The Australian Public Service (APS) plays a crucial role to support Australia’s digital government ambitions for the future. The Data and Digital Government Strategy anchors this to a vision of delivering simple, secure, and connected public services, for all people and business, through world class data and digital capabilities. To effectively achieve this vision, the APS must simultaneously strive to be a world leader in cyber security by 2030.  

The APS Data, Digital, and Cyber Workforce Plan 2025-30 includes a sequence of initiatives focused on gradually building capabilities across four key action areas: 

• Attract, recruit, and retain. Attract top talent by modernising recruitment and positioning ourselves as competitive employers. 
• Uplift technical capabilities. Build a workforce that is resilient for the long-term by providing career paths, investing in skill development, and growing in-house expertise. 
• Grow and deploy a specialist cohort. Recognition of the need for specialists, ensure they are identified, attracted, and retained over the medium- to long-term. 
• Enhance capability planning maturity. Use data insights to improve capability planning, helping agencies make better workforce decisions. 

These goals demand a united, whole-of-service approach to take advantage of opportunities across data, digital, and cyber domains. 

“We know these domains continue to grow and gain interest,” explains Chris Fechner, CEO, DTA. 

“Our Workforce Plan sets out how to effectively take advantage of these trends and their accompanying investment. It is essential to attract and retain a capable workforce that can deliver on our objectives, ensuring that data, digital and cyber efforts are integrated and aligned.” 

Harnessing opportunities and tackling challenges 

The hurdles the APS faces are not new. They require a structured approach that retains flexibility for agencies to address unique needs, whilst maintaining a clear pathway forward for the whole APS. 

The Strategy and the Workforce Plan is driven by a key mission of establishing strong ‘data and digital foundations.’ By treating data as a valuable national asset, it is essential to ensure proper mechanisms for curation, storage, protection, and use are established and maintained. The Workforce Plan explores how to enhance APS capabilities, across both technical skills and soft skills - such as communication and inclusion. 

“We’re sitting at the cross-roads of opportunity,” highlights Mr Fechner. “This Plan is a commitment to adopt the right capabilities, practices, standards, and culture to effectively use data and digital technologies. It is one of the many necessary pieces to streamline the operations of government.” 

The Workforce Plan seeks to establish a sequence of horizons that deliver on initiatives that gradually build on the capabilities developed prior: 

• Horizon 1 will focus on projects that strengthen the foundational needs of the APS and enable longer term success. 
• Horizon 2 will identify initiatives that deliver the most significant impact on advancing outcomes for the APS. 
• Horizon 3 will be future-focused and seeks to address systemic issues 

Collaborative to its core 

The collection of agencies that developed this Workforce Plan have specific responsibilities in fostering consistent workforce strategies, establish service-wide rule-setting, and implement a system-wide approach to uplifting capabilities across the APS. 

"We had a diverse cross-section of participants involved in developing this Workforce Plan,” outlines Mr Fechner. “All parties quickly recognised and reinforced the critical importance of having a highly skilled and versatile cohort.” 

Input was received from the Australian Public Service Commission, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Finance, the Department of Defence, and the DTA. 

“By leveraging the collective strengths of the APS, we can create pathways for long-term capability, strengthen the data, digital and cyber domains, and position ourselves to adapt to emerging technologies and global trends.” 

The Workforce Plan also recognises the importance of fostering partnerships with industry and academia to build talent pipelines and maintain our competitive edge. 

“Together, we aspire to create a workforce that not only meets today’s demands but also anticipates tomorrow’s opportunities. By embedding these principles into our practices, we can ensure the APS remains an exemplar of public sector excellence, delivering meaningful outcomes for Australians.” 

For more details, you can read the APS Data, Digital, and Cyber Workforce Plan 2025-30 in full here. 

The Digital Transformation Agency is the Australian Government's adviser for the development, delivery, and monitoring of whole-of-government strategies, policies, and standards for digital and ICT investments, including ICT procurement.