and stakeholders

Next steps:

If your motivations and skills set lines up to what you’ve read, please “Apply Now”