Two rural utilities seek CIOs

Two utilities are seeking CIOs: Essential Energy in New South Wales and Southern Rural Water in Victoria.

Essential Energy is a NSW government-owned corporation responsible for building, operating and maintaining Australia’s largest electricity network which delivers power to more than 800,000 homes and businesses covering 95 per cent of the state and parts of southern Queensland.

It maintains around 200,000 kilometres of powerlines, 1.4 million power poles, 136,000 distribution substations and 326 zone substations, and is one of the largest employers in rural NSW.

The utility is seeking someone to fill the newly formed CIO role at the company, which was created as part of an executive restructure. The successful candidate will sit on the executive leadership team reporting directly to the CEO, John Cleland.

The corporation is undergoing a “technological transformation”, the job listing said, and it’s seeking someone with experience in “enterprise resource planning, workforce productivity and mobility, enterprise asset management, customer systems, data integrity, and integration of new network technologies”.

Harvey Nash is leading the recruitment process for the role, which is based in Sydney.

Great Southern Land

Southern Rural Water is owned by the Victoria state government and supplies water to support agricultural production and electricity generation as well as country towns and cities.

Its 165 staff operate irrigation districts at Maffra, Bacchus Marsh and Werribee, manage seven major dams and are responsible for licensing groundwater users and river diverters across the southern half of Victoria.

The new CIO will report to the managing director Clinton Rodda and be responsible for “developing and implementing an information technology and architecture strategy”.

Based in Maffra, “central to the Gippsland Lakes, snow fields, ocean and mountains” the job listing offers the successful candidate “challenging work, an enviable lifestyle and excellent working conditions”.