Charles McHardie is among the best known faces among the Commonwealth’s technology leadership, responsible for the operations at Services Australia, one of the biggest IT shops in the country.
As the chief information and digital officer at Services Australia, and the organisation’s deputy CEO under David Hazlehurst, Mr McHardie runs 4,400 staff and oversees a complex and mission critical foundation of modern government. The social safety net cannot fail.
Everyone wants to know Mr McHardie, partly because of the billion-dollar budget he controls, but also for the data, for the insight and for the know-how.
In this episode of Delivery: A GovTech Podcast, we take a deep dive into the Services Australia technology business. If you are a supplier to government or looking to join a large, sophisticated and impactful public service team, this is a valuable conversation.
This is a conversation about the challenges Services Australia is facing right now, and what the man running the show expects from technology partners to help drive success.
From the roll-out of AI models, to strategies for engaging with Australian startup tech talent – as well as the ongoing challenge of attracting our best talent into this operation, Mr McHardie is pretty frank about the way Services Australia operates.
One key take-away from this discussion is that the people are the organisation. Mr McHardie says Services Australia has been able to attract excellent technical skills into organisation, even in highly competitive areas like AI.
Technical people are attracted to the mission, he says. “That resonates well with people… and it’s what I love most about this place.”
“You can make system changes and you can see them [have an] impact on Australians, in a positive manner, almost straight away,” Mr McHardie said.
“When we make system changes to myGov, we make system changes to Centrelink, that’s more money in people’s pockets or its better convenience.”
“And so, when I talk to the grads as they come in and join us through the grad programs, I always push mission because if that doesn’t resonate with you, this is not the place to work.”
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.