A Pioneering Global Top 50 University

Careers opportunities for women in tech at UNSW

The University of NSW (UNSW) puts a weight of focus on diversity equity and inclusion, with a significant EDI Board presence and a detailed definition of its commitment to it, with actions and measures in its current strategy. We've found this narrative to underpin the UNSW's messaging and practices alike.

Project F certified since 2023

Chrissy_Burns_UNSW
Dr Chrissy Burns, 
Chief Information Officer
Esme Timbery Lab

UNSW was established in 1949 and today sits at a 45th global ranking. It’s got an impressive profile which includes the 2022 AFR Top 100 Future Leaders Awards – with 42 winners out of 100! In fostering a culture of innovation, along with a lived value of diversity, UNSW sees 200+ startups form out of its communities every year and 42% of those are female co-founded.

“Our goal is to improve the quality of life for people in Australia and around the world, through partnerships, thought leadership, engagement with decision-makers, sustainable development, and a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.”

In addition to UNSW’s strong and passionate Equity Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) team, led by Prof. Bruce Watson, Pro Vice-Chancellor Inclusion, the arrival of CIO Chrissy Burns in 2022 brought a fresh and gender-balanced leadership team to the IT division, which is around 10% of the total number of professional employees working at the University. Chrissy herself is a passionate advocate of gender diversity in the realms of technology and supportive of interrogating systems to identify systemic barriers for women and other marginalised groups in the sector.

Tech Leadership Team

Tanya Freeman UNSW
Tanya Freeman, 
Deputy CIO
jerry frenkel
Jerry Frenkel, 
Director, Engagement & Change
Brooke White UNSW
Brooke White, 
Director IT Program Delivery
Derek Winter UNSW
Derek Winter, 
Director Cyber Security & Chief Security & Information Officer
Sally Anderson UNSW
Sally Anderson, 
Director Student, Academic and Research Services (StARS)
Nigel Mclean-Smith UNSW
Nigel McLean-Smith, 
Director Technology, Strategy and Enterprise Architecture
Mark Griffith UNSW 2
Mark Griffith, 
Director Customer Service Delivery
Christian Wood UNSW
Christian Wood, 
Director - Innovation Enablement
Rajiv Ram UNSW
Rajiv Ram, 
Director - Corporate Services

Tech teams

IT
  • Business IT Services
  • Customer Service Delivery
  • Cyber Security
  • Solution, Design and Delivery
  • Project Management
  • Strategy, Design and Architecture

Tech stack

NodeJS / React / Typescript / AWS / Python / MongoDB / C++ / PostgreSQL / Angular JS / PyTorch / Peoplesoft / Django

Tech interview process

UNSW conducts a short series of interviews for hiring within its IT division, typically as follows:

  • 1st Interview - Virtual (Teams) panel interview
  • 2nd Interview - In-person panel interview with the hiring manager (tech)
  • Any tech evaluation would be done at this stage
  • Final stage - reference checks

Note: UNSW ensure all interviews are conducted by a gender-balanced panel

The average time to hire within IT is 4-6 weeks from application to offer

Values In Action - UNSW Behaviours

The five core UNSW behaviours were developed by UNSW staff, as a way to live their Values in everyday actions. The Values in Action have been developed as a way for staff to talk about how they work together to support a positive environment, enabling them to deliver academic excellence, social engagement and global impact.

Each value comes with an excellent detailed descriptor, clarifying what these look like in action and also specifying what they are not.

Note that we've included the UNSW IT's specific GOALS which sit alongside these values and behaviours

Displays Respect
Treats others with dignity and empathy. Communicates with integrity and openness
Demonstrates Excellence
Delivers high performance and demonstrates service excellence
Drives Innovation
Thinks creatively and develops new ways of thinking. Initiates and embraces change.
Builds Collaboration
Works effectively within and across teams. Builds relationships with internal and external stakeholders to deliver on outcomes
Embraces Diversity
Values individual differences and contributions of all people and promotes inclusion.
UNSW's IT Goals
* Be thought leaders and work towards a strategic plan * Be true partners who understand our customers' needs * Deliver efficient and reliable services and projects * Invest in key enabling technologies UNSW needs * Deliver a rationalised, simplified environment where risk is known and managed

The low down on a great set of benefits

UNSW is a place that values work-life balance and the benefits back that up, with a healthy focus on physical, mental and financial well-being too.

The working environment is buzzy and well equipped with retail and food outlets, banks, bars, cafes, and convenience stores on site and a the grounds include a natural leafy environment, so that staff can take advantage of healthy indoor and outdoor spaces to socialise and collaborate.

 

  • Staff learning portal
  • LinkedIn Learning subscription
  • 50% discount on UNSW course and degree fees when relevant to your role
  • Access to confidential coaching and support with Benestar
  • Super: All UNSW employees (excluding casuals) are entitled to 17% superannuation!
  • Leave Loading: Staff receive an additional end-of-year payment, made at 17.5% of four weeks’ base pay (pro-rata for new hires during the year) up to a specified cap.
  • Salary Sacrificing: Allows staff to pay some or all of the offerings (eg discounted day care centre) before tax.
  • Corporate Discounts: These include JB Hifi, Medibank (9%), Quantas Club & Virgin Lounge membership, Office365, Go Get etc.
  • Financial Health: Seminars offered on financial well being. UniSuper Consultant based onsite.

 

  • Flex: Includes hours, location, job/role share, leave (eg purchase additional leave, up to 10 weeks pa)
  • Christmas: UNSW closes between Christmas and New Year, granted as “University Holidays with Pay” (discretionary)
  • Employee Assistance Program: With Benestar for employees and immediate family members
  • Free membership to indoor sports centre and pool for Canberra-based employees
  • Access to YMCA fitness and aquatic centre for Sydney-based employees
  • Onsite health and fitness facilities and events including yoga, mindfulness and meditation

 

 

  • Paid Parental Leave:
    Primary carers get 26 weeks (0- 5 years service) and 36 weeks (5+ years service), partner and grandparent leave is 2 weeks.
    Returning parents can transition back to work with part-time arrangements.
    Foster/adoption parental leave.
  • Childcare:
    Priority access to on and near campus SDN Child Care Centres with discounted fees, and the option to salary sacrifice fees (tax saving).
  • Parent’s Rooms are available throughout campus
  • Accredited as a Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace

Why work at UNSW?

This short video gives insights into what it looks like to work at UNSW and some of the reasons you might want to consider a career there. It is a unique environment where purpose and impact on people and the world is front and centre

The stuff you want to know from UNSW

UNSW Article 1

UNSW Sydney rockets into the global top 20 in latest QS Rankings

The University has placed equal 19th with the University of Sydney in the global rankings, reinforcing the city’s reputation as a top global city for higher education.

UNSW Women in leadership blog image

What Will It Take: Equality In Leadership by 2030

The Transforming Women's Leadership Pathways (TWLP) is an international initiative of the PLuS Alliance (Arizona State University, King’s College London and UNSW Sydney) to dramatically shift the dial on women’s equity, and to broaden pathways to leadership for women by 2030.

UNSW Panel Pledge Image

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

UN' SDG #5 is Gender Equality. UNSW is committed to gender equality and demonstrates this through a series of specific commitments to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Awards & Accreditations

Current opportunities

Here are a few of the current opportunities in technology at UNSW.

Cyber Security Analyst
Hybrid, Sydney. Using hands on experience for cyber analysis and incident response across the University. https://bitly.ws/3dko9
Integration Architect
Hybrid, Sydney. Design and architecture of the systems-to-system interfaces, dataflows, APIs, integration related data solutions and integration middleware. https://bitly.ws/3dkoe
Cloud Platform Architect
Hybrid, Sydney, Flex. Designing and planning the Cloud infrastructure platform/products, focusing on scalability, security, and performance. https://bitly.ws/3dknB
UNSW Stock

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The Project F accreditation explained:

Level 1

First phase of discovery and building the Project F roadmap

Level 2

Agreeing the first set of milestones from the roadmap

Level 3

Met and achieved first two sets of milestones from the roadmap (and beyond)