Andrew Woolf

Experience

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  Defence Science and Technology Organisation

  Nov 1989 - Feb 1990

  Research assistant, Surveillance Research Laboratory

  Undertook a small research project in nonlinear ionospheric physics (modelling the 'Luxembourg Effect').

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  CSIRO

  Mar 1990 - Mar 1994

  Research Officer

  Image processing research on image compression and human face recognition, including a contribution to the emerging JPEG standard. Presented research outcomes to project sponsor in Japan.

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  University of Tasmania

  Mar 1994 - Jul 2001

  Postgraduate Researcher

  Part-time doctoral research on Antarctic oceanography—assimilating satellite (altimetry) data into a supercomputer model of the Southern Ocean, in order to improve forecast skill and analyse dynamics of the circulation.

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  Tasmania University Union

  Jan 1997 - Dec 1997

  President, Tasmania University Postgraduate Association

  Worked full-time on student advocacy and policy analysis, e.g.:* identified an anomaly in the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (No. 1) 1997, the effect of which would have been to tax postgraduate scholarships; this received national media coverage and was addressed in the Second Reading Committee Stage;* achieved the establishment of university-sponsored Equity Scholarships for postgraduate fee-paying students from designated equity groups; and* member of Academic Senate.

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  Australian Antarctic Division

  May 1998 - Jul 1999

  Professional Officer

  Contributed part-time to a couple of scientific IT projects:* calculating glacier flow velocities from cross-correlation of remote-sensing imagery timeseries; and* front-end user interface web development for an online atlas of Antarctica.

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  Environmental Systems Science Centre

  Jul 2001 - Nov 2002

  Postdoctoral Fellow

  Undertook oceanographic research with a strong informatics focus:* helped establish a university high-throughput computing pool for ocean data analysis;* designed and implemented a large gridded-data extraction web service (similar to the later OGC Web Coverage Service standard); and* contributed to (and coined the name for!) a large UK collaborative ocean e-Science project, the Grid for Ocean Diagnostics, Interactive Visualisation and Analysis (GODIVA).

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  Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

  Nov 2002 - Mar 2011

  Environmental Informatics Lead

  Worked in a number of roles across architecture, software development, team management, project management, standards development, and research—mostly related to environmental informatics. Highlights include:* led technical development of a statutory European standard for hydrological information exchange under European Directive 2007/2/EC (INSPIRE);* led the ACRID project with University of East Anglia to publish climate data in response to Climategate;* lead architect for the NERC DataGrid project federating distributed environmental data centres;* developed the Climate Science Modelling Language (CSML), adapted into an informative annex of ISO 19156;* contributed to UK Cabinet Office guidelines on public sector data sharing (URI Sets for Location);* secured and led over £700k of research projects and consultancies, including for: European Commission, European Space Agency, UK Natural Environment Research Council, QinetiQ;* peer-reviewed research publications including three book chapters, 12 journal articles, and over two dozen conference papers;* member of various standards committees (ISO 19156 Editing Committee, British Standards IST/36, OGC Standards Working Groups), including establishment of the OGC Met-Ocean Domain Working Group;* external independent reviewer for a major (€10M) European Commission-funded project, SeaDataNet;* established, and convened, an annual session of the European Geosciences Union General Assembly; and* coordinated a networking collaboration (AUKEGGS) between UK and Australian Grid computing and geospatial standards researchers, including three international workshops. Show less

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  Bureau of Meteorology

  Jul 2013 - Dec 2015

  Responsible for enterprise-level ICT architecture, governance, strategy, and innovation, reporting for most of this period directly to the CIO:* Developed an enterprise IT governance and portfolio investment framework (covering decision structures, capital investment, architecture) endorsed by the Executive board;* Led an IT strategy refresh project with external consultants and a new SES-level ICT management cohort;* Coordinated development of a high-level draft ‘operating model’ for the Bureau with key business stakeholders, to inform capability planning and future state architecture;* Led a strategy for adoption of Business Intelligence for operational dashboards, including platform procurement and rollout within a major hydrological data warehouse redevelopment project; and* Coordinated an innovation proof-of-concept project on Big Data applied to observations from diverse rainfall sensor networks. Show less Managed an architecture team responsible for climate, water and environment applications:* Developed a framework for solution architecture work, within a structured project management approach, and integrated with application development and release;* Established a Technical Architecture Reference Group to oversight technology and infrastructure decisions;* Championed with relevant senior executives, and initiated redevelopment of a major national hydrological data warehouse;* Developed a reference architecture for a cross-agency National Environmental Information Infrastructure, and managed the full lifecycle of the first stage of its delivery (including procurement, project & program management);* Established the first Australian Government 'linked data' demonstrator (at http://lab.environment.data.gov.au), winning a prestigious industry iAward; established and chaired the cross-agency Australian Government Linked Data Working Group (AGLDWG) to collaborate on linked data and semantic web across government;* Member of various Bureau and international committees; and* Coordinated the national launch event for the Bureau’s Reconciliation Action Plan. Show less Acting senior executive (SES Band One) branch head for 55 ICT staff covering project management, system development, IT architecture, and operations for climate, water and environment applications:* Identified process improvements for operational planning and capital investment prioritisation, resource allocation between development and operations teams, and project management processes;* Actively progressed several major IT-enabled business projects with high-profile delivery milestones;* Chaired two Bureau-wide Working Groups advising on structures and functions for a major organisational restructure (consolidating disparate IT teams into a centralised corporate division);* Assisted with an ANAO Performance Audit of the Bureau’s 'Improving Water Information Program'; and* Contributed to development of the Bureau’s first Mobile (channels) Strategy. Show less

  • Chief Architect

    Feb 2014 - Dec 2015

  • Architecture Section Manager, Climate and Water IT Services Branch

    Feb 2011 - Feb 2014

  • A/g Assistant Director (SES Band 1, Climate & Water IT Services)

    Jul 2013 - Oct 2013
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  Australian Government Department of Finance

  Dec 2015 - Dec 2016

  Assistant Secretary (Investment, Capability and Assurance Branch)

  Branch head for around 40 staff, accountable for:* ICT Investment Approval (formerly 'Two-Pass') process for high cost and risk Budget proposals;* Assurance reviews (Gateway and Implementation Readiness Assessments) for high cost and risk Government initiatives;* Whole of Government ICT Entry-level (Graduate, Cadet, Apprentice) career programmes;* Whole of Government ICT benchmarking;* Cybersecurity investment review; and* P3M Community of Practice for Australian Public Service (APS). Show less

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  Digital Transformation Agency

  Dec 2016 - Mar 2017

  Head, Digital Investment Management Office
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  Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

  Mar 2017 - Sept 2017

  Data Availability and Use Taskforce

  Seconded to small taskforce developing Government response to Productivity Commission Inquiry into Data Availability and Use.

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  Digital Transformation Agency

  Oct 2017 - Nov 2020

  Independent review of Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) Program.

  • Branch Head (Strategic Policy and Governance)

    Mar 2020 - Nov 2020

  • Assistant Secretary (Investment Advisory Office)

    Aug 2018 - Mar 2020

  • Assistant Secretary (Portfolio Branch)

    Apr 2018 - Jul 2018

  • Assistant Secretary (SIG Review)

    Oct 2017 - Apr 2018
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  Services Australia

  Nov 2020 - now

  • National Manager Enterprise Portfolio Management Office

    Jul 2023 - now

  • Senior Disability Champion

    Sept 2022 - now

  • National Manager, Enterprise Transformation Office

    Jul 2022 - Jun 2023

  • National Manager, Data Engineering

    Nov 2020 - Jul 2022
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  Playgroup Australia

  Nov 2022 - now

  Non Executive Director