The 16 APS job families, and what work actually sits in each one

Most people looking for an APS job search by agency, because the agency is the part they have heard of. The service does not organise itself that way. It sorts every job into one of sixteen job families, and the family is a better place to start than the department, because the same work exists in twenty agencies and the family is what follows you between them.

The framework is the Australian Public Service Commission's, it has been running since 2010, and it was refreshed in 2025. It now holds 16 families, 51 functions and 229 roles. It exists for workforce planning rather than for job seekers, which is why almost nobody mentions it to you. It is still the closest thing the service has to a map of itself.

What a job family actually is

A family groups work that needs similar skills, not work that sits in the same building. A data analyst in the tax office and a data analyst in the health department are in the same family and have more in common with each other than either has with the policy officer two desks away. That is the whole idea, and it is the reason the family is worth knowing: it tells you where else your evidence travels.

Two recent changes are worth noting because they catch people out. The Monitoring and Audit family was discontinued in the 2025 refresh, and its roles moved into Compliance and Regulation and into Accounting and Finance. The Senior Executive family was discontinued too, and those roles did not get a family of their own: a Deputy Secretary, a board member or a branch manager now sits in the Executive function of Business and Organisational Management. If you have read an older guide that lists either family, that guide is out of date.

The sixteen, and who is known for them

1. ICT and Digital. Infrastructure, software development, cyber security. Jobs: helpdesk officer, systems administration officer, developer, cyber security analyst, ICT project manager. Deep at the Australian Signals Directorate, Services Australia, the Digital Transformation Agency and the Australian Taxation Office.
2. Intelligence and Information Management. Intelligence analysis, records and knowledge management, forensics, and the security adviser roles that sit beside them. Jobs: intelligence analyst, records management officer, security adviser, forensic investigator, archivist. Home Affairs, Defence, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Federal Police.
3. Service Delivery. The citizen-facing work. Jobs: client service officer, claims processor, contact centre officer, service support officer. Services Australia is the giant here, with Veterans' Affairs and the National Disability Insurance Agency close behind.
4. Compliance and Regulation. Monitoring, auditing, law enforcement and regulatory work, now including the old Monitoring and Audit roles. Jobs: compliance officer, investigator, auditor, regulatory analyst. The Australian Taxation Office, ASIC, the ACCC, the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
5. Policy. Formulation, advice, strategic research. Jobs: policy officer, senior policy adviser, cabinet liaison officer. Every department has some; it is thickest in the central agencies, Treasury, Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Finance.
6. Human Resources. Workforce planning, recruitment, culture. Jobs: HR officer, recruitment adviser, workforce planner, learning and development officer. Present everywhere, with the APSC itself setting the service-wide standard.
7. Accounting and Finance. Budgeting, financial planning, debt. Jobs: finance officer, management accountant, budget analyst, debt recovery officer. Finance, the Australian Taxation Office, and the internal finance branch of every agency you have heard of.
8. Portfolio, Program and Project Management. The delivery framework for major projects. Jobs: project officer, program manager, PMO analyst, scheduler. Defence and Infrastructure run some of the largest programs in the country.
9. Science. Research, environmental assessment, laboratory work. Jobs: research scientist, field officer, laboratory technician, environmental assessor. CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Antarctic Division, ANSTO.
10. Health. Public health planning, medical advice, healthcare administration. Jobs: public health officer, program officer, health economist, medical adviser. Health and Aged Care, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
11. Data and Research. Statistical analytics, data science, modelling. Jobs: data analyst, statistician, data scientist, research officer. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is the obvious one; the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Productivity Commission matter too.
12. Business and Organisational Management. Executive support, general administration, facilities, and the executive tier itself. Jobs: administrative support officer, personal or executive assistant, business manager, facilities and estate manager, and every rank from branch manager to Deputy Secretary. Every agency, at every level, and by headcount it is one of the ways most people enter the service. Until the 2025 refresh this family was simply called Administration.
13. Legal and Parliamentary. Legal advice, litigation, parliamentary and ministerial process. Jobs: legal officer, senior legal officer, parliamentary liaison officer. The Attorney-General's Department, the Australian Government Solicitor, and the legal branch of most regulators.
14. Communications and Engagement. Public communication, media, campaigns, design and stakeholder work. Jobs: communication officer, public relations and media officer, digital channels or social media officer, graphic designer, events officer, stakeholder relationship manager.
15. Engineering and Technical. Engineering professionals, technicians and examiners. Jobs: electrical engineer, communications engineer, general technician, explosive ordnance technician, registration and IP rights examiner. Concentrated in Defence and Infrastructure.
16. Trades and Labour. The hands-on family everybody forgets is in the APS at all. Jobs: general tradesperson, chef, driver, plant operator, store person, security guard, gardener, air traffic controller, animal attendant. Defence, the Australian Antarctic Division, Airservices Australia and anywhere the service runs its own sites.

Why this changes how you apply

Three things fall out of it once you know your family.

1. Your evidence travels further than you think. If you are Data and Research, the statistics agency is not your only employer, it is one of about thirty. Search the work, not the logo.
2. The family tells you what the panel will weigh. A Service Delivery panel wants volume, judgement under pressure and a real complaint you resolved. A Policy panel wants advice that survived contact with a decision. Same five capability clusters, different centre of gravity.
3. The family is not the level. Being in the biggest family does not make a job easier to get, and moving between families is normal, which is exactly why the framework exists.

The one thing the map does not do is tell you what you are worth. A family is a bucket for planners; a panel is still reading one application, looking for evidence that you can do this job at this level. The family tells you where to look. It does not tell you what to say.

If you want a hand saying it, our free review is a real writer reading your resume and telling you the truth about it within one working day, and the selection criteria service writes the application itself, APS4 through EL2. Veterans, reservists and ADF partners get 20 per cent off every package.