Scholarships Team Leader

Why Your Role Matters

The Scholarships Team Leader plays a key role in supporting the delivery and administration of undergraduate and postgraduate coursework scholarships for local and international students across UNSW.

Leading a team of Scholarship Officers, you will ensure scholarship assessment, selection, payment, and reporting activities are delivered accurately, consistently, and in line with University policy and external regulations. This role oversees high-volume scholarship operations while supporting a positive student experience and maintaining strong relationships with stakeholders across the University.

Working closely with the Manager, Scholarship Operations, you will contribute to process improvement, operational reporting, policy implementation, and the continuous enhancement of scholarship services and administration.

The role reports to the Manager, Scholarship Operations and has 4 direct reports.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, support, and coordinate the day-to-day operations and workload of the Scholarships team to ensure efficient and accurate service delivery
• Ensure scholarship assessment, selection, payment, and administration activities are managed fairly, consistently, and in line with University policy and external regulations
• Apply and interpret policy to ensure fair, transparent, and consistent decision-making across all scholarship processes
• Provide guidance and support to Scholarship Officers, including managing complex student cases, training, and process documentation
• Build and maintain effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders to support the delivery and promotion of scholarship programs
• Monitor and maintain accurate scholarship and applicant records, reporting, and operational data to support compliance, continuous improvement, and inform operational performance and strategic planning.
• Contribute to business process improvement initiatives, operational reporting, and the ongoing enhancement of Scholarships and Admissions services
• Represent the Scholarships team at relevant events, forums, and stakeholder engagements.

Who You Are

You are a confident operational leader who thrives in a fast-paced, high-volume environment and brings strong stakeholder management capability, excellent attention to detail, and the ability to manage competing priorities in a complex setting.

While scholarships experience will be highly regarded, you may also bring experience from higher education administration or another complex operational environment where you have managed high-volume workflows, applied policy or regulatory requirements, supported accurate decision-making, used data and reporting to monitor performance, and worked closely with diverse stakeholders to deliver high-quality services. You will also bring:

• Experience leading, mentoring, or developing a team
• Strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to build effective working relationships across multiple business areas
• Strong reporting and data analysis capability, including advanced Excel skills; experience with Power BI is highly regarded
• Experience working with CRM, database, or student management systems
• The ability to interpret policies, procedures, and guidelines and apply sound judgement
• Experience managing peak processing periods, complex cases, or competing operational priorities
• A proactive, adaptable, and solutions-focused approach
• A commitment to continuous improvement, documentation, and service excellence

Candidates will need to have ongoing working rights – this role is not available for sponsorship.

The role will work on a hybrid basis, Monday to Friday, business hours.