QUT is hiring a Head of School for Management and Marketing, and the application link is live now. You can find the full listing on academicjobs.com and submit through QUT's own recruitment portal.

The role sits within QUT's Faculty of Business and Law and carries a wide brief: academic staffing, research performance, curriculum quality, industry partnerships and the school's budget. If you have led a business school discipline, a department or a large academic unit, this is a job you plan a move around.

What the role actually covers

Head of School jobs at Australian universities are line-management roles first. You are not just a senior professor with a title. You hold real accountability for how the school runs, who teaches what, and whether the school meets its research and revenue targets.

• Academic staffing, workload allocation, performance reviews and development for management and marketing academics.
• Teaching quality, course reviews, accreditation reporting and the student experience across undergraduate majors, postgraduate coursework, MBA and executive education programs.
• Research income, publication quality, higher-degree research supervision and external grant relationships.
• Budget management, revenue planning and industry engagement with professional bodies, employers and executive education clients.

The combined scope matters. Management and marketing are large enrolment areas, and both sit close to industry. You will need to manage discipline academics while also answering to accreditors and professional bodies.

In practice, that means you spend part of the week on staff issues and part on the school's external reputation. A marketing academic may be building a digital analytics unit while a management colleague is negotiating an executive education contract. The Head of School has to keep both moving without letting either starve for resources.

Why this appointment matters right now

Management and commerce remains the largest broad field of study for international higher education students in Australia. Australian Government international student data consistently places management and commerce at the top of commencements by field. That means the Head of School carries decisions that affect revenue, staffing, class sizes and the student experience at scale.

QUT's business school is accredited by AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, a triple-crown combination held by a small share of business schools globally. Accreditation evidence runs through faculty qualifications, course design, learning outcomes and research output, so the Head of School cannot treat quality systems as someone else's problem. The QUT Business School page sets out the school's accreditation and structure, and it is worth reading before you apply.

Australian higher education has not made enrolment planning easy lately. Policy shifts around international students have forced business schools to review how they recruit and support cohorts. A Head of School who can keep a management and marketing portfolio steady through that uncertainty is exactly what hiring panels want.

Marketing and management are also changing as disciplines. Marketing now runs on data platforms, customer analytics and the digital channels that now carry most brand decisions. Management spans strategy, human resources, entrepreneurship and leadership. Employers expect graduates to arrive with both technical tools and judgement. The Head of School sets the tone for how those programs respond.

What a strong candidate looks like

You do not need to be a dean already, but you do need evidence that you have run something. The strongest applications show command of people, money, academic quality and the school's external reputation, not just a long publication list.

• A doctoral qualification in management, marketing or a related business discipline.
• A professorial or associate professor track record strong enough to lead senior academics and hold credibility with industry.
• Direct experience managing budgets, staff and change inside a university or comparable knowledge-intensive organisation.
• Existing relationships with professional bodies, employers or executive education clients that can open doors for students and researchers.

Panels also look for a candidate who can talk plainly about failure and recovery: a restructure, a course accreditation problem, a staffing dispute. If you have fixed something that was going wrong, say so.

What the panel will probe at interview

Do not walk in with only a research vision. Panels at this level ask operational questions early: how would you handle a budget cut, an underperforming program, a contested workload model. Prepare short answers with a beginning, a decision, a result and a lesson.

• How would you lift research income in a management or marketing discipline over three years?
• How would you handle a course with falling enrolments but strong industry demand?
• What is your plan for the first ninety days?
• How do you make workload allocation fair and explainable?

If you can answer these without slides, you are ahead of most applicants.

What you get from QUT

The university's Gardens Point campus sits beside the Brisbane CBD and the City Botanic Gardens. For relocating candidates, Brisbane generally offers lower housing costs than Sydney or Melbourne, though prices have risen. QUT promotes a practical, industry-connected style that runs through its business degrees and executive education.

Employment conditions, leave and staff benefits are set out on the university's work at QUT page. Check them before you negotiate.

How to apply without wasting your shot

Start with the official advertisement on QUT's recruitment portal. Read the position description before you write a word of your application. The full listing is available at qut.nga.net.au.

Then follow these steps.

• Map your CV to the selection criteria. Do not send a 30-page academic CV and expect the panel to search for evidence.
• Show management evidence with numbers. Budget size, staff headcount, accreditation outcomes, research income, course completion rates.
• Name the disciplines and programs you have led and the result. One concrete turnaround beats three abstract claims.
• Keep the cover letter to two pages and make every paragraph earn its place.
• Submit before the deadline and save the confirmation email.

Our guide to writing an academic CV is useful if you have not applied for a senior academic role recently. It steps through what to cut and what to keep.

What happens after the deadline

Shortlisting usually takes a few weeks. If you are shortlisted, expect a panel interview, a presentation or a discussion with the faculty executive, and reference checks. Universities do not move quickly on senior roles, but that is not an excuse to go quiet. Follow up once if you have heard nothing after a fortnight.

Keep your referees briefed before the panel calls. Tell them which parts of your record matter for this job, because a vague referee can undo a strong interview.

This week, open the position description and highlight every criterion you can evidence with a specific result. If you cannot evidence it, do not write a paragraph about it.