Centre Director Jobs

Our Centre Directors play a critical role in shaping young minds. You’ll support and guide children’s learning and development, to give every child the best chance in life. Now that’s an important job.

Passionate about providing for the care, education and wellbeing of every child in your service, you’ll help create happy, healthy relationships between a child and the most important people in their lives. Supported by your Practice Manager and caring team, you’ll drive the day-to-day operations of your centre, upholding our high standards in providing top-quality education and care.

As the leader of your service, you’ll bring expert knowledge in the Early Years Learning Framework, child development and learning. And you’ll develop and mentor your team in curriculum, pedagogy and care.

It’s your important role to make sure we deliver a high-quality inclusive program to each child’s needs and interests. To support you, we’ve developed our Bespoke Educational Framework as a resource to guide practice and all areas of service operations, but you’ll also have the freedom to adapt your approaches.

Join us and you’ll be smiling too, when you make more of a difference in the lives of every child in our child-first organisation.

We’re dedicated to giving every child the best start in life. It’s a super important role and one our people wear with pride. They work hard to live our values, which guide everything we do. The most important of which is putting the safety and wellbeing of our children first.

On top of this, we are creating an environment where everyone is welcomed, valued and respected – regardless of their differences. Where we can work together in courageous and imaginative ways. Where we can lead the industry through excellence and advocate the important role our educators play.

Everything we do centres on the child. Putting the child front and centre means we create inspired learning experiences that match a child’s needs and interests. We bring fun, laugher and play to every day. For our people, this is more than a job - it’s an opportunity to make a child’s world a better, brighter place.

On top of a fun-loving attitude and big smile, our early childhood centre directors need:

• A Bachelor of Education (Birth to Five Years) or equivalent
• A Cleared Valid for Paid Work, Working with Children Check (WWCC) or are willing to get one
• Teacher accreditation through NESA or BOSTES
• An ability to teach, develop and mentor
• A love of learning for children aged 0-5, and a passion for improving lives and minds - creating better outcomes for local children, families and communities
• Expert knowledge of the Early Years Learning Framework, child development and learning
• Proven experience in creating respectful and reciprocal relationships with your team and customers
• Commitment to making sure the children in your care are safe and healthy
• To be an advocate for ensuring all reasonable steps are taken to protect children from abuse or harm
• And most of all, you are someone who wants to make a big difference to little lives

There’s so much more to smile about here. The trust you’ll be given in exchange for your expertise. The freedom you’ll have as a leader to use your judgement. The joy you’ll get from doing work you love with people who are as invested as you. And the beautiful relationships you’ll form with peers, children and families – through shared experiences that are as rich as they are rewarding. 

We’re a leader in our field because of our dedication to learning, collaboration and finding ways to improve - and that goes for our people too. Everyone is always willing to share for the betterment of one another, giving you big opportunities to grow your career.

There’ll be opportunities for you to progress, whether it’s across our 40+ centres in the Illawarra, Southern Highlands, Goulburn or Sydney areas, into our head office or a community and inclusion role. Here, there are more opportunities to develop and grow.  

When the going gets tough (as you know it does when working with children), you’ll find teammates and leaders have your back. With the infrastructure and resources of a big company, you’ll feel supported - at every level. And there’s a real in-it-together feeling here, thanks to our safe and supportive environment, and well-established policies that outline exactly what’s expected and needed in any situation. Everyone’s in it together, making it easier for you to thrive.

It’s important to make sure we support and reward the people we owe our success to; in the ways they care about most. That’s why we offer a range of sector leadings perks and benefits to our centre directors, to show our appreciation.

• We pay on average 7% above award
• Generous director and nominated supervisor allowances
• Access to long service leave after 7.5 years of service (pro rata)
• Additional sick leave – total 15 days per annum for full-time, pro rata for part-time roles
• Access to a monthly Rostered Day Off (full-time employees)
• 6 weeks parental leave at full pay for primary and secondary carers
• 60% discount on our Early Learning and Out of School Hours Care services for permanent employees
• Not-for-profit salary packaging reduces the tax you need to pay which means even more money in your weekly pay cheque (many other services can’t offer this)
• Free access to our Total Wellbeing Platform and confidential Employee Assistance Program
• Generous discounts with the Illawarra Credit Union, The Good Guys, St George Illawarra Dragons, Early Start Discovery Space and Kai Yoga, Future Steps for Kids and more

Here you’ll be exposed to learning and development that goes beyond the industry norm. Our dedicated Practice teams find and use the latest research and philosophy to inform our partices, and create experiences to develop our people.

• Some of the professional learning we’ve provided our people include Sleep Smart programs, Phoenix Cups, Environmental Rating Scale workshops, Cultural Immersion sessions and pilot programs in resilience and STEM
• Mentoring through our Community of Practices (Educational Leader, Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), and Trainees)
• Regular practice support visits by Pedagogy & Learning, and our internal Pedagogical Newsletter
• Access to our Learning Hub with 50+ online modules
• A platform to network with other centre directors at cluster meetings, leaders forums and networking events
• Attend internal conferences and meetings, and a fund dedicated for attending external conferences
• We also create opportunities for our people to share ideas and reflections across our 40+ centres, allowing you to apply them in your practices to continually improve

At Big Fat Smile we share for the betterment of one another, creating practical opportunities for you to learn and grow.

For our centres directors who are keen to earn a post graduate degree such as Master of Special and Inclusive Education (specialising in Early Childhood), we’ll help you access external funding such as Aboriginal Early Childhood Education Scholarships or the Early Childhood Education Scholarship Program. Last year, 7 of our educators received up to $20,000 from the NSW Department of Education towards their studies!

Because of our size, there are big opportunities for those who want to go further. You’ll find meaningful career paths with lots of promotions across our 40+ community preschools and long day care centres, and our Fun Clubs, offering out of school hours and vacation care.

With professional learning and growth at the heart of everything we do, we support our directors to broaden their experience across our centres in the Illawarra, Southern Highlands, Goulburn and Sydney areas, or in progressing into our community service programs, inclusion or head office roles, for example Practice Manager, Assurance Manager, Safeguarding Children Portfolio and more.

At Big Fat Smile, you’ll have a front row seat to the latest research and thinking on early childhood education. Combine this with a platform for sharing ideas, where you’ll reflect on learnings and be exposed to different practices across our centres.

This is how we grow, get better and solve problems: together.

We post all our open job vacancies here, so check back regularly for new opportunities.

You can also register your interest for Early Childhood Centre Director jobs in the Illawarra, Southern Highlands, Goulburn and Sydney areas here.

Got any questions, big or small? You can chat with our friendly People team on [email protected]